Actually, at this point it's a tie:
1) Target for excluding the Salvation Army bellringers--I already blogged about that here.
2) On the local level, Harlem School District elementary schools for banning the use of the word "Christmas" from its holiday Christmas programs.
Darren Marlar and I started getting calls a few weeks ago from Harlem District parents who were upset about the line-up of songs in the holiday (we daren't say Christmas!) program.
Apparently, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was to be sung as "We Wish You a Happy Season." (Gag!) "O Christmas Tree" became "O Turkey Dear" (!!!), and instead of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," a parody called "The Twelve Days of McDonald's" was to be sung (sample lyric: "On the first day of McDonald's, my good friend gave to me, a cheeseburger...").
"Feliz Navidad" was apparently to have been included, but was scratched, perhaps after someone figured out that "Navidad" means Christmas in Spanish?
People, this is political correctness run stark raving out of control. I did some checking at the Rutherford Institute's site, and it's fine to sing Christmas songs in public school under certain guidelines:
"Public schools may include Christmas music, including those with religious themes, in their choral programs if the songs are included for a secular purpose such as their musical quality or cultural value or if the songs are part of an overall performance including other holiday songs relating to Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or other similar holidays."
You can read the Rutherford Institute's complete "Twelve Rules of Christmas" here.
Can you imagine how many things would have to be revised if the political correctness thought police had their way? It staggers the imagination, but some people have given it a shot--click here for a list of politically correct Christmas songs that actually don't sound like much of an exaggeration anymore. After all, "We Wish You a Nonsectarian Holiday" isn't any crazier than "We Wish You a Happy Season"!
I was going to include Federated Department Stores...
...on my Grinch List, but now I'm not so sure they belong there.
Federated is the parent company of department stores like Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Goldsmith's.
A group calling itself the Committee to Save Merry Christmas was calling for a boycott of Federated because of a policy banning the use of the words "Merry Christmas" in pre-holiday advertising and in in-store
displays.
As World Net Daily noted in this article last week, that was particularly ironic since Macy's will be forever linked with Christmas through the "Miracles on 34th Street" movies.
After getting the news story about the boycott (by the way, I'm not particularly sold on boycotts, but that's another story), I went to the Federated website, where I saw a "Merry Christmas" greeting along with the words: "Have questions about our use of Merry Christmas? Click here."
Frankly, their statement is good enough for me--it seems reasonable enough--but apparently it's not good enough for the Committee to Save Merry Christmas.
I do understand the need for a department store to want to be inclusive. So, don't make all of your holiday greetings include the word "Christmas."
But at least make some of them do so. Don't ban the word entirely!
After all...at least for now...it is still CHRISTMAS TIME.
Not just "the season" or "the winter solstice."
IT'S CHRISTMAS.
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