I think we’re up-to-date now on the Fame and Shame List and commentary. (The list is shown at right on all the PTBC pages—and there’s a link to the constantly updating commentary pages there. I only comment on the SHAME additions, so the owners and shareholders and politicians and buyers can all see why they were added. Notice too that on the list, links are only provided to FAME entries. That makes your online Christmas buying easier.
! I appreciate links and pictures and your comments too if it’s no trouble.
To save you some time, here are the latest commentaries to supplement the latest additions to the list:
SHAME:
(new items are added to top; items marked with * are on the Fame list but are on the precipice—about to fall into Shame)
Canada Post *:
On the precipice! Like last year, they call Christmas not Christmas but rather “JOY”. It’s “JOY” time. “Send joy”. “Santa delivers joy” and so on. Nary a mention of Christmas to be seen… until you get to their “holiday” section where they sell 
stamps and more—and they do call them “holiday stamps” yet the one with a reindeer on it is called “Christmas Reindeer”. And they have one which is all-Christianity, all the way, and it’s called “Christmas Hope”—it depicts Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus (buy online from Canada Post!). In addition, this year, Canada Post has once again joined up with the Salvation Army to help send gifts to the needy. And the Salvation Army is a totally Christian organization. They’re all about Jesus. So Canada Post is perplexing. (Refer to this blog entry from last year).
Future Shop:
Like their brothers at Best Buy, Future Shop wants you to celebrate something like Christmas, and buy lots and lots of gifts, but they don’t want you to think of it as Christmas. It’s the “holidays”. At Future Shop, the happy-tree festive motto is “Holiday shopping simplified”! Merry holidays everyone! And say it with Sony! “24 payments, no interest on TVs and home theatre”! Thanks to the likes of Future Shop, the future of Christmas looks more like atheist secular-progressive bankruptcy-fest. Sing along!…. I’ll be home… for atheist secular-progressive bankruptcy-fest….
Best Buy:
Apparently at Best Buy, they’ve discovered something more precious than Christmas. They discovered “the Wow”. On their, um, “seasonal flyer”, we’re shown a woman holding a seasonal present all gift-wrapped in festive holiday seasonal happy-fest gift wrap with a Best Buy tag on it, and it is suggested we “Discover the WOW”. I think that’s a line from the Bible. “And Jesus said unto them:
‘discover the WOW, mumma, peace out.’
” And best Buy is really playing it up. For example, they have “Wow gifts for under $100”. Wow! You mean we can spend under $100 on a gift for someone?! WOWEE! Of course they also sell gift cards so you can, and once again I quote: “Let Them Choose Their Wow Gift”. Merry Wow day to one an all!
The Source by Circuit City:
The store formerly known as Radio Shack wants you to buy stuff for “the holidays”. I think they mean Ramadan. So come on, Muslims, get a laptop so that you can, and I quote from their flyer, “get mobile for the holidays”! Also, when giving Ramadan gifts, “make them smile this holiday”! Unfortunately for Circuit City, Ramadan this year was September 12 – October 13. So you missed it. Holy sadness!
Shoppers Drug Mart:
At this chain store, it’s not Christmas. It’s not even the “holidays”. It’s the “Holly Days”. And they urge you to be “home for the holly days”. Guess they didn’t want you to think they were celebrating anything holy, but would rather you celebrate something with pricks. They do sell condoms and “birth control” and “morning-after” pills there (ironically, their house brand is called “Life” brand products). They also sell lottery tickets. They don’t sell cigarettes though! It’s confusing! Being liberal is hard! At Shoppers, you’ll apparently find some o’ them “holiday stockings” to hang on your fireplace. I don’t know what those are. We normally hang Christmas stockings. They also have those ubiquitous “holiday lights”.
