Ba humbug: Jack Straw lashes out at greetings cards for banishing 'Happy Christmas'

The Secretary of State for Justice says it is almost impossible to find cards which carry the traditional message.

Instead, it has been replaced with the humdrum "Season's Greetings" message to avoid excluding other faiths during the Christian holiday.

Mr Straw, who is also Lord Chancellor, says companies are ignoring the real message of Christmas and diluting the celebration of Christ's birth by changing the wording.

The comments come in his weekly column for his local paper, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph - in which he called last year for Muslim women to remove their veils to aid community relations.

He writes sarcastically: "Merry Season. I hope you have a good one. What's Father Season bringing you?

"Oh, the usual Season presents. Then we'll have our Season dinner, to make the fact that this season is usually the cheeriest of the year.

"Gibberish, isn't it? But all I've done is substitute 'Season' for 'Christmas' and it's no different from the greeting card manufacturers, who in a vain effort, I imagine, to please all the people all the time employ the phrase 'Season's Greetings' in place of 'Christmas Greetings' or better 'Happy Christmas'.

"What we celebrate on December 25 is not the season, it is Christ's birth.

Words have meaning and there's a very good word for this in one language - Christmas.

"So what is it that possesses the designers and printers of greetings cards to seek to obliterate - or at least downgrade this accurate salutation?

"Who do they think they'll offend if they say the real word?

"Not the 72 per cent of the population who at the last census voluntarily repeated they were of the Christian Faith.

"How about the remaining 28 per cent? Many of those are of other faiths: Judaism 0.5 per cent, Islam 2.7 per cent, Hinduism, 1 per cent, Sikhism 0.6 per cent.

"When I meet friends of these faiths on their holy days I don't say 'Season's Greetings' or something similarly bland. I say, for instance, 'Happy Hanukkah' to Jewish friends, 'Eid Mubarak' to Muslim friends or 'Happy Diwali' to Sikh or Hindu friends.

"We are not a multi-racial no-religion society, but a multi-racial society, and the key to our collective happiness is mutual respect."

"Meanwhile, will the greetings card manufacturers please stop trying to airbrush Christmas."

Edward Monroe, a member of the Greeting Card Association, said: "There has been a move towards a more anodyne message in recent years.

"But it is not something companies have been encouraged to do. I am sure that this is a trend that will correct itself very shortly."

Gordon Brown's first choice of greeting card as Prime Minister should meet with Mr Straw's approval.

He and his wife Sarah selected a charity card featuring an illustration of ten children around a Christmas tree.

The card, for the charity Booktrust, which promotes reading, features a girl holding the message "Happy Christmas".

It makes a sharp contrast with Tony Blair's preference for cards featuring portraits of himself and his family.

Most MPs now have cards featuring the word "Christmas" following a backlash over a trend towards sending cards depicting non-traditional images.