The Christmas war is coming

Vanity | 11/18 | Wil H

[Wil H]

The Christmas shopping season is upon us and it seems that we have won the opening skirmish it the war with secularism to stamp out Christmas. Walmart have agreed to let Christmas back into their stores this year. That is great news but I am sure it is the power of the almighty dollar rather than the Almighty himself that drove them to that decision, but then, God does move in mysterious ways.

This year I am going shopping prepared and I invite you to join me in the campaign.

I am going to carry a number of letters, sealed in envelopes and addressed to the Store Manager. Any time I don't find any evidence of Christmas celebration in a store I will give the manager a letter and leave.

Here is what the letter says:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I came to your store today with the express purpose of spending a significant percentage of my $XXXX (put what you like in here) Christmas shopping budget.

However I note that your store chooses to no longer participate in the celebration of Christmas and therefore you don’t qualify to receive my Christmas dollars.

A quintessential part of Christmas is the sharing of the joy of giving and doing so in festive Christmas environment, it is estimated 95% of Americans celebrate the holiday and fortunately for them, and I, there are many other stores that embrace the Christmas spirit.

My Christmas spending, as I am certain many other’s, will be done with those that wish to share the spirit of holiday. Should you ever decide to participate again I will consider returning as a customer, until that time, ALL my business goes elsewhere.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXX

Merry Christmas

If a substantial number of people did this, maybe the message that Walmart got would reach the other retail outlets and perhaps we could get our Christmas back into the public square. If the stores all start decorating for Christmas again do you not think think they will pressure the municipality to decorate the streets appropriately?

This year, Prescott AZ has street banners on downtown lamp posts declaring "Prescott, Your Christmas City" I might just take a trip there to do my Christmas shopping.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

The His and Hers gift this year is Human-Electric Hybrid Vehicle - Price $40,000.00.

[Uriah_lost]

If you used half the energy you used to post this unseemly attack on one of the "good guys" for helping the troops have a merry Christmas....oh, whats that you say? You can do both? Get off your high horse and do some good instead of ragging on others trying to do good in their own way.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Last year, I fumed when I saw Sears had their "Wish Tree" in stores. I walked out and then blasted an e-mail to their corporate customer relations dept, saying something along the lines of "I'm sure you WISHed that I would be spending a goodly amount of my CHRISTMAS budget money in your store. But since you have a "WISH TREE" prominently displayed in your stores that went along with the "Wish" theme advertised all over your stores, I decided to take my CHRISTMAS shopping elsewhere."

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Find a deployed serviceman (or womans ) family, and buy the kids toys.

Done that too. They are CHRISTMAS presents for the kids of my niece and her husband deployed in Iraq, and I bought them at a local toy store retailer (mom and pop shop) who proudly display a CHRISTMAS tree in their window.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

At least it's good to note that Sears supports "USA CARES" - see bottom of that page for the link.

[CountryBumpkin]

Everyone posting negative things in this thread about companies like Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy needs to read this article from Forbes before inappropriately passing judgment:
http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/11/11/charities-corporations-giving-cx_lm_1114charity.html

Until the day YOU run a company that consistently donates millions upon millions of dollars every year to charity, then I politely suggest reserving your judgment over minor issues like the Salvation Army not being allowed to stand in front of the store because of reasonable "no exception" policies.

There are other ways to quietly accomplish the same thing: https://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp;jsessionid=SFHFXKDV05DRXLARAAVPX5Y?contentId=PRD03-003704 Take at a look at this link. Target is donating one million dollars to the Salvation Army this year. You can also donate money at the link and get an angel on Target's Christmas tree. Removing Target or similarly generous companies from your shopping list because their stores allow no soliciting is insane. Target in particular is consistently the most generous company in the U.S. as a percentage of income. Likewise, Wal-Mart routinely donates mind boggling amounts of money to charity. On top of that, the Walton Family Foundation donated $157 million to charitable causes in the past year alone.

[USMCWife6869]

Thanks for answering my question. I didn't realize. :(

[Thumper1960]

Not that God needs mere cash. Nor does Target need my cash. Nor so many other businesses who clearly glom onto a seemingly "religious" based holiday to put them into the black in sales for the year.

Resistance is not futile. Instead of recklessly plumping the pockets of the vacuous merchant, I'll be looking for the bell ringer and the uniformed returnees and try to make some decent holiday cheer happen.

[CountryBumpkin]

Thank you. You highlight another issue where I could not disagree more with some of the posters here. As a Christian, I think it is fantastic for stores to no longer use a Christmas theme as part of a capitalistic profit push tied to my most important religious holiday. Capitalism is all well and fine, within reason, so long as it maintains a secular face. The last thing I want to see is for my Christianity or anyone else's wholesome religious beliefs devalued, marginalized, and corrupted in the name of avarace-driven, "it's all about me" consumerism. I do not want stores making my religion look like tangible goods and commerce are what matters the most, especially at Christmas time.

I will put together a letter and hand it out to all of the local stores who do NOT use a "Christmas" theme as part of their holiday sales, thanking them for respecting the sanctity of my Christian beliefs. I will also put together a second letter for the local stores that still use a Christmas theme, telling them that I will shop elsewhere until they stop inappropriately selling merchandise in the name of Christianity.

