Christmas Boycotts

Back in November the American Family Association called for a boycott of The Gap for "censoring" the word "Christmas" from their ads. The biggest problem was that they didn't! The Gap called the holiday by it's religious name in an ad in heavy rotation.

Although stories like this pop up every "holiday season", I've noticed a decline in the last few years and even saw a quote by an evangelical Christian minister who wondered aloud why his fellow believers thought it was the job of retailers to spread the message of Christ and celebrate his birth.

It seems to me that many people just look for things to get worked up about. Jews, Hindus, Wiccans and Atheists getting in a tizzy over the central role that Christmas plays in the winter holiday season, when after all, most of the country is Christian, at least nominally; and Christians getting their noses out of joint when folks of another (or no) religion want to participate in the commercialization of the season, even though most, if not all "Christmas traditions" were either invented by 19th century authors, or derive from old pagan observances.

Grow up people...all of youse!