US Retailers—NAUGHTY / NICE lists for 2006

So, what's the scoop on media mention of Christmas this year, you ask? Read on my friends!
(P.S—this section on Naughty / Nice lists is being copied at Wikipedia for Wikipedia users to read and for y'all to access as well. It's much easier to read there and it's easier to post comments and responses. Click HERE to access the Wikipedia version, and click HERE to comment on it at Wikipedia's article discussion page. My username at Wikipedia is "CrazyInSane" in case you get confused. LOL. Also, it may not be completely copied yet as I am now going to bed for a while.)

Provided with links from their respective websites (if it is their website's content in question), I will herein establish which retailers in both the US and Canada are using Christmas and which ones aren't.

I will update this list accordingly if any listed retailers change their position on the subject before Christmas. If you notice any errors from your own experiences with the retailers, please notify me by leaving a comment. Also, this list in NO WAY is complete. PLEASE tell me about any other retailers that are naughty or nice so I can list them. ALSO, PLEASE FORWARD THIS LIST TO ANY FRIENDS, AND TELL THEM NOT TO SHOP AT THE NAUGHTY STORES! WE CAN STOP THIS.


NAUGHTY LIST (updated 9 December, 2006)

• Verizon Wireless — has a TV ad that shows Santa Claus, has a man saying "All I want ____ is a phone" (omitting "for Christmas"), and wishes customers "Happy Holidays" at the end of the ad. It's website offers a "Holiday Gift Guide" that is officially labeled "Wireless Gift Guide, Holiday 2006", with not a single mention of Christmas anywhere. [1]



• Best Buy (US & Canada) — has officially stated that it condemns usage of "Christmas" and "Merry Christmas". Has proven this by airing a TV ad that has two friends greeting each other with gifts, saying "Happy Holidays" to each other. NO ONE tells someone they know "Happy Holidays". Also, Best Buy's website is void of Christmas, saying "December 25" and "holiday" at every specific reference to Christmas Eve/Day. Also, they offer Hanukkah-themed gift cards but NO Christmas-themed ones, only winter-themed ones. [2], [3]



• The Home Depot — One look at their website tells all. They have a category called plainly "Holiday", and refer to Christmas decorations, trees, gifts, entertainment, meals, wreaths, and more as "Holiday" rather than "Christmas". The word "Christmas" is mentioned in a section called "Christmas Kitchen", but I was turned off when a spokesperson told me that this was done because "a bunch of crazy people called us telling us to say Christmas, so we had to". I absolutely despise Home Depot. Don't be fooled by their sparse, miniscule mentions of Christmas. It probably almost killed them just to write it. [1]



• OLD NAVY — This company is ridiculous. At the beginning of the Christmas holiday season, after Thanksgiving, Old Navy proudly offered their grammatically-incorrect slogan "HOLIDAY IS HERE", just to boast about their anti-Christmas stance. Old Navy is well-known for loving the fact they don't mention Christmas, with one spokesperson telling the American Family Association that "Christmas is merely a non-Christian, pagan tradition".



• New York City Public schools — the public school system in New York City has BANNED the display of Nativity scenes in their "holiday displays", all the while allowing religious displays from the Muslim holiday of Eid and the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. They claim that the religious displays for those non-Christian holidays are simply "cultural, not religious", and that the Nativity of Jesus is "completely religious, thus unconstitutional". Not only are they WRONG about the Muslim and Jewish symbols, but they're wrong about the Nativity scene. JESUS IS A HISTORICAL PERSON, thus depicting his birth is not necessarily religious, it REALLY DID HAPPEN. No offense to anyone involved in 9/11 but ... you'd think that after 9/11 New York city officials wouldn't go around promoting Muslim holidays over Christian ones. Yeesh.



