This sign in my local supermarket jolted me. For a moment I felt I was living in 1944 and half expected a news update about the Battle of the Bulge.

I went to my car passing a blind man, standing outside, patiently ringing his bell for the Salvation Army

This Christmas season, I am more Scrooge than Grinch. I feel in tune with the passive Scrooge, the crabby old man who just wanted Christmas to go away with a terse "Bah Humbug."

The manic Grinch goes to incredible lengths to steal Christmas. He is filled with hyperactive glee.

I identify with the New Yorker cartoon in which a harried looking woman says to a friend, "Christmas has become so overwhelming. From now on we are going to celebrate it every other year."

Alas, the Grinch folks are out in full force this year.

They are hiring professionals to hang millions of lights in their front yard, attracting thousands of drive-by viewers on their suburban streets and setting off restraining orders from irritated neighbors.

A 14-year-old boy in Georgia brought a pipe bomb to school trying to sell it for $35 so he would have money to buy Christmas presents.

Hallmark in Kansas City has increased the number card lines wishing folks both a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah.

What is really needed is an all-purpose card wishing folks a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Peaceful Winter Solstice, Nice Winter Break from school and a Serene Post-Ramadan season.

The Grinch lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Grinch lawyers from conservative Christian groups are in full battle gear, fighting in hand-to-hand combat, contesting every town square and school program. They argue about how taxpayer money is spent-"Too much Christ in Christmas" versus "Too Little Christ in Christmas."

By blowing a lot of smoke and making a lot of noise, the folks at the "First Church of the Send Us Your Check Immediately to Stop the ACLU; Tax Deductible and Non-Profit-Except to Ourselves," manage to get a lot of headlines.

They also manage to conceal the fact that Christians don't even agree on how to celebrate Christmas.

You've got the folks who want to put the Mass back in the Christ Mass, the pro and anti Santa Claus folks, the Eastern folks who know Christmas is celebrated in January, the simple-life Christians who send you a note they bought a cow in the Congo in your name rather than giving you a gift, versus, the, "I don't care if it was made in a sweatshop in China; it was on sale at the Dollar Store and I have a long Christmas list."

This year I will again put a simple set of electric candles in my three windows facing the street. Folks can give them any meaning they want.

Maybe it is understated décor or maybe it is a light is shining in the darkness.