Ah, the holidays, when all across the land atheists and anti-Christians are able to enjoy fresh bursts of indignation at the sight of their countrymen celebrating those old retrograde tidings of comfort and joy. The Enlightenment has come and gone, Nietzsche has spoken, and still people persist in singing carols, hanging wreaths and going to midnight Mass as if it meant something.

Even menorahs are beginning to goad the unbelieving. Fresh from a nationwide book tour for “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” the ever-pungent Christopher Hitchens is now being publicly rude about Hanukkah and those of the “ancient and cruel faith” who celebrate such “holy foolishness.”