Dr. Seuss made it famous with his timeless story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, but in today’s America, the story is more often, “The Leftist Who Desperately Wanted to Ruin Christmas.” We see it constantly — woke Karens who want to take down manger displays, town councils that ban nativity scenes, triggered scolds who want to rip the Christ out of Christmas.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for one, isn’t having it. After some silly leftist group demanded that she rescind her order making December 26 a day off for government employees, arguing that it violated the separation of church and state concept, Sanders effectively said, “Speak to the hand, not the face.”
The @FFRF took issue with me closing state offices to celebrate Christmas and sent a letter demanding I rescind my proclamation.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) December 22, 2025
Christmas isn’t a just a holiday, it’s the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth. Meaning matters, we won’t pretend otherwise.
See my response here ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/UciehY3GtS
Sanders, who never backed down as Trump’s White House press secretary during his first term, wasn’t about to bend the knee here:
After issuing a proclamation closing state offices for Christmas, Sanders received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a group focused on the separation of church and state, calling for her to reverse the move and claiming it was unconstitutional.
In a response letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, Sanders told FFRF she "will do no such thing."
"You say that my communications as Governor must be neutral on matters of religion," Sanders wrote. "I say that, even if I wanted to do that, it would be impossible. Christmas is not simply an ‘end-of-the-year holiday’ with ‘broadly observed secular cultural aspects,’ as your letter states. It’s not gifts, trees, and stockings that make this holiday special. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and if we are to honor Him properly, we should tell His miraculous, world-changing story properly, too."
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Sanders went on to say that silencing one religion’s views is not the way. By celebrating Christianity’s traditions, we actually open the door to the Left’s vaunted “diversity”:
Sanders went on to call it ironic that she received the letter "claiming I was alienating my non-Christian constituents as I was leaving a Menorah lighting celebration with people from all across Arkansas."
Sanders wrote, "I doubt they would say that my administration alienates non-Christians. In fact, many would say the opposite: that only by voicing our own faith and celebrating other faiths can we make our state’s diverse religious communities feel seen and heard."
Her message: We declined.
We closed state offices so families could spend time together at Christmas.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) December 22, 2025
Some people objected, and told us we had to strip the holiday of its meaning - the birth of Christ.
We declined. https://t.co/piBldvYUt5
To Sarah and our readers of all faiths, and even to all the woke scolds who endlessly strive to take the meaning out of a centuries-old, beloved holiday, I wish you a Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas from RedState!
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