In a bid not to “offend” customers who don’t celebrate Christmas, K-Mart and Sears have decided to rename Christmas Trees as the infamous “Holiday Tree” or just “Tree.” Personally, I would find it odd to decorate a ficus but apparently the folks at Sears and K-Mart aren’t that deep. (HT Hot Air)
The Liberty Counsel has all the details, including the astounding response from a Sears Corp. spokesman about why they banished “Christmas” from the Christmas season.
K-Mart and Sears have intentionally renamed “Christmas trees†to “holiday trees†or simply “trees†in its advertising. K-Mart is owned by Sears Holding Corporation. A Liberty Counsel supporter asked K-Mart for an explanation of the company’s disregard for Christmas. Vincent V., a representative from Sears Holding Corporation, responded:
The reason for our use of holiday tree is due to the [sic] Sears Holding is a very diverse company, we do not want to offend any of our associates, but also our valued customers. We decided to call them holiday trees because even if Christians are the only religion that uses a Christmas tree we still do not want complaints from other customers of different religions complaining about our use of Christmas.
What? Christmas is a federal holiday. Green, pointed, prickly trees we decorate in December are called “Christmas trees†all around the world. In the process of trying to be “diverse†and to allegedly not offend their associates or customers, Sears and K-Mart have offended their largest customer base – Christians and others who celebrate Christmas…
Let Sears Holdings know what it’s like to offend Christians, the majority in this nation, and the majority of their shoppers. The Sears Holding Corporation telephone number is 847-286-2500. They’re closed during the weekend, of course, but I’m sure they’d love to hear from you on Monday. 🙂
And let your local K-Mart and Sears know that you will not be shopping there until the Sears Corp. reverses itself.
“…we do not want to offend any of our associates, but ALSO our valued customers.”
for accuracy sake, that should read:
“…we do not want to offend any of our associates, but ONLY our valued customers.”
The fine PC folks of the Upper West Side have been lighting the Lincoln Center “Holiday Tree” for years now. It’s funny thiough – when you loiter around there the night of the lighting, people keep instinctively calling it the “Christmas” tree.
I wonder why?
It’s worth noting that if you go to the Sears site and search on keyword “Christmas”, you’ll find no shortage of items that the search engine attaches to “Christmas”. So it’s not like Sears has made a thorough campaign to eliminate all things Christmas, although some of the matching items no longer have Christmas in the name; for example this tree. I wonder why it’s the Christmas trees that are the frontline of today’s battle while many other things are ignored? But I guess once the Christmas trees are gone, the other stuff will follow.
Oh dear me, yes, I so agree with you on this. Sears is spitting in the eye of every Christian in this country. It is a war on Christmas and Christians! Write them letters! Holler about it on radio shows!
/ Sean Hannity
Heaven forbid a company recognize anyone but Christians at this time of year, Tammy. We can’t have that now, can we? Next thing you know, THOSE people will want in on OUR time of year!
Seriously: of all the petty things to whine about. Give my non-Christian self a break. You already have a religious holiday recognized by the federal government and you get paid for it. Your kids get off on Easter and Christmas, mine get an absence gig on their record for Yom Kippur. You’ll never hear the salutation “President” for someone named Singh, Mermelstein, or Mohammed. So, count your blessings. In matters where it counts, you still run the show.
As for me, I just mailed out my Happy Beethoven’s Birthday cards.
Tammy,
If they were really “Holiday Treesâ€, would we not use them for all holidays, i.e. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, etc.?
Sharon
This is like calling menorahs “holiday candle holders”. As you say, it’s just wrong.
Seriously, Grizzly, as a Jew I’ve never once in my life been offended by a Christmas tree: the idea is patently ridiculous. What I am, however, offended by is the very idea that I would be offended and thus need to be insulated from such things. That I find insultingly condescending.
Dave J: trust me on this. I have never been offended by Christmas as a holiday, or the tree with the word Christmas tacked on. I also share your offense at others thinking I need insulation.
The point I was making is how some Christians run around looking for reasons to be offended and feel picked on when in fact they have nothing whatsoever to worry about. The country is theirs, and most likely always will be. So, why do they snivel so?
Hmmmm…. “customers who don’t celebrate Christmas” I wonder who that might be.
Undoubtedly those prickly bellicose Thai Buddhists.
Jesus!
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Well fine. I just won’t buy anything from Sears or K-Mart till they mend their ways.
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They don’t seem to be very concerned about offending customers who DO celebrate Christmas.
I wonder who makes up most of their market?
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This could be corrected in a heart-beat. Just boycott the bastards!
PS
Nearly half the Jews and almost all the Buddhists I know actually celebrate Christmas!
Not in the full-out go-to-church-and-pray religious holiday sense, but certainly in the sense of throwing or going to parties, giving presents, sending cards or even setting up a CHRISTMAS TREE in their house. (Christmas trees are actually a particularly popular item among the Buddhists of my acquaintance, most of whom are Japanese).
I am not a Christian and the thought that there is something offensive about Christmas or Christmas trees or the rest has never crossed my mind — nor, so far as I can tell, the mind of any other non-Christian that I know.
You show me someone who is offended by the idea of “peace on earth and good will to man” and I will show you one sick son of a bitch!
However, as an AMERICAN I am mightily offended by the idea that anybody finds Christmas offensive!
Christmas is a national holiday for us!
Anybody who doesn’t like it can get the hell out. And I mean it.
Joeblough, we always had a Christmas tree when I was growing up and my mom still always does. Her dad was Catholic but that’s really beside the point: as you point out, there are plenty of non-Christians who do similarly (and I’ve long known the part about the Japanese affinity for them).
Christmas trees don’t, of course, have any Christian religious significance as such at all, as far as I know (though I’m sure I could be mistaken). They remind one of how Christianity adopted the older local customs of the places where it spread, in the case of evergreen trees in midwinter to the Celtic, Germanic and Scandinavian peoples of northern Europe who later brough them to America.
Grizzly says You already have a religious holiday recognized by the federal government and you get paid for it.
The Grinches will get around to that. Let’s see, since all the trappings are Holiday this and Holiday that, maybe December 25 will eventually be redesignated The Holiday holiday.
The other night while watching the SciFi channel’s butchering of “The Langoliers” a Radio Shack buy a gift commercial was aired. Toward the end of the commercial, the voice-over said something to the effect “buy this product for the holiday”. I remember thinking, what holiday? Hannuka had just started and Christmas is just around the corner. So what “holiday” is Radio Shack trying to sell for? If I were Jewish (I’m not) or Christian (I am) I am now thoroughly pissed and confused by Radio Shack’s gutless and commercial attempt at trying to have it both ways. Not only am I “offended” at Radio Shack, I will never purchase any of their over-priced junk ever again.
If Sears/K-mart were CONSISTENT in their insanity, they would insist that Menorahs be re-classified as “Holiday Candelabras”. But, as always, it’s only the Christians they don’t mind offending.
If a store or vendor doesn’t acknowledge Christmas, why should I do my Christmas shopping there?
Sincerely,
Zehaas.
p.s. Tammy for President!