Christmas Oxymoron.

I was reading Dear Prudence today, and was appalled at this person's 'dilema':

Dear Prudence:
The Christmas celebrations in my office have taken on an increasingly religious character over the years. Last year, there were Christmas carols, including "Silent Night," playing in the break room, and several of the holiday cards bought to decorate the area around the Christmas tree had Nativity or other religious themes on them. Multiple people complained, either to management or to each other after feeling that management was not responsive to our concerns. My boss asked me why I wasn't at last year's tree-trimming party. When I told her that it was because I'm not a Christian, she suggested that it would be OK if I hung a menorah on the Christmas tree. I can't begin to describe how offensive I thought that was to all religions. I don't have any problem with Joe wearing a cross in the office or Ayanna putting a picture of her favorite Hindu goddess above her computer. It's the corporate-sanctioned expressions of religion in shared spaces that bother me. What can we do to encourage management to return to the more secular celebrations of previous years?

—Not a Christian

How much more secular can the holiday season get!? I understand that some people aren't religious, but CHRISTmas IS religious! "Secular celebration" of Christmas is an oxymoron. Thank you Prudie for your response to a "mild and inoffensive...self-limiting problem" (and so sad to know you aren't a Christian).

Dear Not,
I'm also not a Christian, but excuse me for being amused at your boss's idea of a menorah as an interfaith Christmas-tree ornament. I often hear from people who are subjected year-round to pressure from religious zealots in the office—often the boss—and that's repugnant and needs to be dealt with. But what you're describing sounds mild and inoffensive, and since it will all be over the last week of December, it's a self-limiting problem. Your office has a Christmas tree, which you don't seem to object to—and I don't think you should—so it's hardly worth making a fuss over a Nativity card or "Silent Night" in the break room. Face it, there's no silencing the Christmas music in any venue once the Thanksgiving dishes are put away. You, of course, are free to skip the office tree-trimming, but attending does not mean you are violating your own religion, just as a Christian partaking in a Passover Seder is not part of a conversion program. Though it's not my holiday, I love seeing others get excited about the pageantry, even the excess, of Christmas. My suggestion is that instead of complaining, get in the mood of the season and be merry.

—Prudie