Signs of Christmas

We've started looking for signs of Christmas. It's hard to find them these days.

The American Family Association reports that they perused the commercial ads from last Sunday's editions of two southern newspapers, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and the Memphis Commercial Appeal, looking for signs of Christmas.

Of the eleven major corporations placing 260 pages of promotional inserts in these newspapers, only one - McRae's/Belks - mentioned the word "Christmas."

The others managed to market all the accoutrements of the season in the most generic way. Imagine the contortions they must have gone through to avoid saying...

Christmas trees.
Christmas lights.
Christmas ornaments.
Christmas cards.
Christmas gift ideas.
Christmas candles. Christmas wrapping paper.
Christmas ribbon.
Christmas candy.
Christmas wreaths.
and of course, Christmas stockings.

I'm sorry. They are just NOT "holiday" stockings.

Guess they didn't want to offend anyone. Except the Christ-ians. But they're always fair game, being part of the oppressive majority against which the minority must always rebel. And if that argument doesn't work, how about this - Christians are, by definition, forgiving folks, and won't retaliate against ignorant offenses.

Of course, they can always choose where to spend their "holiday" money.

Do you want to know the ten companies that eschue the "C" word? Best Buy, Dell, Kroger, Lowe's, Office Max, Penney's, Sears, Staples, Target, and Walgreens.

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UPDATE: It looks like Boston got a "Christmas tree" after all! The Nova Scotian donor of the annual tree said he would rather feed it to a chipper than let Boston rename it a "holiday tree." He got his way.

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UPDATE TWO: The mayor of Encinitas, California, says his town is sponsoring the Encinitas Christmas Parade on December 3. "Somewhere, somehow - nobody seems to know who" -- had changed the name to the Encinitas Holiday Parade. The mayor changed it back. Now, the Girl Scouts Seacost Service Unit, the Leucadia Town Council and the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Southern California have decided not to participate. Their loss.

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UPDATE THREE: Speaker of the House Dennis Hassert has proclaimed that there will be no holiday tree, as it has been called in recent years, at the U.S. Capitol. "The Speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. It is as simple as that." Score one more for Christmas!