The materialism of Christmas shopping used to be tempered by carols of angels and the newborn Christ. But now that anything “religious” has been pervasively banned from stores, we’re reduced to hollow gibberish about Santa and happy holidays. What to say?  An alternative to feeling angry or cynical or sad is to remember that the original holiday, the Roman Saturnalia, was a happy pagan holiday to begin with. And before that, Jesus wasn’t particularly welcomed in Israel either—Herod tried to kill him (with horrific collateral damage to baby boys around Bethlehem).   If Jesus were so inclined, he might say to us something…