The following comes from a Dec. 24 story on LifeSiteNews.

President Donald Trump was introduced by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke at the 2018 lighting of the National Christmas Tree as the “man who brought Christmas back to America.”

It’s a big claim to make. Can it possibly be true?

Left-leaning media often like to take advantage of claims like this, mocking those who try to cast Trump as if he were the lead role in “Ernest Saves Christmas,” as Vanity Fair put it.

When Trump campaigned in 2016 on the promise that America was going to start saying “Merry Christmas” again, his critics accurately pointed out with video evidence that Obama had never actually stopped saying “Merry Christmas.”

When, after Trump’s inauguration, conservatives began celebrating what they saw as the new president’s overthrowing of the “War on Christmas,” they were soundly mocked for thinking there had been a war in the first place.

This leads to the big question: Did Christmas really leave America under Obama and his administration? Has Trump really brought Christmas “back”?

The only way to go about answering this question is to compare how the two presidents have commemorated Christmas. There are no better examples of this than the presidential addresses at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremonies and the annual White House Christmas Cards. What messages about Christmas have Obama and Trump conveyed on these occasions?

Barack Obama gave his first address at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in 2009.

He did indeed say “Merry Christmas” at the beginning and end of his address, a phrase he included in all of his future tree lighting addresses. When speaking in particular about why Americans celebrate Christmas, he highlighted the “story of a child born far from home to parents guided only by faith.” This child would grow up, he said, to “ultimately spread a message that has endured for more than 2,000 years, that no matter who we are or where we are from, we are each called to love one another as brother and sister.”

While these are pleasant sounding words, they do not capture what Christmas is essentially about. What is Christmas essentially about? The angels said it best to the shepherds with their “tidings of great joy,” as recorded in the Gospel of Luke (2:11): “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The keyword here is “savior.”

Christianity holds that mankind needs to be saved from sin and its consequence, eternal death. Jesus, the God who became man, is the one who saves. This is the “good news” the angels tell the shepherds. And since men and women today are still sinners who need a savior, this good news is as relevant today as it was 2018 years ago. This why Christians around the world continue to celebrate Christmas and will do so until the end of the world.

So, getting back to what Obama said in his first Christmas address as president, from a Christian perspective, he basically botched the whole affair. He failed to speak about what Christmas is really about. Not only did he not say the word “savior,” but he also failed to say the words “Jesus” or “Christ….”

Donald Trump gave his first address at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in 2017.

He began and ended his address, as Obama did in his tree lighting addresses, by wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas.” But the similarities between the two messages stop here.

Trump called Christmas a “Holy season” where Christians celebrate the “birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Unlike Obama, Trump managed to mention in one sentence in his first address the words “Savior” and “Jesus” and “Christ….”

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