[Thumper1960]

Interestingly, the Christ tossed the moneychangers from His Father's House, the Temple.

I'll risk the tag of "Scrooge" for asking that Christmas be celebrated not as Santa showering gifts and trinkets upon arbitrarily good little boys and girls, but as a celebration of the birth of the Christ.

Is it too much to ask that God and His Son not be packaged and sold to people in a manner that diminishes the message? By all means, have a holiday for gift-giving. Have a day set aside for sharing goods with loved ones. Just try and not equate the child in the manger, who satisfies the spiritual hunger of man, with the satisfying of materialistic hunger.

[Wil H]

This thread has got somewhat off track, It wasn't intended to be about "holier than thou", about who was most charitable, nor a discussion on that age old chestnut, the commercialisation of Christmas.

It was about fighting the methodical and persistent eradication of Christmas by the left wing secularists who would eradicate all religion if they could.

There are many traditions associated with Christmas, some are secular, some are religious. Christmas trees, carolling, the Messiah, the Nutcracker, Christmas decorations, parties, and gift giving, to name but a few. All or most of these things are slowly being stamped out by the left. Soon the "magic of Christmas" that we all (hopefully) knew as a child will be gone, obliterated, by the left wing loons.

That's what I was fighting.

[kcvl]

The ACLU has some help...


In a joint letter with the Anti-Defamation League, the state American Civil Liberties Union alleged "Jewish students no longer feel safe or welcome"


The Jewish Anti-Defamation League has a comprehensive list of guidelines they say should be followed in dealing with "The December Dilemma".

Their web site states that if schools choose to recognize holidays through decorations they should respect the diversity of the season and avoid symbols with "patently religious meanings". It says it's permissible to show secular Christmas.

Christmas images like snowflakes, holly, and evergreen trees, but not the nativity image because it is "an undeniably religious symbol". A menorah, the symbol and ceremonial object for Hanukkah, on the other hand, is permissible because it is regarded as a secular symbol.


http://tinyurl.com/4x5vm



religious music, literature, art or other religious activities should not dominate school activities. These activities are permissible only if they make up a small portion of a school-sponsored event. For instance, it may be permissible to have students act out a play which contains one scene where a family is shown opening presents on Christmas morning. However, school-sponsorship of a play about the birth of Jesus would be impermissible because such performances are inherently affirmations of a certain religious point of view.


to avoid First Amendment violations, school choirs should not sing only religious music and should not focus on a particular holiday or denomination. Also, similar to school assemblies and other activities, school officials should allow public school children to be excused from singing religious music without fear of embarrassment or peer pressure.


If schools choose to recognize holidays through decorations, they should represent the diversity of the season and should avoid symbols with patently religious meanings to avoid sending the message to students that a religion or a particular denomination is preferred. 27

Additionally, symbols depicting religious holidays are most appropriate when accompanied by both secular objects and symbols from holidays of other religions. This combination of faiths and of secular and sacred helps to neutralize messages of favoritism and concerns about religious coercion.



******


A leading Jewish voice, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, said he is deeply disappointed at the Anti-Defamation League's role in the matter.

"The ACLU is already notorious for its rabid hostility toward America's Judeo-Christian tradition, but the Anti-Defamation League, originally founded to defend Jews, should know better" said Lapin, whose group is the nation's largest for building bridges between Jews and Christians.

[Howlin]

Take a look at this year's web site:

[napscoordinator]

This is clearly why we lost the election. Our priorities are so dang stupid I can't believe it. Let's take a lesson out of our own hand book and "Shut up and shop!!!!". If this is our issue for 2008 than we are in touble. We are the dumbest group of people in politics. We are wasting time on an issue that comes up once a year for six weeks or so. Of course this is more important than discussing the real issues. Wonderful. Yes we are going socialist, but you can still hear Merry Christmas when you go to the mall!!!! Ya!!!! I welcome the blasts!!! I am sure that they will be very interesting. Oh by the way, when I go to church (catholic), I hear all the Merry Christmas' I need to be fulfilled for the entire year. I do believe going to church and hearing about the true meaning of christmas is much more important then hearing it at some store. PRIORITIES are always mysterious to me some how.

[CountryBumpkin]

We are in full agreement about the Left trying to gradually force us into being an amoral, atheistic society, presumably in the mold of Communist China. As long as you are a true Christian, Christmas can never be gone from your life. Decorate your house in the true Christmas spirit as much as you wish. Put decorations all over your yard. Feel free to make them overtly religious. I understand what are you are fighting for. We are on the same side. I am not criticizing you personally. I just think the battle is much better fought at the individual and congregational levels through acts of kindness and charity. I think that encouraging or forcing secular businesses into celebrating our religious beliefs with us is the wrong direction because it ends up trivializing our religion. Merry Christmas! :)

[linda_22003]

"My question for all Jewish Freepers is: If you mail your package on December 22, will it get there for Chanukah as promised by the Post Office?"

That's a tall order, since that's the day Chanukah ends, this year.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Ha! I see that - thanks for pointing that out. The corporate PR honchos must have felt the heat.