The Nazis hated Christianity and Christmas posed a problem to them since it was Germany’s most popular holiday. Rather than ban it, they tried to replace it as described in this story at the TimesOnline, the website for the paper most of us in the U.S. know as The Times of London albeit in the U.K. it is simply the Times.
The Nazis replaced carols praising Jesus with secular songs about the season — winter wonderlands so to speak. They insisted Christmas trees be called fir trees, light trees or Jultrees.
They insisted the event, Julfest or Wintersonnenwende (Winter Solstice), be one to remember Germanic ancestors and soldiers. Here is an example of how it was supposed to be done according to a popular women’s magazine at the time:
Something like that could never happen in Pennsylvania or the United States, right?
As you enter a store during the next several weeks and are greeted for the season as attempts are made to sell you gifts for some undefined holiday; and if you see fir trees being sold for some unnameable event and if you see displays of such trees decorated with lights and called “festivals of light”, and if the local public school holds a “Winter Solstice” concert, well, just remember the tradition being followed.