Christmas vs. Holiday. It’s a debate we’re hearing a lot about these days.

When Lowe’s officials placed signs outside their stores that read &8220;Holiday Trees For Sale,&8221; there was quite an uprising. It was such an uprising that Lowe’s removed the signs and apologized.

And they should have. After all, what in the world is a &8220;holiday tree?&8221;

What holiday other than Christmas involves a tree? There are no Fourth of July trees, no Easter trees, no President’s Day trees &8212; only Christmas trees.

Then, we heard reports that Wal-Mart had forbade its employees to wish people a &8220;Merry Christmas.&8221; According to the company’s website, those reports were true but had since been rescinded. An overzealous higher-up at Wal-Mart had gotten crazy with political correctness and threatened employees with the ultimate punishment for those two simple words.

Since the outcry, however, according to the website, that politically correct rule is no more.

In Montgomery, instead of calling their city Christmas parade what it was, they called it a &8220;holiday parade.&8221;

School bands and choruses across the country have been banned from playing or singing Christmas music with a religious theme.

Even the White House Christmas tree is called a &8220;holiday tree,&8221; although First Lady Laura Bush said she still thinks of it as a &8220;Christmas tree.&8221;

What is going on? Political correctness has run amok.

It’s Christmas. Even if the date can be proven to be a little off for the actual birthdate of Baby Jesus, Christmas is the celebration of his birth.

It’s the one time (season) of the year when smiles are a little brighter, people are a little nicer, when neighbor will reach out to neighbor to make life a little better.

Why are we allowing a group of people, clearly in the minority, to ruin it?

I’ve wondered and thought and finally decided what I was going to do to combat this attempt to ruin the happiest season of the year.

In every store, to everyone I see, I’m going to send out a great, big Merry Christmas.

It’s so sad that there are those out there who would go to such lengths to ruin a truly positive experience. I’m not going to allow that to happen &8212; not to me and not to those I come into contact with.

I guess that’s my small way to fight against the &8220;joy-stealers&8221; out there.

Candace Parker is the news editor at the Shelby County Reporter. She can be reached

by e-mail at mailto:candace.parker@shelbycountyreporter.com