Hilarious footage captured the moment Jill Biden’s holiday cheer was quickly shot down by a child who corrected her Christmas greeting.
The First Lady greeted children at the White House on Friday to mark the festive season at the Marine Corps’ ‘Toys for Tots’ event, welcoming military families: ‘Hello! How are you? Happy Holidays!’
‘Happy Christmas!’ a young boy shot back.
Jill grinned at the riposte, correcting herself: ‘Happy Christmas, yes.’
The interaction recalls a culture wars clash that seemingly sparked up during the Obama Administration, as conservatives accuse liberals of watering down the Christian holiday.
After footage of the First Lady’s exchange circulated social media, many took it as a sign that Donald Trump’s presidential win will see a return of the traditional saying.
‘Even the kids know it’s not ‘happy holidays,” one said on X. ‘The PC era is ending.’
Another shared a triumphant meme of Trump captioned: ‘Merry Christmas is back.’
One X user drew a line between Trump’s election victory and the perception that liberals would avoid the more religious form of the phrase.
They tweeted an image of Trump’s election results by county, saying the huge majority of counties that Trump won would say ‘Merry Christmas’ while the few Democrat hotspots would opt for ‘Happy Holidays.’
The youngster seen in the footage with Jill Biden is far from alone in his preference for ‘Christmas’ over ‘Holidays.’
A DailyMail.com poll held a year ago found almost seven in ten Americans opt to say ‘Merry Christmas’ instead of ‘Happy Holidays’, and go out of their way to use the religious greeting.
Democrats were most likely to opt for Happy Holidays, but even six in ten liberals said they would choose Merry Christmas instead.
‘While even a festive greeting can be polarized in today’s America, these results show that Christmas can remain something of a unifier: majorities of every major demographic group prefer ‘Merry Christmas’ to “Happy holidays”,’ Joe Alder, senior research associate at J.L. Partners, told DailyMail.com at the time.
‘The future seems rather more uncertain, however, with Gen Z almost twice as likely as over 65s to prefer the less explicitly religious phrase.’
Happy Holidays is commonly touted as a more inclusive festive greeting, which is intended to also recognize the multiple religious and cultural holidays at this time of year.
However, some feel the use of the secular salutation is part of the ‘war on Christmas’ discourse which rears its head every year.
The culture wars issue sprang up in the Obama Administration as the White House was accused of glossing over the Christian elements of the festive season.
During Trump’s first run for the White House back in 2015, he made the issue part of his platform to appeal to traditionalist voters in the flyover states – even calling for a boycott of Starbucks after it left Merry Christmas off its seasonal cups.
In a speech a month before he won the election, Trump told a crowd: ‘They don’t use the word ‘Christmas’ because it’s not politically correct… We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.’
When he rose to the White House, Trump’s celebrated his first Christmas as president by making sure ‘Merry Christmas’ was prominent on the annual Christmas card.
After Obama routinely opted for a message wishing Americans a ‘joyous holiday season’, Trump’s debut card wished Americans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.