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Christian Conservatives Fight Happy Holidays
Nov. 30, 2005 — On Thursday, Boston will light its city Christmas tree, after an uproar over an attempt to rename it the "holiday tree." It's just one of many battles across the country over what some Christians see as attempts to sap Christmas of its religious meaning.
Christian conservatives have launched online petition drives and recruited a record 1,550 attorneys to pursue any attempts to substitute "Christmas" with "holiday," or any other inclusive or nonsectarian terms. It's all aimed at — to use their phrase — "putting the Christ back in Christmas." And in some places, it's working.
Target stores became the focus of a Christian conservative boycott, after banning Salvation Army kettles.
Christian conservatives say retailers should proudly play up Christmas even if some non-Christian customers are alienated.
"Tough luck," said Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association. "This is an overwhelmingly Christian country."
Some retailers are reacting to the pressure.
After using the more inclusive "Happy Holidays" in its ads and in-store promotions last year, Macy's is now embracing "Merry Christmas." And, after hundreds of phone calls, Lowe's stopped selling "holiday trees" and switched to "Christmas trees."
Speaking of trees, Christian conservatives applauded the speaker of the house when he had the tree on Capitol Hill switched from a "holiday tree" to a "Christmas tree." And, after Christians threatened to sue, Boston changed its mind about changing the name of its Christmas tree.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell says he and his allies are taking back Christmas from "Grinches" such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
"The fact is," Falwell said, "we've gone on the offense now. We've put them on the defense. We're kicking their butts and they're unhappy."
Critics say putting together an armada of Christian attorneys is likely a publicity stunt. If they sued Boston over the name of its tree, they'd likely lose because governments can call their trees whatever they want.
"Jerry Falwell has found that this war on Christmas is a very good, healthy, fundraising mechanism," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, director of People United for the Separation of Church and State. "And that's just about all this is. This is a war without any generals."
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all i got to say is why celebrate christmas if you dont celebrate it for the reason it was meant for. y then? so you can get stuff. i seen where one guy said y not celebrate it in july. because thats not Jesus' birthday. thats y. same reason easter isnt in november. we celebrate these holiday because of what they mean and signifigance of them. not just because of what we can get out of them. i personally dont shop at target anyway because they support homosexuals. something which i dont agree with and never will. (adam and eve, not adam and steve. not natural.) im honestly suprised of sears being a long standing company like it is. also i will not support lowes anymore now that i know that. i wish id know becuase i just did a huge remodel and spent thousands there. i refuse to support anyone that doesnt acknolwedge the reason for the season. i knew it was heading here. look how long people have used x-mas instead of christmas. they have been working along time to take christ out of christmas and now its just going to the next step. forget politically correctness. its over rated. thats y this country is in the mess its in now. this is just the tip of the iceburg my friends.
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Some retailers give the word 'Christmas' a nod
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAYFri Dec 2, 7:16 AM ET
The word "Christmas," nearly absent in marketing by major retailers in recent years, has been quietly revived by some stores. Retail expert Jim Lucas says they are responding to consumers' desire to make the holidays more personal - whether they observe Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.
"They are saying this has become very commercial and they want to reclaim the holiday season and make it relevant," says Lucas, head of strategic planning at ad agency Draft Worldwide.
Chains also may be responding to a push by groups such as The Catholic League and American Family Association (AFA) against a generic "winter holiday."
The AFA cited 10 retailers (Kroger, Dell, Target, OfficeMax, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe's, J.C. Penney and Best Buy) for omitting Christmas in ads. It urges shoppers to go where Christmas is recognized.
"If you are going to make your earnings on the year because of Christmas, why should you be ashamed to call it Christmas?" asks AFA President Tim Wildmon. "People don't buy Thanksgiving gifts."
Lowe's got special note for hanging "holiday tree" banners on lots at its 1,175 stores. It pulled them after complaints. "We wanted to call a Christmas tree what it is," says spokeswoman Chris Ahearn.
The Catholic League says it scored a victory when it pushed Wal-Mart to have a Christmas category on its website, which had Kwanzaa and Hanukkah gift sections.
Other chains giving Christmas a nod:
• Federated Department Stores - owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's - is making sure its Christmas message is heard after consumer backlash last year over a supposed policy forbidding employees to wish shoppers "Merry Christmas."
A "Merry Christmas" ad thanking shoppers and employees is planned. The theme at Macy's New York store: Christmas in the City. Macy's TV ad features a big band tune mentioning Christmas.
"What we are doing is communicating our position," says spokesman Jim Sluzewski. "We never had a policy not to say 'Merry Christmas,' but clearly this is an issue of concern with a lot of people."
• Ads for Dillard's department stores say: "Discover Christmas. Discover Dillard's." But the regional chain says that is not a political statement. "We do not believe it is our place as a retailer to politicize the season," says spokeswoman Julie Bull. "The sentiment expressed certainly applies to the other holidays celebrated this time of year, as well."
• Christmas songs and trees are two of the things Victoria's Secret won't be bashful about in its lingerie show airing Tuesday on CBS. "The day is called Christmas. ... It all gears to Dec. 25," says Ed Razek, chief marketing officer.
