This is the article that appeared in the October 2023 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.
The anti-Christmas censors started early this year, both at home and abroad. Fortunately, they are off to a lousy start.
City employees in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin were told not to put up Christmas decorations. They even banned the colors of red and green. But after a huge outcry and a threatened lawsuit, they backed down.
Placerville, California officials wanted to change the name of their Christmas holiday celebration from Festival of Lights to Hometown Holidays—from lame to worse—and take down the [Christmas] tree two weeks before Christmas. After the public protested, it was renamed Hometown Christmas and the tree will stay through Christmas.
K-mart in Australia was selling a bag to put a ham in for Christmas with the inscription, “Merry HAM-MAS.” Because it looked like a shout-out for Hamas, they pulled it.
Santa’s village at Pacific Werribee, near Melbourne, had a huge sign behind Santa’s chair that read, “Merry Everything.” After a backlash, it was renamed, “Merry Christmas.”
The British retailer Marks & Spencer was forced to apologize after a Christmas ad showed red and green paper hats in a burning fireplace (some even compared it to a Palestinian flag).
Shoppers at the English supermarket, Sainsbury’s, were not happy with a Christmas card that featured two snow-covered pigs. It was shelved.
Some of these are minor infractions; others are not. No matter, there is no other holiday that is targeted for censorship like Christmas. That’s why victories are so sweet.
