When times are too scary, it’s time to make merry.

Every Trumpeting gloater loves fake news a lot, but this Grinch reading fake facts in Denver DOES NOT!

It’s not just the lies. It’s not the distortions. It’s not just mad raving beyond all proportions.

Name-calling is petty but hardly a crime. To fake-build a fake wall is an applause line. Who cares if the goldplated faucets are real. Almost no one believes in “The Art of the Deal.”

The true evil-doing is way beyond fluff. Fake news makes us think twice about the real stuff. When leaders convince us all news is a lie, it’s easy to trick us and even defy the rules and traditions on which we depend to make sure no one brings our laws to an end.

And if we lay waste to the old First Amendment, democracy’s done, never mind your resentment. We all can find fault with the news here sometimes, but without it the leaders won’t get caught for high crimes.

But fake news is just the beginning this year. Fake rumors are rampant and fake things to fear.

Fake Christians who say they believe more in greed than giving real health care to all those in need.

Fake friends of the people who need some good jobs, they promise the moon and then pick out some slob to honcho at Labor. It’s Puzder, good grief. His record for workers? We say, “Where’s the beef ?”

He leads a big business that sells us fake foods with models who bare their fake boobs on the tube. He scoffs at employees who work night and day, and all they are asking is for decent pay.

The leader, who ran on a message that said his opponent had let Wall Street get in her head, has grinned as he made us all suckers and hacks, assembling a team straight from Goldman and Sachs.

He looks at the jobless, the poor and the sick, and says what we need is tax cuts for the rich.

And just when you think he can’t possibly do it, he hands off the planet to OK’s Scott Pruitt. A climate denier, he comes from a state plagued by fires, tornadoes and man-made earthquakes. For drillers and spillers, he’s sort of a hero, while scientists say his home state is ground zero.

For those who are worried about terror threats, a leader too busy for briefings suggests the world could get crazy and no one would sense what might happen until it’s too late to prevent. It’s fine if the POTUS must be reinvented, but dissing the intel is unpresidented. Still… Since most of us think that the season of light, the solstice or Christmas or Festivus night should bring us together and make us feel warm, let’s launch a big protest against hate and scorn.

Let’s take to the streets bearing candles and beer. Let’s bring pussyhats, rainbow scarves, and good cheer. Let’s turn off the Twitter, send Facebook a note that until it stops fake facts it won’t get our vote.

Let’s break out the cookies and warm up the brisket, find friends we can count on, not those narcissistic.

We’ll tell the whole world that we all aren’t rude Trumpsters. This bad, awful year, we’ll throw right in the Dumpster. Remember, just sayin’, it’s all public knowledge, the problem was in the Electoral College.

Don’t blame Coloradans for how things went south. We voted against Fingers Short and Big Mouth. So… With love in our hearts, we’ll remind folks that you and most of us here still believe in what’s true. We’ll care for the planet for once and for all.

We’ll help one another and try to recall that once every year business stops for one day to celebrate light and remind us to say: “Here’s to joy, here’s to friendship, “Here’s to spuds fried in grease. “Here’s to Grandma’s tamales. And, yes, “Here’s to peace.” Diane Carman is a communications consultant and a monthly columnist for The Denver Post.