Even so, Draft's Lucas says not to expect nativities or menorahs in ads. "The pendulum has swung a little away from PC. But if marketers get too specific or too religious, they'd be walking a weird line."
soon to be boosted (I hope) wrote:all i got to say is why celebrate christmas if you dont celebrate it for the reason it was meant for. y then? so you can get stuff.
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There's no proof that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th, 0000.
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Not everyone is christian. Deal with it. We don't celebrate christmis so quit freaking if we don't wish you a "merry christmas"
A lot of people are christian, deal with it...don't freak when they wish you a merry christmas.
ShiftyCav wrote:thats probably the dumbest thing i have ever heard. you should take that serpentine belt and wrap it around your neck.
ShiftyCav wrote:thats probably the dumbest thing i have ever heard. you should take that serpentine belt and wrap it around your neck.
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"Jerry Falwell has found that this war on Christmas is a very good, healthy, fundraising mechanism," said the Rev. Barry Lynn
soon to be boosted (I hope) wrote:i personally dont shop at target anyway because they support homosexuals. something which i dont agree with and never will. (adam and eve, not adam and steve. not natural.)
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Bushes' 'holiday' cards ring hollow for some
Christian conservatives wage war to put religion back into Christmas
Updated: 11:14 a.m. ET Dec. 7, 2005
What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas.
This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."
Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings.
"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."
Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials" and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for "winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce.
'Sent to people of all faiths'
Then along comes a generic season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House lawn.
"Certainly President and Mrs. Bush, because of their faith, celebrate Christmas," said Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary. "Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths."
That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. "I think it's more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas cards," said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman.
But the White House's explanation does not satisfy the groups -- which have grown in number in recent years -- that believe there is, in the words of the Heritage Foundation, a "war on Christmas" involving an "ever-stronger push toward a neutered 'holiday' season so that non-Christians won't be even the slightest bit offended."
One of the generals on the pro-Christmas side is Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether this is sinister -- it's the purging of Christ from Christmas -- or whether it's just political correctness run amok," he said. "I think in the case of the White House, it's just political correctness."
Retail boycotts
Wildmon does not give retailers the same benefit of the doubt. This year, he has called for a consumer boycott of Target stores because the chain issued a holiday advertising circular that did not mention Christmas. Last year, he aimed a similar boycott at Macy's Inc., which averted a repeat this December by proclaiming "Merry Christmas" in its advertising and in-store displays.
"It bothers me that the White House card leaves off any reference to Jesus, while we've got Ramadan celebrations in the White House," Wildmon said. "What's going on there?"
At the Catholic League, Donohue had just announced a boycott of the Lands' End catalogue when he received his White House holiday card. True, he said, the Bushes included a verse from Psalm 28, but Psalms are in the Old Testament and do not mention Jesus' birth.
"They'd better address this, because they're no better than the retailers who have lost the will to say 'Merry Christmas,' " he said.
Donohue said that Wal-Mart, facing a threatened boycott, added a Christmas page to its Web site and fired a customer relations employee who wrote a letter linking Christmas to "Siberian shamanism." He was not mollified by a letter from Lands' End saying it "adopted the 'holiday' terminology as a way to comply with one of the basic freedoms granted to all Americans: freedom of religion."
"Ninety-six percent of Americans celebrate Christmas," Donohue said. "Spare me the diversity lecture."
Diversity has been a hallmark of White House greeting cards for some time, according to Mary Evans Seeley of Tampa, Fla., author of "Season's Greetings From the White House." The last presidential Christmas card that mentioned Christmas was in 1992. It was sent by George H.W. and Barbara Bush, parents of the current president.
Seeley said the first president to send out true Christmas cards, as opposed to signed photographs or handwritten letters, was Franklin D. Roosevelt. "Merry Christmas From the President and Mrs. Roosevelt," said his first annual card, in 1933.
Politicization of a holiday
Like many modern touches, the generic New Year's card was introduced to the White House by John and Jacqueline Kennedy. In 1962, they had Hallmark print 2,000 cards, of which 1,800 cards said "The President and Mrs. Kennedy Wish You a Blessed Christmas" and 200 said "With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year."
Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson continued that tradition for a couple of years, but it required keeping track of Christian and non-Christian recipients. Beginning in 1966, they wished everyone a "Joyous Christmas," and no president has attempted the two-card trick since.
Seeley dates the politicization of the White House Christmas card to Richard M. Nixon, who increased the number of recipients tenfold, to 40,000, in his first year. The numbers since have snowballed, hitting 125,000 under Jimmy Carter, topping 400,000 under Bill Clinton and rising to more than a million under the current Bushes, with each president's political party paying the bill.
The wording, meanwhile, has often flip-flopped. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter put "Merry Christmas" in their 1977 card and then switched to "Holiday Season" for the next three years. Ronald and Nancy Reagan, similarly, began with a "Joyous Christmas" in 1981 and 1982 but doled out generic holiday wishes from 1983 to 1988. The elder President Bush stayed in the "Merry Christmas" spirit all four years, and the Clintons opted for inclusive greetings for all of their eight years.
The current Bush has straddled the divide, offering generic greetings along with an Old Testament verse. To some religious conservatives, that makes all the difference.
"There's a verse from Scripture in it. I don't mind that at all, as long as we don't try to pretend we're not a nation under God," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company