Ze Verd Christmas is now hereby forbidden!

Ok. It is December and retailers and businesses want our money again. However these same retailers have again fallen for the myth that the majority of their customers are offended by the word Christmas but not by the more generic word Holiday. Or perhaps they feel safer lumping all of the big holidays into the word "Holiday" so when you do your Kwaanza and Hannakah shopping you will shop at their store. The irony is that 90% of their potential customers, even the athiests, are buying stuff to give as gifts on Christmas!

Every year it gets worse but this year I am seeing the effort to avoid mentioning the word Christmas at all cost, actually to a point where it doesn't make sense.

Here are some examples:

• I got something in the mail from St. Mary's Bank. If I open an account with them I will get a "free holiday DVD". However ALL of the DVDs I can choose from are Christmas DVDs! So St. Mary's Bank is calling a stack of Christmas DVDs, "holiday DVDs", so as to entice me to give them my business.
• I heard an eBay radio ad the other day in which Santa bellows "Happy Holidays America". OK, well what other holiday does Santa Clause come on besides Christmas? Has he ever been associated with Kwaanza or Hannakah? It's kind of like George Steinbrenner cheering "go organized teams!" from his owners booth so as not to offend fans of other teams or other sports.
• In a UPS ad, the driver talks about the job 'driver helper' as a way to "make extra cash for the holiday". He talks about the joy of bringing people their packages and how happy they are to see him. However, at the end of the spiel but he says "when December 25th hits... you did a good job and I'll see you next year." I guess saying "when holiday hits..." would sound kind of weird so I imagine the spinless marketeers at UPS probably said "well just say 'December 25th' since holiday doesn't fit so well."
  

Anyway, more observations may come but in honor of thought police around the world I say Merry December 25th and a Happy January 1st!

My personal thoughts on the assault on Christmas

OK, this my annual venting concerning the abolition of Christmas in our culture.

Retail advertisers seem the most motivated to not call December 25th - the day they rely on people who celebrate Christmas to patronize them - Christmas. Most all of them call it the ubiquitous "holiday". Grrrrrr. However I just want to talk about the most egregious. It involved the Lowe's flyer, where they called the Christmas Tree a "Family Tree". I must say beforehand that once there was an outcry, Lowe's sent out a new flyer in which called it a Christmas Tree.

This made me think. Someone in the advertising department had to cognitively make the decision that "Family Tree" was a good idea. They must have even decided that "Holiday Tree" was not even good to call it. For what reason? So as to not offend those who don't celebrate Christmas. Even atheists tend to celebrate on Christmas Day. It is a tree that people put gifts under on a holiday that we call Christmas. So how in the world would someone think it is a good idea to call it a "Family Tree". I thought that was something you tracked your ancestry on. And another thing, those who don't celebrate Christmas will not be buying the tree anyway! So in that respect who cares if it is called a Christmas Tree. It is kind of like Christians being offended that a Menorah is not being advertised as a "Family Candle Holder". I mean come on!

I have been with my company for 10 years now. In 1997 we had a Christmas party and that continued for a number of years. A few years back as the assault on Christmas was growing, the spineless decision makers chose to follow suit and they began calling it a Holiday Party. However we are now 2007 and even the Holiday appears to be offensive. This year we are having "Winterfest 2007". Are you done chuckling yet? What is that? Winterfest! We are in December and we are celebrating the beginning of winter and the coming 4 months of frigid weather. That is not something I have ever considered celebrating.

Have a good day and Merry Christmas!