We are well into the Christmas season, the commercial part, at least, and there is good news and sad news.

The good news is that the secularists have ended up not having their way. If everyone remembers, Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s, Kmart, Walgreens and Kohl’s, among other retailers, succumbed to the pressure of this vocal minority.

Holiday trees rather than Christmas trees, Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas, no more Nativity scenes, no more Christmas carol music being played, and so on. When you say ``Happy Holiday,’’ I ask you, what holiday? Remember, the holiday is Christmas. The law that declared Christmas a national holiday was almost unanimously approved by Congress and signed into law by President Grant in 1870.

Christians, however, didn’t have to have a law passed to give one of the two most important dates in our religion the respect it deserved.

To be honest, I don’t think Christians are offended by the statements "Happy Holidays" or "Season’s Greetings." We are, however, opposed to the blatant attempts of secularists (led by the ACLU) to remove Christ and Christmas from _ everywhere.

The intimidation tactics of this very small minority had these stores and others running scared until this year.

Foolishly, these stores that worried about offending a very small minority who opposed Christmas certainly didn’t mind offending Christians who celebrate the birth of Jesus.

But thank heavens the boycotts worked. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone said it best: "We’ve learned our lesson. This year we’re not afraid to say `Merry Christmas.’"

Wal-Mart, along with the stores listed above and others, is back in the fold. Also, isn’t it nice to have The Salvation Army bell-ringers back? Another example of secularist/ACLU failure.

Well, secularists, you think you have the right to cause change? Then so do other groups. Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, and 86 percent consider themselves Christians. Only 3 percent of Americans are offended by hearing or seeing the words "Merry Christmas." [an error occurred while processing this directive]