Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard: Why atheists dislike the 'War on Christmas'
Even secularists can understand that they are attacks on our past and heritage.
It is a Christmas tradition in itself. Every year, commentators get worked up about the “war on Christmas”, or the removal of Christian symbols during a holiday that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. The replacement of “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays”, and the removal of nativity scenes from public buildings are all symptoms of this phenomenon, which is quick to spark outrage.
Brought to the forefront in the early 2000s by American commentators such as Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson, this controversy has shown a remarkable longevity. It’s proof that symbols have an important significance that goes far beyond their mere physical presence. They reflect the vision of the world, culture, and values of a given society.
In largely secularised Western societies, where religious practice is in free fall, one might think that respect for these symbols would also be marginal. That no one would be scandalised by the removal of crucifixes, nativity scenes, or the mere word “Christmas”.
Yet, when this kind of controversy arises, we systematically hear secular voices defending Christianity. As recently as 2023, when the Canadian Human Rights Commission suggested that the celebration of Christmas would be “discriminatory against religious minorities”, Simon Jolin-Barrette, the minister behind Bill 21 on state secularism, was the first to speak out against it in the Québec National Assembly.
This speaks volumes about the complex relationship that the secular West has with its Christian heritage. As much as it sometimes likes to distance itself from it in order to appear falsely “modern” and “progressive”, it knows that the Christian message remains at the source of its history and values. Human dignity, the primacy of the person, and care for the most vulnerable, for example, do not come out of nowhere.
Although their virtue is universal, one need only look at other civilisations to see that they are not universally shared or applied. Without Christianity itself, Christian values wither away.
If the “war on Christmas” arouses such strong feelings, even among those who do not believe, it is because the majority in the Western world still identify with its Christian roots and feel targeted when activists decide to attack them. Above all, in the context of identity politics and “culture wars”, it is part of a much broader trend that is not limited to the holiday season, namely the gradual erasure of Western history and symbols, a significant part of which is inherited from Christianity.
As what Frank Furedi calls the “war on the past” loses intensity in the face of widespread backlash, perhaps it is also time for the secular West to re-evaluate its treatment of Christianity and its tendency to take its benefits for granted. Faced with the spirit of negation and deconstruction, there is an urgent need to present a positive proposal, rooted in the Common Good.
Without a peaceful relationship with the Christian faith, we can bet that this will prove impossible.
Étienne-Alexandre Beauregard is a contributing editor at Without Diminishment, an author, and a researcher at Cardus. His latest book, Anti-Civilization: Why Our Societies Are Collapsing from Within, was published in September 2025 by Presses de la Cité. He was formerly a speechwriter and strategic planning advisor in the office of the Premier of Québec.