• United States Postal Service (USPS) — The USPS is a monolopy corporation so Americans NEED to use it for mail. There is no alternative. Because of this, it is essential that we ensure that they respect our beliefs. USPS has a "holiday page" with no reference to Christmas at all, even in their recommended "Holiday delivery dates" for "December 25". *ACK*. They offer religious stamps at their store, but show three stamps for Eid, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa in a group ABOVE the Madonna stamp for Christmas. *SMASHES HEAD ON TABLE*. My God, it's things like this that make me think America is as atheist as the former Russia that was once their enemy. In fact, the reason the "under God" was added to the US pledge during the war was to show the enemy that the US was religious, as opposed to the atheistic Russians. I'm surprised "under God" is still standing. [1]



• Barnes & Noble — They avoid any mention of Christmas on their website, but in one particular (isolated) incident they do write out "Holiday or Christmas gifts" (in small text). They offer shipping delivery deadlines for "December 25" and have a "Holiday Gift Guide". Also, one of my friends spoke of an incident last year where in their stores they had three separate book stacks, one saying "Hanukkah", another "Kwanzaa", and another "Holiday". When he told the store manager about this, she blew him off. I'm not sure if that's the case again this year, but that deserves a place on this naughty list.



• Disney Shopping — I'm listing Disney Shopping because it's saddening that an organization of official Disney status such as this is ruining Christmas. Think of all the Disney Christmas specials, butchered by the words used in the Disney Shop. They have "Holiday decor", "Holiday Fashions", "Santa's Top Toys" (with no inner reference to Christmas), "Holiday Gift Shop". UPDATE: They do reference "Christmas" in the delivery dates though. On a sidenote, you'll see that "Discovery Channel store" is listed below in the NICE section ... funny to think that a purely science-related store is using "Christmas" and a children's gem company isn't. Hmm.

NICE LIST (updated 9 December 2006)

• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc — In a relatively daring move, Walmart decided in early November to exclusively adhere to use of the term "Christmas" instead of "holiday" during the season. For the most part, they seem to be doing just that. On their website, they have a Christmas section dedicated to everything Christmas, and the word "holiday" isn't used except in select descriptions. Also, as for their TV ads, in a similar vein to Target Stores, they add "Merry Christmas" at the end of the ad, except it differs from Target in the fact that a woman says "Merry Christmas" out loud instead of it being spelled out, as in Target. Good job, Walmart, too bad your sales are way down though.



• Hallmark Cards, Inc. — Five stars for Hallmark. I'm getting all my Christmas cards from them this year! Hallmark adorns their website with Christmas, not being afraid to use the word. But the best part about Hallmark, that really made me like 'em, was their TV ad that exclusively mentions Christmas, with no mention of "holiday(s)" whatsoever. It also makes usage of "Merry Christmas". I guess you'd expect this kinda advertising from a card company since they rely SO MUCH on Christmas, but I think last year Hallmark was using "holiday", so it's good.



• K–Mart Stores, Inc. — Another great example of a company not afraid to mention Christmas. Watch one of their commercials and you'll be pleased to hear copious mention of the term, and their slogan is "Where Christmas comes together". Also, they have one particular ad that begins with the slogan "Christmas on Elm Street", and two women go through the commercial singing alternative lyrics to the tune of "Hark! The Herald Angels, Sing". Sure, it wasn't the real lyrics about Jesus but it's closer than the new-age crap some of the retailers dish out, LOL. Also I wanted to mention something quite odd... K-Mart and Sears are both owned by the Sears Holdings Corporation, but the funny thing is that Sears TV ads and website (apparently) are using explicitly "holiday".



• AJ Wright Stores — Pretty much just as good as K-Mart when it comes to explicit mention of Christmas. Although I can't see any mention of Christmas on AJ's website (but no mention of "holidays" or anything seasonal at all), the TV ads did me in. In the ads, the voice-over mentions Christmas about 1-3 times depending on the specific ad, and then at the end she says "AJ Wright ... more of what you want, this Christmas" (that is their real slogan, with "this Christmas" added to the end). Bravo, AJ!



