TODAY'S TOPIC

We asked readers to share their favorite holiday traditions. We didn't receive a single story about tree trimming, candlelight church services, family gatherings, caroling or a-wassailing (whatever that is). Perhaps the Grinch intercepted all the warm and fuzzy letters. We were left with a letter about global warming's threat to Santa at the North Pole, another expressing outrage over Christmas Eve office closures and, finally, a letter on the power-draining, Earth-destroying bane of holiday lights. Enjoy.

Global warming may make Santa homeless

There is a new threat to Christmas coming from big corporations like Exxon, Con Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, Alliant Energy, Conoco Phillips, Consol Energy and others.

We have been told for generations that Santa Claus resides in the North Pole, where he and the elves make and distribute toys to all the deserving children in the world.

The new threat is not from the new star wars missile systems (Santa learned how to avoid missiles decades ago). This undermining threat to Christmas is more sinister and pervasive. It 's global warming caused by energy companies like those listed above.

A recent scientific study states that within the next 10 years the North Pole (Arctic Ocean) will be free of ice during the summer time. These companies with their carbon dioxide emissions are melting Santa out of house and home (and toy shop). Santa may have to move.

If he stays in the northern hemisphere, he will have an important choice to make. I 'm sure Canada, Greenland, Alaska, Norway, Sweden and Russia would all like to be the host for Santa 's workshop.

The North Pole has been a great compromise, because Santa did not have to choose sides between the secular, godless socialists and the heartless, greedy capitalists.

We may not like Santa 's choice of new location, so to keep the peace, let 's just reduce our carbon dioxide level and keep the polar region solid. This year when you send Santa a Christmas wish list, please write your local energy company asking it to reduce its carbon dioxide so Santa can keep his home.

-- Alex Martin, Sun Prairie

Reader questions Christmas Eve closings

Monona and Madison close their governmental offices and libraries on Christmas Eve. Why? As a citizen I want access to my public services unless there is a good explanation for their closing.

I understand Christmas Day and the Sunday sabbath as Christian customs and accept them as such. Other public places are not customarily closed on Christmas Eve, and where are the other religious holidays that are so chosen?

Christian exceptionalism seems unnecessary in the United States, where religious pluralism is not only tolerated but encouraged. And I fear that political candidates are using the God of the Bible as exceptional in the United States. With personal liberties threatened today, is religion becoming a shibboleth to instill fear in non-Christians and construe Christianity as patriotic?

Are the schools abetting this prejudice by

teaching that the United States was founded as a Christian nation? Educated young people should be able to question and refuse to be told such things.

Why is Christmas Eve a day to close some public services? Thank the gods that the police and fire departments continue to be available to the public.

-- Daniel J. (Jim) Guilfoil, Monona

Holiday lights speed species' extinction

Before dawn last Friday, as I watched the beautiful Geminid meteors trace across the sky with a crescent Venus in the east and an earthy-red Mars in the west, I thought of what we in our ignorance are doing to our planet.

Ignorant in what way? Three-fourths of Wisconsin 's electricity is produced by 14 coal-burning plants producing carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming. Ignorance of the true cost to our environment, health and economy that isn 't factored into the cost of using carbon-based fuels.

Do we want anything like Venus ' mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere, with surface temperature so hot that lead would be a liquid? "Out of sight, out of mind " is our creed.

Consider holiday lights. Is it worth the extinction of species to have holiday lights, brightly lit parking lots and businesses and every device in the house telling us what time it is? If the North Polar ice cap keeps melting at its current rate, the ice may be gone as early as 2012. The Earth had a balance between warm and cold with two frozen poles, but we are destroying that balance and will pay.

We are playing God without the wisdom that comes with that responsibility. It isn 't just the fault of many presidents and congresses -- it 's our fault! I cannot enjoy holiday lights anymore because of their power source. I only see more disasters killing more people and draining our economy with higher taxes and insurance, more mercury in our water and fish making them unsafe, and more species driven out of existence because we don 't get it.

-- Greg Erickson, Dodgeville