News from the front.

Today is Dec. 22 and the winter campaign in the War on Christmas is now headed for its climactic finish, although it may take years before total victory can be achieved.

Through much of the fall, leaders carefully developed the strategic battle plan, which was rolled out on Thanksgiving Day.

This year, as in recent years, leaders have relied on a most insidious strategy called “psychological warfare,” which has proven to be very effective.

The strategy of this type of warfare relies not on a full frontal assault, but a war of attrition, picking off Christmas enthusiasts one by one in a slow, yet methodical campaign designed to ensure that Christmas will ultimately end not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The tactics used are primarily sensory overload, an approach that has been proven to be very effective when applied to hostage situations or prolonged sieges against fortified positions.

In the War on Christmas, this sensory overload technique is rich in irony: It uses something Christmas supporters generally love against them: Christmas music.

What the War of Christmas (WOC) leaders have learned is that when Christmas supporters are subjected to Christmas music repeatedly over long periods of time, their enthusiasm begins to decline, sometimes dramatically. There have been reports that under these assaults, people have lost their Christmas spirit as early as Dec. 1.

This year, as in years past, the campaign has employed radio stations throughout the country, who devote their programming to “Continuous Christmas Music.” From Thanksgiving right on through Christmas and until New Year’s Day, unsuspecting Christmas supporters are bombarded with Christmas songs of every genre.

The innocent aren’t likely to realize that there is a carefully-developed, nuanced methodology behind the campaign. But every song is carefully scheduled to raise the stress level incrementally.

Typically, the campaign begins with happy, benign tunes — “All I Want for Christmas is You,” for example, along with old standards like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” or “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”

The campaign shifts to more “message-oriented” tunes that emphasize both the secular and religious aspects of the holiday – again calculated to affect the broadest possible audience.

At this point, the victims will hear a lot of “O, Holy Night” and “Little Drummer Boy” and “Mary, Did You Know,” as well as heart-string tugging secular tunes such as “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

These are calculated to produce in the unsuspecting listener what is known in Latin as “Motus Maturam,” i.e., premature emotions. You can get weepy about some imagery for only so long, the theory goes.

As the victim’s emotions are exposed and assaulted, time and repetition takes its toll.

By Dec. 15, even the cheeriest Christmas enthusiast may hear, yet again, “Silent Night,” and be alarmed by his own internal dialogue. “Well, it would be a silent night if you would stop yammering about it.”

By today, any playing of “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” immediately produces cruel thoughts. “In the natural world, hippopotamuses annually kill more humans than lions, so I hope that nasally-brat DOES get a hippo for Christmas and give me a little peace and quiet.”

By Christmas Day, the work is done. You know it when “Away in The Manger” is dismissed as the whining of illegal immigrants who refused to do things “the right way.”

The weak have been picked off, the survivors left to nurse their wounds and recover, as best they can, until next Thanksgiving.

That’s the thing about war: It’s never pretty.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].