It is coming.

It does every year. There is no stopping it. Just as surely as the calendar shows Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas we know to expect it. We brace ourselves for it every year. It is just part of the routine. You could say it has become tradition.

It is introduced as the first signs of seasonal decorating appear. When the Christmas decorations are sold side-by-side with the Halloween candy the snide comments begin. As the snow just begins to fly some city official somewhere will suggest "we can't do that this year", causing an uproar sure to be picked up and debated loudly in the media. Eventually, someone files a lawsuit. A season promoted with a theme of peace and joy is sure to become an acrimonious argument with church-and-state undertones.

It is Christmas -- a public controversy and traditional debate. It would be easy to say it never used to be that way. But that is not true. From puritan humbugs that outlawed the day more than 400 years ago to modern-day Grinches who protest the very utterance of the word "Christmas" in public schools it has been and will remain a source of heated and passionate debate.

Christmas 2004 was typical.

In what has become as traditional as Christmas trees the argument was renewed with great passion. Target Stores kicked it off by banning the Salvation Army in front of their stores in 2004. Macy's declined to say Merry Christmas to shoppers. A school in New Jersey wouldn't even let the band play instrumental arrangements of Christmas carols. And the City of Denver took the stage over public displays of decorations at Christmastime. Christmas 2004 was traditional in every way. We decked the halls and then decked each other debating it.

This article is being written in the middle of October 2005. I bring it up because the Controversy of Christmas 2005 has not yet begun. But it is going to happen. Mark my words. Christmas will once again fan the flames of yuletide debate.

On the one side, you have folks who claim that Christmas is a religious holiday no matter how you slice it and that it has no place in a diverse public. They disdain public nativity displays, oppose the use of the word "Christmas" associated in any public event or venue and decry the "commercialization" of a formerly beloved religious holiday of their youth. Christmas trees and Christmas lights are environmentally taboo to them. And the day after Thanksgiving is "Black Friday", code for anti-Christmas criticism of how Christmas is observed by the masses. On the whole, Christmas is bad for this crowd.

On the far other side are the self-proclaimed pious who say that, yes, Christmas is a religious holiday no matter how you slice it and your way of celebrating it is evil, denounced in the Bible and an offense towards God. To them Christmas gifts are taboo, every decoration has a heathen connection and Santa is an anagram for "Satan". On the whole, Christmas is bad for this crowd, too.

Between these two extremes lie the rest of us. And we just don't see what the big deal is. We cannot even enjoy the argument because it is just silly to us. We might as well be debating the sweetness of sugar, the color of dark and helping old ladies cross the street. There is no debate, frankly.

We love our Christmas trees. We cherish our traditions. We enjoy seeing our kids perform Christmas plays. And we give gifts to each other. We don't agree on Christmas ourselves. We go to different churches and enjoy different kinds of celebrations related to Christmas in the privacy of our homes. But like Scrooge to his nephew Fred we espouse the thought of "you keep Christmas in your way and I'll keep it in mine". Live and let live, baby.

We try not to overdo it. We detest spending too much money or emphasizing the things that take away from the Christmas message of "peace on earth, goodwill to all men". Christmas has a meaning and significance to us. We don't want to shove that down anyone's throat but we don't want to be held back from celebrating it ourselves. We just want Christmas to be Christmas in whatever way Christmas is to us.

On the whole, we view Christmas as a good thing and a simple pleasure. We don't like the debate. We shrink from engaging with the passionate on this issue. We don't want to throw snowballs we just want to see the white stuff cover the trees and the ground. "Don't mess with Christmas" is our feeble response.

Frankly, I'm not sure we can continue to do that. Christmas is clearly under assault from both extremes -- by those who hate it as a public season and by those who claim our observance of it is a sin. We need to find a voice. We need to unite behind a message. We need to find a way to say that Christmas is okay...and just leave it alone.

There are, after all, greater evils in this world than my politically incorrect Christmas tree and my religiously insensitive passion for Santa Claus. Christmas, for all the wrong that it is, brings me closer to my children, my wife and my God. It promotes goodwill between my neighbors. And it helps me to be more tolerant of those who do not see things as I do.

And what do the two extreme groups against Christmas have that can top that?