A yearly December event is in full swing this year, as always. No, not Christmas. I am talking the annual X-mas bleat.

Yes a variety of pundits are trying to fluff their end-of-year viewers and readers by moaning about the so-called “war on Christmas.” And, of course, the other side counters with their own forms of abuse and bleating.

In fact, the whole notion is an enormous troll by the religious right to have a bash at the “secularization” of America. They seek out examples — where stores don’t say “Merry Christmas” or where towns don’t have a full-blown nativity scene — to help cause a stink. Surely it is up to the individual or company how they address their customers this time of year? And whose business is it but the village, town or city in question what they have up to recognize the time of year?

Those of us who are not Christians find it bemusing. If these people really cared about Christ and their fellow Christians, they should be making a fuss about Christians in peril in the world.

In places like Egypt, the copts are suffering purges and routine attacks on their places of worship and killed by Muslim Brotherhood thugs for being Christian. In Syria, the last few villages that speak Aramaic and practice older forms of Christianity have been attacked by jihadists. In the Central African Republic, things have gotten so bad the French have had to intervene to protect Christians from genocide at the hands of Islamist rebels.

Yet we have Megyn Kelly, a normal sensible and sane pundit on Fox News getting into a stink about Jesus and santa. She declared both white and caused all sorts of a stir. Needless to say, many have pointed out that Jesus was in fact a Middle Eastern Jew from Judea who was olive colored.

There is an easier case for Santa, as he was in fact the creation of Coca-Cola as an amalgam of St. Nicholas (a Greek Bishop from the Turkish side of the Bosphorus), Father Christmas and the Wild Hunt of Norse mythology. Mentioning the two in the same context seemed a tad odd, seeing as one is fictitious and the other is all too real to many people across the world.

Christians are not under threat of imminent death, a restraint on their worship nor of persecution in this country. To suggest otherwise merely belittles the plight of those across the world of their faith who are actual suffering for what they believe.

Yes, I know. In the world of the 24-hour news cycles, ratings and celebrity, it is hard to expect a sense of perspective from anyone. But, at this time of year, surely we as Americans should be thankful for what we have and not try to find new things to whine about.

I want to wish all my readers and fellow Mainers a Happy Christmas, a rollicking Saturnalia and joyous Winter Solstice.

ANDREW IAN DODGE is a libertarian former U.S. Senate candidate and writer who lives in Harpswell.