Yes in Paris, but seems to be less and less over the years near the place i am living in ...  euro crisis.

Yup.

GoaFan77 - be enterprising... grow Douglas Firs in the potholes.

One day in the not-to-distant future here in the US, lobbyists will make a religion of stopping religion and it will be their un-holiday.

Until then...yep.  We have lights.  Winking away their subliminal, mind-controlling "Convert!" messages in  a sinister plot to take everyone's child into a religious cult.

Please.  "Tradition" and "History".  Valid reasons to let people celebrate.

Cynicism aside, I am seeing more people this year being considerate and almost everyone says, "Merry Christmas" here now as opposed to the past three years of, "Happy holiday".  I think people are a little more appreciative of what they do have this time around.

I know I am...and I like Christmas too.

Goafan is a grinch. 

yes.  city and county has done so for years.  They also have continued the tax exemption for buildings owned by religious groups - most of these buildings are owned by christian groups.  Of course, I have absolutely no problem with the government using the laws and tax codes to redristribute wealth (benefits) within our society.  Some might consider that socialism.  In this partictular case, of course, its not.

Happy christmas, merry hanukah, inspiring kwanza to all.

Nope.

If my town had a stoplight, which it doesn't, they would probably just unscrew the yellow bulb and call it good.

I live in "Bethlehem," Pa...hell yeah they do! But Xmas has become to commercial.

How greedy is that!