Posted by Mike O on: 11.16.2006 /
Wal-Mart has taken back their decision last year to replace references to “Christmas” with “Holiday.”
“Christmas” is back. The Salvation Army bell-ringers are back. And when you do a search on “Christmas” on their website, you get … you guessed it … Christmas stuff. Last year you got a message telling you “We’ve brought you to our ‘Holiday’ page based on your search.”
This article from WorldNetDaily sites …
… when using the company’s online search engine, if the word “Hanukkah” was entered, 200 items for sale were returned. The term “Kwanzaa” yielded 77. But when “Christmas” was entered, the message returned said: “We’ve brought you to our ‘Holiday’ page based on your search.” However, the search also brought up a secondary link on which to click, which revealed 7,970 items that matched the “Christmas” term. When WND entered the name “Jesus,” 5,668 items were displayed. [...] “Stewart’s remark is flatulent,” Donohue said. “If Wal-Mart had a ‘Holiday’ section on its website that directed customers to its Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa sites, that would not be objectionable.”
My favorite quote (so far) comes from this article in The Register …
“In a sphincters-held-tight culture such as this, little things mean a lot [...] but the USA is a tense place these days.”
Comment by: TXatheist
1That is one of the many reasons I don’t shop wal-mart but honestly that one is way down at the bottom of the list. Disallowing unions, providing information on how to get government insurance and locking employees in for 8 hours during the night hours would be way ahead of Christmas wording.
Comment by: David S
2This doesn’t bother me. Even as an atheist I celebrate Christmas as a traditional fun thing with Santa and stuff. No manger scenes though.
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
3I noticed the other day that Hemant has posted about this on his blog. He wrote:
I agree with World Net Daily that if Kwanzaa and Hannukah are used, why not Christmas? So it makes sense to me that it’s back.
What bugs me is not the word used but the whole deal - all the consumerism etc, the Christmas (or holiday) music beginning all over the place months before December 25, etc.
At least I’m not spending an entire weekend in December rehearsing for or playing in multiple performances of a Christmas show at church anymore.
Comment by: Mike O
4I guess I took your spot this year … I’m in our children’s Christmas program. It’ll be fun, but it’s been a while!
Comment by: Siamang
5All Hail the power of Mammon!
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
6Mike, if you want to do it, great! I didn’t and so I’m glad I’m not - so it sounds like we’re both getting what we want!
Yeah really, Siamang ;-)
Comment by: Mike O
7Praise Mammon!
Comment by: Mike C
8Holidays or Christmas… who the hell cares? It doesn’t matter what words they use, Wal-Mart still just worships money and nothing else.
Comment by: NCxian
9We need Wal-Mart to affirm our celebration of holidays? How sick is that!
Comment by: Ir (Helen)
10They don’t really worship it - but their goal is to make money and I’m sure their decision to put the word Christmas back was based on a theory that overall they’d make more money if they used the word than if they didn’t. They must have decided it upset more customers taking it out than leaving it in.
Comment by: Mike Clawson
11Yeah, that’s my problem with it… I hate to see my faith prostituted out in the service of making money.