The other day I painted this study of a J.C. Leyendecker painting thinking it would launch me right into the Christmas spirit. It didn't. I just can't get into the spirit like I used to.

It all started as a pagan winter solstice party. What better way to celebrate the season that some revelry and debauchery? Folks seemed to love it, so the church decided they wanted in on it too. Some religious marketing guy came up with the brilliant idea to call it Chirst's birthday. Hey, birthday parties are fun right? "The church won't be a party pooper" they thought.

But they were the party pooper. Eventually, it became just a religious holiday. A pretty solemn one at that. When Washington's soldiers famously crossed the Delaware in 1776, they weren't thinking of presents, trees, eggnog or mistletoe. The Hessians weren't whooping it up either.

Along comes the Victorian era and Christmas changed again. The Queen of England marries a German bloke and suddenly there're Christmas trees everywhere. Then the jolly old elf himself gets a makeover by Thomas Nast. An old pagan friend reappears too. The mistletoe provides the otherwise repressed Victorians a little naughtiness! The Church steps up its game too, so there's a nice mix of the holy and the secular.

But the Church is no match for the Industrial Revolution and a rising middle class. Now almost everyone can buy and give (and receive) presents. Once the commerce ball starts rolling, the Church can't stop it. As far back as the 1960's, Charles Schultz and Dr. Suess noticed and took issue with the commercial/pagan takeover of Christmas.

And now Political Correctness, which has always had a sort of old USSR ring to it, has dealt the death blow. I'm not really a religious person, but I know that it's not the religious aspect of the holiday that inflicts such immense stress on people, it's the commercial part. That is a shame.

So, "Happy Holidays" folks. Looks like the pagans got their party back.