• KOHL's —I was pretty much on the fence with KOHL's throughout the first part of the season, but held out hope for them since they officially declared in November that they would be using "Christmas" this year. From November until just yesterday, they never used the word once. Even at their website they had a banner that said "22 days until December 25th" (which they still have), although their shipping deadlines did and still do mention Christmas Day (as well as Hanukkah). Two major things won me over though, the first being their recently-promoted "Incredible Christmas Sale", which is mentioned both on their site, on TV, and likely elsewhere. The second thing they did, something that really allowed me to praise them, is the fact that they offer a gift card depicting the Nativity of Jesus, and it says "Merry Christmas". Wonderful, KOHL's; companies are usually too scared to do that. Bravo. So, in conclusion, shop at KOHL's!.



• Target Corp. — I'm almost reluctant to list Target in the nice list, because they only used "Christmas" after over 750,000 separate e-mails were sent to their server and around 200,000 people called their customer service ... but in the end, they deserve it. Lat year, Target was boycotted by the AFA and surrendered soon after, when publicity of the boycott went national. Target was exclusively avoiding the word "Christmas", along with also blowing the Salvation Army off—two things that won't leave Christians happy. But, in late December 2005 they smartened up and included Christmas in their ads, and have continued to do so this year. On their website they often mention Christmas, and when they advertise outside of their respective site they use a banner that says "Shop Christmas at Target". Also, they put a "Merry Christmas" greeting under their logo at the end of each of their Christmas commercials.



• Toys 'R' Us — I'm not very familiar with Toys 'R' Us' initial Christmas campaign this year, but I think they were originally using "holiday", and were forced to use "Christmas" after a few threatened boycotts from small groups. Now, they still feature a "Holiday Shop", but have the slogan "Make it merrier this Christmas". It's a start. In either case, in today's PC-world we are forced to be content with even one measly mention of Christmas.



• Office Max — In a move I didn't expect, Office Max changed something on their website to "cover all angles", apparently. On their original "holiday gift guide" page, they've recently changed that title to say "christmas & holiday gift guide" (sic), which is actually what a lot of companies seem to be doing now; using "Christmas & holiday" to essentially cover all bases while still mentioning Christmas and pleasing the majority. It's a mouthful and it's long to spell out, but apparently they don't care. Who can blame them though—that way no one will be "offended". MSN Shopping seems to be doing the same thing.



• Discovery Channel Store — Although not a big box retailer, I'm listing the DCS here because of it's ironic pro-Christmas stance. You'd think, out of all the retailers, the Discovery Channel would be the one place to have reason to avoid mention of Jesus Christ (not that anyone ever has a good reason), since they're a purely scientific organization, and sell all things related to physical science, usually considered the polar opposite of God and religion. The DCS has a "12 days of Christmas" campaign, and shipping deadlines "for Christmas". I really, really commend the DCS for doing this. Excellent.

That's all for now, but the list is nowhere near done—I still have much more companies. I'll add to it soon. I hope you all appreciate it and please leave comments. Thanks.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTERESTING UPDATE: As I was writing this I was watching Jay Leno. Jay also hates usage of the term "holiday". In his monologue, he just said "...people are putting up their holiday decora .... ahh, oh shutupp (swings arm dismissively) ... CHRISTMAS decorations...", having mistakingly said "holiday". That just PROVES how scary it is that the secular progressives (SP) are shoving "holiday" so far down our throats that WE often accidently use the term in reference to Christmas. In 20 years, CHRISTMAS WILL BE ERADICATED IF WE DON'T STOP THIS! ARGH! Anyway, hehe, got a little carried away.

ANOTHER UPDATE WITH JAY: As the show continued as I was writing on, Jay was reading from a pre-written prompt when he said "and from a very popular holiday... CHRISTMAS holiday special, I present to you, Charlie Brown...". You rock, Jay! To hell with your writers who wrote the prompt! LOL. Christmas all the way! HEHE

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