D<$>ISPUTES over carol-singing in schools, public display of nativity scenes and even the greeting “Merry Christmas” have fuelled seasonal squabbling in the United States about religious references to Christmas.Echoing disputes about the display in public buildings of monuments engraved with the Ten Commandments or about prayer in schools, the arguments are perennial.

But they have been highlighted this year by a sense of cultural and political polarisation after the religious right claimed a large part in President George W. Bush’s November re-election.

Barry Lynn, a church minister and director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that if there appeared to be an escalation of disputes over religious references to Christmas, it was because of the “aggressive nature of some Christian groups demanding inclusion”.

“They may feel emboldened by the election or emboldened by something else, they seem to be stirring up the waters more than ever before,” he said.

But some Christians argue they are just fighting an exaggerated political correctness that they say is banishing Christ from Christmas. Local authorities, they say, can be too zealous in making sure they don’t violate the Constitution and promote religion.

“We have a Taliban-like action going on among local school districts and local governments trying to eradicate anything that deals with Christianity,” said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Centre, a Christian legal support group.

“It is ironic in that sense because at least 80 per cent of Americans consider themselves Christian.”

In the Miami area, a woman sued successfully for the right to place a nativity scene — depicting the stable where Jesus Christ was born — on the town of Bay Harbour Islands’ main causeway alongside a municipal display of a Christmas tree and a menorah marking the Jewish holiday Hanukkah.

The Thomas More Law Centre, which represented plaintiff Sandra Snowden in the Florida case, is also appealing in a suit it brought challenging New York’s policy on religious displays in schools.

The centre says the city’s education department discriminates by permitting the display of the Menorah during Hanukkah and the Islamic star and crescent during Ramadan in city schools, but prohibiting nativity displays at Christmas.

Civil rights activists, lambasted by some conservative Christians as “anti-Christian”, say they are simply protecting the constitutional ban on government promoting any religious point of view.

Conservative Christians, who believe secularists take this to a point of ignoring Christian traditions, may have felt emboldened to press their points since the November election.

Votes for Bush included solid support from the religious right and his win was interpreted by some as a victory for conservative Christians on issues such as abortion and gay rights.

In this culture war, seemingly small issues can become battles.

A Christian legal and educational group called the Liberty Counsel was about to sue a local school board in West Bend, Wisconsin, over some Christmas cards, until the board decided this week to allow a group of students to distribute the cards — which give a religious explanation for the origins of red and white candy canes.

Some Christian groups are angry not just with public bodies but businesses.

A group called the Committee to Save Merry Christmas urged a boycott of stores owned by Federated Department Stores Inc. for supposedly barring use of the greeting “Merry Christmas” by employees and in advertising.

The company, parent of stores such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, said in a statement it had not issued any such ban. But it did indicate a preference for the more general “happy holidays” and “season’s greetings,” saying these were in common use in a multicultural, diverse society.