Jon Stewart Declares War on Christmas; Battles With Fox News

Comedian Jon Stewart has declared war on Christmas. In a recent episode of "The Daily Show," Stewart took aim, once again, at Fox News commentators and their annual defense of American Christmas traditions.

At the end of the episode, which is titled “Tree Fighting Ceremony,” Stewart positioned himself on a set that looked like the oval office, and impersonated several different presidents as he explained his declaration.

"It is said that we provoked these hostilities through the use of the phrase, 'happy holidays.' This is a lie. That was a phrase born not of aggression, but of convenience. But as long as our enemies view the words 'happy holidays'...as a subtextual 'F**k you and your baby Jesus,' there can be no peace,” said Stewart, who named his attack “Operation: Godless Sh*t Storm.”

Stewart opened the show by going after Fox News, whose commentators have been critical of Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee for sending out invitations to a “Tree Lighting Ceremony” and referring to the spruce as a “holiday tree” rather than a Christmas tree.

The New York Daily News reported on the controversial issue Tuesday, saying that a group of people who were upset with the governor's choice of terms “crashed” the tree lighting ceremony while singing “O Christmas Tree."

Because of the whole controversy, Stewart jokingly called Chafee “this year's designated Scrooge.”

He also showed a clip of Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham saying that “religious freedom is on the rocks” in America.

"Fox, you take for granted the ubiquity of Christmas, but if there has been a war, Christmas is the aggressor nation,” Stewart said later in the show. “Right now, every public space in the country looks like it got hit with a 500 pound tinsel bomb. The White House looks like a yuletide episode of 'Hoarders.' Many of these displays are subsidized by, uh, what's that thing you don't want to spend on anything? Taxpayer money!"

To illustrate how he thinks Christ has really been taken out of Christmas, Stewart showed a video clip of Mariah Carey singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” while dancing in a skimpy Santa outfit as Justin Bieber watches her.

"Whatever you think is the reason for the season, it does not involve Mariah Carey in a half a Santa suit presenting her a** to Justin Bieber like a horny bonobo," said Stewart.

He then shows another Fox News clip in which the commentator says it is “good news” that certain retailers – like Best Buy, Macy's Kohls, CVS Pharmacy, Target and others – are using the word “Christmas” again, but then asks the question, “But are they just doing it to make a quick buck, and if so, are you okay with that?”

As a result of this question, Stewart suggests Fox News won't be happy until retailers “really mean it” when they say “Christmas.” He then delves into his war declaration, in which he says the symbols of Christmas that inhabit state house rotundas should share space with those symbols that also represent Jews, Wiccans, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists, Santeros and Muslims.

Americans should not try to validate their beliefs based on “Macy's signage,” Stewart says in his conclusion, and neither should they think of non-sectarian greetings as diminishing. Instead of saying either “Merry Christmas” or “happy holidays” at the end of the show, he tells everyone to have a “happy and heartfelt end of the fiscal fourth quarter.”