Wal-Mart faces boycott for 'banning' Christmas

WorldNetDaily ^ | Nov. 10, 2005 | Joe Kovacs

[News Hunter]

A Catholic advocacy group has launched a national boycott against Wal-Mart, claiming the world's No. 1 retailer has in effect "banned" Christmas, while promoting other seasonal holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

But Wal-Mart tells WorldNetDaily it has "absolutely not" banned Christmas, but is just "trying to serve all our customers for the holiday season."

[twntaipan]

Exactly. But, apparently, the marketing experts have, without any agenda whatsoever, decided that saying Merry Christmas is offensive, so they insist on just using Happy Holidays.

[twntaipan]

So, is the federal holiday called "Christmas" or simply "Holiday?"

[School of Rational Thought]

"Wal-Mart did not rename products like Christmas Trees, or Christmas Bouquets into Holiday Trees or Holiday Bouquets. Those items that traditionally use the Christmas title still have it."

This is beside the point.

The issue is whether Christmas is treated the same respect as Kwanzaa or Hanuka.

Merry Christmas to you.

[jonathanmo]

Thanks for adding some reality to this thread.

[doc30]

It is an absolute shame that Walmart will give in to the multicultural notion that, in the pursuit of multiculturalism, says the only holiday you cannot specifically mention is Christmas.

Major retailers don't face complaints from Christians regarding other religions. They do face harrasment from muslims and the ACLU, so they drop Christmas as an official holiday name because they won't face discrimination or racism charges from Christians, like they would from other groups. Time to show them wrong.

[twntaipan]

I honestly don't care if they have Kwanzaa gifts or Hannakah gifts or any other religion. But if they are fearful of offending a minority religion or the irreligious, while willing to tell Christians to shove off--then they need to be challenged for their hypocrisy.

[StAnDeliver]

"Please post the paragraphs where this thread is quoted, so the WND can then post your posting of those paragraphs. I will post their quoting of the subsequent posts, though we will need volunteers for future postings and quotings."

Ha! Can't pass that up.

"Reaction on Internet messageboards is mixed.

"I am going to walk into Wal-Mart and go tell the manager Merry Christmas and let him or her know I am leaving there empty-handed," writes one poster. [ #2 ]

Another states: "Their policy seems reasonable to me. They're not banning Christmas, as have other store chains. They're just going after potential customers who don't happen to celebrate Christmas. That's just good business sense." [ #9 ]

[NYorkerInHouston]

Nah.

A door wreath won't match my mezuzah :)

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Bad sign from Wal-Mart. Also, they called for a minimum wage hike (gov't, not just their own), knowingly hire illegal aliens, caved to pc sexual orientation policies, caved on pharmacy policies, etc. Their appease-the-left plan will just ensure no one is loyal to them.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Walmart sells satanic Proctor and Gamble products, as a favor to Liz Claiborne, the fashion antichrist.

[sinkspur]

This is silly.

Bill Donahue hasn't had a "cause" for several months, and he needs one, since his Catholic League is kept afloat through donations.

Thus, he goes out searching for one, and, what do you know, he finds that Wal-Mart discriminates against Christians.

Except, they don't. Donahue has had to eat a lot of shoe leather of late, and he's bitten off an ample helping with this doozy.

[Wil H]

So explain why when I search on "christmas" it doesn't deliver the 7970 items I am searching for?

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

This is about a very poor response more than it is about the original issue, at least in my opinion. The response was hostile, condescending and rude. But I don't expect you to agree. And my loss of store loyalty has a list of reasons, not just this.

[Gabz]

I don't know about the Walmart where you shop, but I do chat with the stockboy about local school sports, and the clerks do know my name, and my kids names. They have time for hugs from my boys, and take time to find out how I am doing.

Do we shop in the same WalMart?????

All kidding aside, I think this entire thing is being totally blown out of proportion by those who just enjoy being perpetually offended.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Oh .....and the great big irony is that Wal-Mart still wants to make a killing off of Christians because of Christmas; they just don't want to have to show them respect, because it might make some bigot somewhere in the world mad -- oh, I mean "offended."

[sinkspur]

The response was hostile, condescending and rude. But I don't expect you to agree.

The response was in no way hostile, condescending, or rude. But, then, you already hate Wal-Mart, so your comments must be judged in that light.

[discostu]

Given that the "Holiday" section is dominated by Christmas stuff and has the word "Christmas" plastered all over it I think they're treating Christmas a bit better than Kwanzaa or Hanuka.

[Grampa Dave]

You are full of it. Below is the result of the simple Christmas Search on the Walmart site:

Search Entire Site Apparel Baby Books Electronics Gifts and Flowers Garden and Patio For the Home Jewelry Movies Music Photo Center Sports Toys Video Games Pets Vision Center for:

7967 items found for “Christmas”

My 4 year old grandson could do this search:

1. go to Walmart Web Site: http://www.walmart.com/
2. enter Christmas in the search section

Yeah Taipan, Walmart has abandoned Christmas. There are only 7,967 Christmas links.

Admin Moderator and Jim Robinson, do we have a anti Walmart MD4Bush here?

[sinkspur]

Oh .....and the great big irony is that Wal-Mart still wants to make a killing off of Christians because of Christmas; they just don't want to have to show them respect, because it might make some bigot somewhere in the world mad -- oh, I mean "offended."

How come "Christmas" is all over their website?

Some folks are just waiting to take offense when there is no offense intended or even implied.

All this "Happy Holidays"-disrespects-the-baby-Jesus is part of that "waiting to be offended" mindset.

[MarkL]

So, is the federal holiday called "Christmas" or simply "Holiday?"

The federal holiday is called "Christmas."

U.S. Grant signed the legislation in 1870.

Mark