"War on Christmas" is actually "Quest for More Money"?

In light of Ward's post from this morning, I thought I'd post this from a more liberal-leaning blog.

I imagine in some circles, the “controversy” is still a fairly big deal, but my sense is that this year’s “war on Christmas” is largely a bust. It was vaguely faddish last year, but most sensible people got sick of the issue quickly. Reasonable, levelheaded Americans figured out a long time ago that there is no war, the vast majority of the country celebrates and enjoys the holiday, and the conservative culture warriors probably just need to pick up a new hobby.

But they can’t. Not because there’s a nefarious scheme to undermine Christianity, and not because there are key skirmishes yet to be fought, but because the religious right has figured out that this silly little “War on Christmas” is a cash cow.

I suspect that the "religious right" is not quite so mercenary in their own minds. But it makes a good point, as well. We need to be careful to differentiate between a real crisis and just a trend that annoys us.