Posted on 12/11/2003 6:52:25 AM PST by WashingtonSource
Have you wondered why the public celebration of Christmas is an endangered tradition? Stroll into many retail stores and you will soon learn that most references to “Christmas” have been eliminated. Instead, what you’ll find is a not too subtle version of censorship that attempts to expunge any association of Christmas with the holiday season. Moreover, you will notice an aggressive marketing approach that substitutes traditional Christmas nomenclature with the term “Holiday.”
Most of us like to visit the festive Christmas sections of department stores, specialty shops, and nurseries in hope of finding a Christmas ornament, lighting fixture, stocking stuffer or tree for the upcoming season. Yet, to our dismay, these as well as other traditional Christmas items have been relabeled with the term "holiday" – irrespective of the fact that Christmas is celebrated by millions of Americans each year. Instead, we find ourselves shopping for an elusive "holiday."
You load up on holiday ornaments, holiday bows, holiday lighting, holiday wreaths, holiday Santa’s, and even holiday trees! And then it occurs to you, which holiday do they mean?! You think you know - surely the sales person, manager, and corporate elite know - since they are taking your money. Sadly, millions of Americans know, yet all are afraid to ask. You quietly purchase your holiday loot and leave. You suppress the thought, but deep down inside, you feel sort of... funny. It’s hard to describe, but you remember what it was like back then – perhaps ten years ago, maybe twenty - when the public celebration of Christmas wasn’t banned. You remember a time when you could wish someone Merry Christmas without feeling, let’s say, slightly offensive. But you quickly push the thought aside and continue humming “we wish you a merry HOLIDAY “– no, it’s Christmas, right?
Christmas is celebrated by almost 2 billion people worldwide. 240 million Americans celebrate Christmas in one form or another – that’s at least 80% of the population. Unfortunately there seems to be a systematic approach to treat Christmas differently than any of the other holidays we recognize. You most certainly will find products for Hanukah, Kwanzaa, and perhaps Ramadan. Surely, no one would think of renaming the Menorah the "holiday candelabra" – nor should they. People of the other religions and cultures would never tolerate such revisionism, yet why do we? Perhaps, more importantly, why do they think they can get away with it?
In most public schools, businesses, and government offices, the mere mention of the word “Christmas” is a pejorative term that is practically censored out of existence. Paradoxically, many of these institutions have been on a “Diversity” and “Inclusion” campaign that celebrate every conceivable culture, language, and nationality. Public schools celebrate “Hispanic Heritage Month” embracing the emergence of the largest pool of new Immigrants, yet fail to mention that this same group has contributed equally to the growth of the Christian and Catholic ranks. Visit the U.S. Capitol lawn in December and witness the “holiday tree” in its entire glory. Walk into your nearest middle school or public library and admire the wonderful “holiday” wreath, tree, or whichever term the powers-that-be decide would be less offensive to those who don't celebrate Christmas.
And if you decide you want to venture into the malls to do a little shopping, you'll discover how the icons and vestiges of other religions are embraced, while the Christmas equivalent is that of giant holiday ornaments, flying reindeer and Santa's village - all with the ubiquitous "holiday" mantra. The examples go on and on and on...
I recently asked a marketing executive of the Discovery Store's corporate office why they engaged in revisionist marketing and promotion? The response I received was astonishing. I was told that they did not want to “offend” those who do not celebrate Christmas, hence the term “holiday!” My response was that I thought that executives who managed their businesses without recognizing their target audiences, yet make money off of those same consumers should be fired.
In an age where the ACLU and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU) primarily attack Christian religious references in the public space, it's interesting to note that these same organizations refuse to challenge Maryland public school policies within districts only a few miles outside our nation's capital that officially recognizing Passover and Yom Kippur as school sanctioned holidays, while at the same time conveniently disregarding Christian holidays as First Amendment fodder. The hypocrisy is palpable, yet the double standard saddening.
Christmas is our heritage. Admittedly, it has been commandeered and secularized by many of the same institutions and businesses that now seek to erase it. Whether it was for the sake of the bottom line or a maniacally political interpretation of the First Amendment, it has been used and abused for decades. Christians stood by while anything religious was supplanted with everything commercial, except by name. Now, the revisionists want to wash it away completely. But what the perpetrators fail to recognize (or don’t care about) is that for 2 billion people, Christmas is a religion, culture, and a tradition that can’t be deleted like a mistake on a word processor. In, fact, it’s a faith that’s growing in many parts of the world. From our perspective, it’s a gift to the world that’s celebrated with passion, joy, love and, yes, a little commercialism – but it’s still Christmas.
This is the first sign anywhere in a Hecht's store this season on which I've seen printed the word 'Christmas.' Further, it is prominently placed. Is this a breakthrough? Could it be that the Grinch List is having an effect? After all, Hecht's is on the list. For whatever reason, it's a good 'sign' -- pun intended.
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