{"id":9067,"date":"2006-11-15T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2006-11-15T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9067.html"},"modified":"2006-11-15T10:20:10","modified_gmt":"2006-11-15T15:20:10","slug":"the-so-called-war-on-christmas-is-back-and-its-annoying-as-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-so-called-war-on-christmas-is-back-and-its-annoying-as-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"The so-called ‘war on Christmas’ is back — and it’s annoying as ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s mid-November, so I suppose it’s foolish to be surprised, but I’ve been quietly hoping that this year’s non-existent “[tag]war on Christmas[\/tag]” would be more of a subdued skirmish. As it turns out, I just might get my wish, not because conservatives have accepted “Happy Holidays” as a perfectly acceptable expression, but because retailers are caving to pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The holiday season may not yet have arrived, but Christmas is back at Wal-Mart.<\/p>\n

After being vilified by conservative critics last year for switching its holiday message from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays,” the world’s largest retailer changed its mind again.<\/p>\n

Wishing for a bigger holiday season after a sluggish fall, the chain said Thursday that 60% more of its merchandise will be labeled “Christmas” compared with last year. And customers will hear Christmas carols as they shop.<\/p>\n

“We certainly got some feedback last year,” spokesman Nick Agarwal said. “We’re hoping this will be more in tune with what customers want.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This week, naturally, Bill O’Reilly hailed<\/a> Wal-Mart’s decision as a victory in the “culture war battle” for those who “want to retain the Christmas tradition,” and lauded Wal-Mart as “the Christmas guys!” (Don’t worry, [tag]O’Reilly[\/tag] still believes [tag]Christmas[\/tag] is “under siege.”)<\/p>\n

Of course, Wal-Mart’s reversal is just part of the bigger picture.
\n
\nKohl’s and Walgreen Co. are also returning to emphasizing Christmas, Best Buy is sticking with “Happy Holidays,” and the religious right is gearing up<\/a> for an active fundraising<\/strike> activist season.<\/p>\n

Citing last year’s “overwhelming response<\/a>,” religious right groups have already launched their annual efforts to “defend Christmas.” Liberty Counsel<\/a>, a Jerry Falwell-linked conservative legal watchdog group, recently kicked off its “Friend or Foe<\/a>” campaign “to defend Christmas from secularist attempts to suppress the holiday’s traditional, faith-based aspects<\/a>.” Said one Counsel representative, “We wanted to give people enough time this year to report issues regarding Christmas so they can be resolved before Christmas.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember, conservatives have set the bar pretty low. As far as O’Reilly is concerned, “Happy Holidays” is offensive to “millions of Christians” and “insulting to Christian America<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

It’s only Nov. 15. The holiday bitterness will only get worse after Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s mid-November, so I suppose it’s foolish to be surprised, but I’ve been quietly hoping that this year’s non-existent “[tag]war on Christmas[\/tag]” would be more of a subdued skirmish. As it turns out, I just might get my wish, not because conservatives have accepted “Happy Holidays” as a perfectly acceptable expression, but because retailers are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}