DARLINGTON, England:   Believe it or not I saw my first decorated lit up Christmas tree last night, not your old £10.99 Woolworths silver imitation gaudily lit up in someone's bay window but a proper real roots in the ground 20 foot tall conifer lit up with red lights in the garden of a farm I walk past when I take Zak (my dog) out for an evening walk. It had such an impact I stood staring at it for several minutes and came away smiling.

Now I love Christmas, I find it a time of year that is full of genuine love, warmth and charitable feeling, often based around family and close friends which is the basis of true Christianity and I love it with as much passion as I hate the false pretentious, alcohol-induced profession of false platitudes of friendship and brotherly love that so many people spout at midnight just seven days later, which I would add is conveniently forgotten for the next 364 days as they reach for the Alka Seltzer a few hours later.

Anyway it got me thinking about symbolism of this time of year, and I remembered the days when we had nativity plays, and window displays and town centre light extravaganzas that were full of Christian symbolism, three wise men, angels, biblical scenes, and so on but the overhead street decorations have gradually been replaced, by and large, and no Christian symbolism can be found anymore; boring umbrellas and flashing collections of bulbs have replaced the Christmas tree and angels.

I keep shaking my head: who are the people out there who bother about this stuff?
Well, it seems the PC brigade has struck again. There will be no proper Christmas decoration anymore. I want everybody to be aware that the PC clipboard brigade are now finishing in this erstwhile free country what the Jacobins and Puritans started, the Nazis and Communists took over in the 1930's and which was picked up by the leftist liberal elite of the 60's. They were very keen to ban all Christian symbols in public places because they wanted their swastikas, their hammer and sickles, and their diversity leaflets to be displayed in their place.

These days, how many times do we hear that crosses and other Christian symbols must be tucked away because they might offend the faithful of other denominations, particularly Muslims. And yet I wonder what offends Muslims more: the Christmas trees and Christianity-inspired decorations in our shopping precincts and high streets, for a few weeks each year or the politically correct (and often taxpayer-funded) Gay Pride marches which take place in our major cities every year? But I guess that as far as our political elites are concerned, the latter symbolises multiculturalism, and diversity, therefore it is acceptable, while the former evokes traditional values, and is not.

Why have we let this happen?

Andy Baxter blogs at The Sceptical Scceptic