This is incredible -- Chicago officials object to a Christmas festival accepting a film about Christmas as a sponsor, for fear that non-Christians will be offended!

A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.

New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.

I wholeheartedly echo this comment by a spokesman for Willow Creek Church, a large church in the Chicago area.

"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ."

And so do the first six letter of "Christkindlmarket" -- which I believe means "Christ Child Market" in German.