A Brief History of The War on Christmas
Before it became part of mainstream conservative punditry, the leading proponent of the War on Christmas was a former magazine writer and editor named Peter Brimelow. A virulent anti-immigration crusader whose views were considered extreme by mainstream conservative journals like National Review, Brimelow founded a website called vdare.com that soon was at the forefront of the fight to sanctify Christmas cheer. Beginning in 1999, Brimelow ran a competition to spotlight offenders in the War on Christmas. The inaugural villain was the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which earned the dubious honor for hosting a holiday party dubbed “A Celebration of Holiday Traditions.” The following year, amazon.com became a target of Brimelow’s wrath for subjecting consumers to the nondenominational greeting “Happy Holidays!” (In 2003, VDare was classified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center for providing a platform for white nationalist viewpoints.)