That's the reason why Jews--whether observant or secular and understandably leery of Christmas--have always taken enthusiastically to this all-American equal opportunity holiday.

In "Portnoy's Complaint," Philip Roth summed it up: "Maybe around the table we don't look like a painting by Norman Rockwell, but we have a good time, too, don't you worry! We don't go back to Plymouth Rock, no Indian ever brought maize to a member of our family as far as we know--but just smell that stuffing!"

I would prefer that subsequent presidents had followed Thomas Jefferson's example and refused to issue proclamations of thanks to God, but, even though I am a First Amendment absolutist, I can't really get exercised about this. That would be the secular equivalent of Protestant fundamentalists and Roman Catholic bishops getting all worked up about stores greeting customers with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

And there is no shortage of secular entities for a freethinker to thank. I am thankful (not necessarily in the following order) to The Washington Post for giving me my first job in journalism; to my parents; to my brother and nieces; to the New York Public Library, for providing me with a cozy cubbyhole where I write my books, and to New York City, where restaurants never take a holiday and where I will have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at which my friends and I will eat a meal cooked by someone else, off dishes to be washed by someone else. O My America!