Dear Adrienne,

Just a few months ago we were fighting the battle of Christmas.

You remember; that is the battle where we do outlandish things like saying “Merry Christmas” to people we meet at the mall. We put up a manger scene in the town square and then have to get a gaggle of lawyers who understand the U. S. Constitution to defend our right to put it there. We paint “Keep the Christ in Christmas” on a billboard.

The really rebellious moms in the neighborhood bake Christmas cookies and smuggle them into the public schools. Some really brave people of Christian conviction took the far-reaching step of saying “Hello and Merry Christmas” when answering the telephone. (Oh my, if the caller were a pagan, this could get pretty politically incorrect.)

Yes, we Christians fought a vicious battle.

On the other side were the non-Christians, atheists, pagans and judges who apparently flunked their constitutional law classes. They were fighting to prevent school children from singing “Silent Night.” They urged store clerks to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Some were stealing baby Jesus from the manger scene at the church. (Okay, I’m willing to stipulate that few to none of the judges were involved in the manger desecrations.)

Adrienne, you are fortunate to attend a faithful Catholic school where Christmas is celebrated like Christmas. So you get the full Christmas treatment at home and school.

That was Christmas. Now comes Easter — with a few assorted holidays along the way. I expect each of these has the potential to create a battle of its own, as the critics of Christianity attempt to eliminate all references to the faith out of public sight in a nation that is at least 80% Christian.

It struck me as funny that nobody on the anti-Christmas side was upset about all those Santa Clauses sitting in malls and department stores. Maybe nobody told than that the original Mr. Christmas was, yes, a Christian. Maybe Hollywood has made enough movies portraying Santa as a drunken no-good that he doesn’t seem like much of a threat to spread the holiness of the season.

But we snuck a few ones past the anti-Christmas crowd, probably while they were celebrating their success at keeping children from learning there is a God in Heaven. We got away with Valentine’s Day (named after a saint) and St. Patrick’s Day, which really is about more than green beer and corned beef. (Remember: The guy drove the snakes out of Ireland.)

The pagans didn’t seem too upset by President’s Day or Martin Luther King Day. Maybe nobody told them that Martin Luther King was both a Christian and was named after a Christian. And all our presidents have tended toward Christianity.

Adrienne, remember the fuss around Easter a couple years ago because Mel Gibson made his film about the Passion. In the case, the fuss was about: Who got blamed for killing Christ? Was the film based on the right sources? Why was it in an ancient language? And, is Gibson some sort of strange, old-fashioned Catholic?

What most critics failed to observe was that in watching the film they could see the real story of Easter, and why Easter is so important to Christians. It is simple but miraculous; Christ took all our sins upon himself, suffered horrendously, died and then returned to life. I got the impression that some critics were so concerned with who killed Christ that they missed the end of the movie; He doesn’t stay killed. He defeats death.

But maybe none of this will occur to the critics of Christians and they’ll continue to think Easter is about colored eggs, bunnies and bonnets. If they aren’t threatened by Santa Clause they likely won’t be threatened by the Easter Bunny.

I expect the biggest controversy around Easter will arise from Passion plays and the fear they might provoke anti-Semitism. Frankly, I don’t think that will be a problem. Mel Gibson’s movie didn’t generate any violence, except of the verbal sort from Hollywood types who feared he might win an Academy Award. If Mel couldn’t generate a riot, I doubt many local parishes and dioceses will be able to generate violence.

Of course, if people don’t like Christmas, don’t like Easter and are turned off by Passion plays (and The Passion of the Christ), they would really be shocked by what goes on in Catholic churches day in and day out. It’s a miracle. It’s a mystery. It is the Eucharist.

Yes, a priest really does take bread and wine and turn it into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And the faithful actually consume that body and blood. We remember it with special emphasis on Easter — but it happens every day, all over the world

Jim Fair’s letters to his children usually appear on our Travel: History & Saints page.

He writes from Chicago.