My turn to wish you all a Merry Christmas
I’m getting tired of Christian conservatives whining about how liberals are attacking their precious religion in a time where we need to be as inclusive as possible.
News flash, America has an image problem. Many foreigners believe that America is corporate theocracy hell bent on reenacting the Crusades. If you enjoyed 9/11 then keep it up. Keep reacting to any perceived "assault" on your way of life with narcissistic arrogance and see where we end up. For corporations, "Happy Holidays" is a step in the right direction. It’s a step towards the image we need to project to the rest of the world. You guys want everything without any sacrifice to your own way of life. Before reacting with "this is just more liberal bullshit", think about it. You guys "love" having these discussions because they represent an argument you will probably win, not because they represent any real affect to your well being. When companies capitulate is it really a win for Christian values?
Enough ranting, just to confirm that corporations aren't "actively [trying to] eliminate Christmas from the season" (Quote from Sean). I conducted a search of companies identified by Jerry Falwell’s campaign, for the terms "Christmas" and "Hannukah":
Kmart: 138 products containing the word Christmas, 111 containing the word Hanukkah
Sears: 540 products containing the word Christmas, 5 containing the word Hanukkah
Walmart: 7904 products containing the word Chirstmas, 203 containing the word Hanukkah
… and of course the worst offender on the top of Falwell’s hit list, Target, with a total of 39,151 products containing the word Christmas, 913 containing the word Hanukkah. Apparently the assault on Christmas is more like a slight nudge.
News flash, America has an image problem. Many foreigners believe that America is corporate theocracy hell bent on reenacting the Crusades. If you enjoyed 9/11 then keep it up. Keep reacting to any perceived "assault" on your way of life with narcissistic arrogance and see where we end up. For corporations, "Happy Holidays" is a step in the right direction. It’s a step towards the image we need to project to the rest of the world. You guys want everything without any sacrifice to your own way of life. Before reacting with "this is just more liberal bullshit", think about it. You guys "love" having these discussions because they represent an argument you will probably win, not because they represent any real affect to your well being. When companies capitulate is it really a win for Christian values?
Enough ranting, just to confirm that corporations aren't "actively [trying to] eliminate Christmas from the season" (Quote from Sean). I conducted a search of companies identified by Jerry Falwell’s campaign, for the terms "Christmas" and "Hannukah":
Kmart: 138 products containing the word Christmas, 111 containing the word Hanukkah
Sears: 540 products containing the word Christmas, 5 containing the word Hanukkah
Walmart: 7904 products containing the word Chirstmas, 203 containing the word Hanukkah
… and of course the worst offender on the top of Falwell’s hit list, Target, with a total of 39,151 products containing the word Christmas, 913 containing the word Hanukkah. Apparently the assault on Christmas is more like a slight nudge.
posted by mochi at 6:20 PM
13 Comments:
Agreed. Christmas will be fine. See you on the 24th.
In the interest of being inclusive:
Merry Christmadonzaanuka!
-Jack
Funny, I did the same search on Target. Search "Christmas" just brings up all those products, not because they have that word in them.
I really hope you're not equating 9/11 with Christians upset that stores are marginalizing "Christmas" from the season? So by asserting our religious and cultural heritage we're inviting terrorist attacks? That is a truly pathetic argument. Despicable even. By your twisted logic we should carpet bomb any country that seeks to assert and celebrate its cultural and/or religious heritage. Our bombers are sure going to be busy.
This is your blog. If you don't like or agree with the Christmas debate then don't feed it. But there you are, writing yet another post about it then decrying the fact that it gets so much attention. Very hypocritical.
But I'm glad you did so much research on the issue. Heaven forbid you get up and head out to some of these stores to see whether they are using "Christmas" in their displays and advertising. I will note that despite the large number of hits that came up on Target's website for "Christmas", I didn't see any reference to "Christmas" in their advertising or displays.
Tell me the truth. Are these "Holiday" and "December" sales really related to other holidays? I look at the circulars and websites and I see Christmas trees, Santa, wreaths, Christmas decorations - but no "Merry Christmas". Nobody is saying not to wish Jewish people "Happy Hanukah" or to let "Happy Kwanzaa" loose in stores. But let's face facts. The "Holiday Season" for stores is really all about Christmas.
Stores want to lure in Christmas shoppers. Its Christmas shopping that brings a lot of stores into the black for the entire year. Christmas is a huge part of their business. Those of us who celebrate Christmas know this. Despite these facts, stores have decided to bow to the PC gods and not give Christmas a central theme in their stores.
Again, those of us who find this dichotomy of target audience and advertising annoying are letting the stores know. Obviously the stores understand very well what the real situation is, because they are not willing to risk losing sales from those who are shopping for Christmas gifts and are also annoyed.
If this was a marginal issue, or the stores didn't think there were all that many people ticked off about the situation, nothing would change and you could point to those of us that are ticked off and chuckle at the futility of it all. But it isn't a marginal issue, there must be enough people ticked about the situation to get stores' attention, because stores have begun to concede.
But hey, I fully expect another terrorist attack simply because so many people refuse to squelch our religious and cultural heritage. And we would deserve, right? I mean, you can't go around asserting yourself within your own country without the risk of incurring an attack from otherwise goodwilled people outside your country - that would be silly. Right?
Heaven forbid you dont stop complaining about it and just celebrate your holiday with your family and be content with that. All the time you spent writing that, you could have been out getting my present Sean. Trust me on this, Christmas will be fine. Im going Christmas shopping, be back later.
That was a bit of a rant, wansn't it.
I can't get you your Christmas present for two reasons: 1) Bush's term doesn't end for another few years and 2) I can't oust him from office all by my lonesome, even if I wanted to. Sorry. You'll have to settler for a hearty Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
An update: Our post office is offering either Madonna or non-Madonna, holiday stamps. Bastards. I'm organizing a rally to protest the non-Madonna stamps, let me know if you want to attend.
It's funny, in my forty-odd years of life, I've seen lots and lots of "happy holidays" and "seasons greetings" every year, year after year, since the sixties. Always. And they were always considered an equally cheerful sentiment as "merry christmas". The idea that they were offensive to christians would have been laughable.
The last two christmases have been a fundamentalist free-for-all. I'll be so glad when they return to the fringe.
I never did like Madonna--at least not the current one. She turned out some decent stuff in the 80's though...
I'm surprised you don't like her, after all she is a material girl...
Today we were given a memorandum with direct responses to provide consumers who call and express their concern over my employer's commercials taking the "Christ of out of Christmas". Were were advised to inform consumers that XXXXX (the company) appreciates your comments and would like to say that our commercials are aimed at wide audiences and recognizes that there are vast differences among all of us and the company doesn't want to exclude any culture and religion...or something like that.
And Sean, I had 4 people (strangers) say Merry Christmas today. Since I have Merry's to spare.. Merry Christmas.
Jack Trivia:
BTW, was anyone aware that X was the ancient Greek symbol used for Christos (or Christ) and that the insertion of such was still referring to Christmas?
Yeah didn't someone else mention that?
Thank you Lost. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
And let's not forget the spirit of the Season.
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