I really liked doing this episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast. I loved it because we got to talk about the secular nature of Christmas in the United States, and why that shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing that we have to — almost literally — go to war over.

For the fifty-fourth episode, and the 2019 Christmas special, Christopher Olson and I debate the longevity of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and what it has to do with the secularization of Christmas.

We take the approach of understanding the conservative belief about a “War on Christmas” to examine the secularization and commercialization of Christmas in the United States. The children’s book, and later animated special, refutes the commercialization while supporting the secularization. Overall, they argue that the moral lesson at the story’s core demonstrates the true meaning of Christmas, with or without Jesus Christ.