Hilarious footage captured the moment Jill Biden’s holiday cheer was quickly shot down by a child correcting her Christmas greeting.
The First Lady greeted children at the White House on Friday to mark the holidays at the Marine Corps’ “Toys for Tots” event, which welcomed military families: “Hello! How are you? Happy Holidays!’
‘Happy Christmas!’ a young boy shot back.
Jill grinned at the answer and corrected herself, “Happy Christmas, yes.”
The interaction is reminiscent of a clash of culture wars that apparently emerged during the Obama administration, when conservatives accused liberals of watering down the Christian holiday.
After footage of the First Lady’s exchange circulated on social media, many took it as a sign that Donald Trump’s presidential victory will mark a return of the traditional saying.
“Even the kids know it’s not ‘Happy Holidays,'” said someone on X. “The PC era is coming to an end.”
Another shared a triumphant meme of Trump with the caption: “Merry Christmas is back.”
Jill Biden was quickly corrected by a no-nonsense child during Friday’s “Toys for Tots” military event at the White House for using the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”
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 a graphic of Trump’s election results by county, saying the vast majority of counties Trump won would say “Merry Christmas,” while the few Democratic hot spots would opt for “Happy Holidays.”
The youngster seen in the images with Jill Biden is far from alone in his preference for ‘Christmas’ over ‘Holidays’.
A DailyMail.com survey conducted a year ago found that nearly seven in 10 Americans choose to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays,” and go out of their way to use the religious greeting .
Democrats were most likely to choose Happy Holidays, but even six in 10 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 unity: The majority of every major demographic group prefers ‘Merry Christmas’ to ‘Happy Holidays,'” Joe Alder , senior research associate at JL Partners, told DailyMail.com at the time.
‘The future seems a bit more uncertain, however, with Generation Z almost twice as likely as those over 65 to prefer the less explicitly religious term.’
The culture war debate over the use of ‘Happy Holidays’ made its way into the presidential election eight years ago when Donald Trump promised to bring back ‘Merry Christmas’
The Obama family’s 2016 Christmas card raised eyebrows when they decided to ditch ‘Merry Christmas’ in favor of ‘Happy Holidays’
When Trump became president, he made good on his promise to return “Merry Christmas” to White House Christmas cards
Happy Holidays is often promoted as a more inclusive festive greeting, which is also intended to recognize the many religious and cultural holidays at this time of year.
However, some believe that the use of the secular greeting is part of the “war on Christmas” discourse that emerges every year.
The issue of the culture wars arose in the Obama administration when the White House was accused of glossing over the Christian elements of the holidays.
During Trump’s first run for the White House 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 Merry Christmas was removed from the 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 went to the White House, Trump celebrated his first Christmas as president by making sure “Merry Christmas” was prominently featured on the annual Christmas card.
After Obama routinely opted for a message wishing Americans a “joyful holiday season,” Trump’s debut card wished Americans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.