From a column by Preeti Aroon in The Chronicle, the student newspaper at Duke University. Aroon is a graduate student of public policy.

A few years ago, an acquaintance asked me, "Do you celebrate Christmas?"

"The commercialized version," I replied.

The acquaintance smiled wryly at me. He knew what I was talking about.

There are two Christmases in the United States -- the "real," original, religious Christmas that celebrates the birth of Christ, and the commercialized, secular Christmas of pop culture.

My family isn't Christian. But when I was a child, we had a Christmas tree in the living room, stockings hanging on the fireplace mantel and a wreath on our front door. We watched the "Charlie Brown Christmas Special" and "It's a Wonderful Life." We'd go to the mall and wave "Hi" to Santa. We'd drop loose change into Salvation Army buckets. We gave gifts to our teachers, our hairdressers and our newspaper delivery boy. We went to Christmas parties hosted by our schools, our piano teacher and our friends.

We even mailed Christmas cards (though we were careful to make sure they said "Happy Holidays" since at least 80 percent of the people to whom we mailed them weren't Christian).

In the days leading up to Christmas, my parents would drive my brother and me through neighborhoods in our hometown of Lexington, Ky., to look at people's Christmas lights. On Christmas morning, a few token gifts would be under our Christmas tree, and some candy would be in our stockings.

We weren't Christian, but we were Americans, and we partook of the American tradition of commercialized, secular Christmas. Why? Because it was fun, especially for the kids in the family -- my brother and me. What kid doesn't like candy canes, snowman cookies, Santa Claus, parties and toys? ...

During the past few years, some Christians have been complaining about stores that are "banning" Christmas. Advertisements and cashiers don't say, "Merry Christmas;" instead, they've been saying the more inclusive "Happy Holidays!"

Personally, I have no problem with stores' saying "Merry Christmas." They're private businesses. It's their right to say whatever they want. ...

Even if outraged Christians got all stores to say, "Merry Christmas," let's not kid ourselves. We all know those stores would be referring to the commercialized, secular Christmas -- the one that fattens their profits while raising Americans' credit card debt.

If I were a Christian, I'd be disappointed that one of my religion's most important holidays had come to be associated with such materialism. If a Wal-Mart greeter said "Merry Christmas" to me, I'd look at all the garlands, Santa figurines and toys piled high to the ceilings of the typical warehouse-sized Wal-Mart and think, "This is what my religion is about?"

Essentially, Christmas has been captured by capitalism. The Grinch hasn't stolen Christmas. Capitalism has.

Christmas is gradually being secularized into a season of general merrymaking. It is in transition from religious "holy day" to secular holiday. The cries of Christians who are upset with this are the death throes of religious Christmas. ...

Just about every culture of the world has times of the year devoted to celebration and revelry. For Americans, this season is just that time. A small subset of Christmas "purists" will probably continue observing the holiday in its original religious form, devoid of Santa Claus and the abundance of gift giving.

For the rest of us, we'll indulge in the commercialized secular Christmas.

Conservative Christians can demand that stores start saying "Merry Christmas." Unfortunately, it's not going to put Christ back into Christmas.

Christmas has become a commercialized, secular holiday -- no matter what you call it.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.