Rona:
I’m holding out some hope for the Canadian answer to Home Depot, Rona, because every other year, they’ve made our Fame list rather than our Shame list. Maybe the memo concerning Rona’s commitment to respect Canadian values and traditions and the Canadian way of life hasn’t been thoroughly circulated yet amongst all the inter-office “seasonal giving”. I’m looking at a catalog that is advertising their “2007 Holiday Decorations” event. Inside, you’ll find they’re pushing “…ethnic-inspired ornaments” and such. It’s not Ramadan, it’s Christmas, for goodness sake! What’s wrong with Canadian-inspired ornaments? And “Christmas” ones at that? Strange people who call themselves “Proudly Canadian” right in their motto, but don’t like our Canadian traditions and heritage. Oh well. Don’t forget to hang your “holiday wreath” on your door this year. It’s bound to help you express your “seasonal values”.
Zellers:
At Zellers, a subsidiary of The Bay which is on our Fame list every year, it’s “true holiday savings to celebrate!” Weird because I find most Canadians are celebrating “Christmas”, not “true holiday savings”. Nonetheless, they prod you too “believe in magic” on their Christmas catalog with the Christmas tree on the cover which they don’t call a Christmas tree. Just don’t believe in Christ, fer Christ’s sake! I notice stores like Zellers have every confounded piece of crap on the face of the earth to decorate your home for “the season”, including all manner of Santa Clause dolls, old-fashioned town square table-top ornaments (which if they were life-like and true to history would be replete with baby Jesus Joseph and Mary but they aren’t), and musical bears and nutcracker soldiers, but try to find a little baby in the manger, or the three wise men. Not gonna.
Michaels:
Like many anti-Christmas stores, they avoid the word Christmas as much as possible, but are sometimes forced to type that word out when a product line is specifically called a “Christmas Collection”, for example. At Michaels, “We’re Your Holiday Decor Store!” Note that the only “holiday” of the year that they officially recognize is apparently December 25, or what we Canadians call “Christmas”, because they don’t advertise themselves as “Your Holiday Decor Store!” at Labor Day or Queen Victoria Day.
Toys R Us:
Much like the chain store A Children’s Place (below), of all stores, Toys R Us oughta be all over Christmas rather than celebrating “holidays” and “seasons”. But sadly at Toys R Us, they advertise having only “The Hottest Toys of the Season” and so on. By the way, one of “The Hottest Toys of the Season” on their big, um, happy-season catalogue’s front cover this year is “Aqua Dots”—the deadly dangerous toy that was recently found to have parts with chemicals that when swallowed, contain the date rape drug, and which has of course been recalled. Nice timing. Perhaps it’s “karma”.
The Children’s Place:
(Sent in by Randy) —You’d think that at Christmas of all times, a place called “The Children’s Place” wold be all over Christmas. But no. They’re all about “the holidays”. (They’re fine with “the Tooth Fairy” and “The Easter Bunny” … and no doubt “Kwanzaa” too—but God forbid you mention “Christmas” to the young ‘uns). I see by their web site they also subscribe to the “cover your politically correct ass as far as you can!” policy when choosing young models for their front page. It reminds of of the The Amazing Race TV show where each year the producers seem to order off a liberal-left PC menu: One black, one caramel-skin, one Asian, a couple of effeminates, and do you have any handicapped in stock?
Sears *:
Watch out Sears! While using the word Christmas a lot in describing items, which is good, I notice a lot of the generic anti-Christmas “Every Wish Comes With A Hug” sort of tripe that the secular progressives are so into every Christmas. Just warning you with a gentle “holiday nudge”!
L.L. Bean:
They avoid all mention of Christmas, although the flyer they sent out this week which out of wacky coincidence is just in time for Christmas buying, is festooned with Christmas scenes and Christmas gift pictures and a general aura of gift-giving happiness… for no apparent reason except that it’s, and I quote, “holiday 2007”. They mention Christmas only when forced to, in describing how you have to order by a certain date in order for things to arrive by …. CHRISTMAS! (For the epitome of farce, the state-owned, state-run Royal Canadian Mint last year managed to not mention Christmas at all in their royal happy-tree season of giving gifts for no apparent reason, and in their ordering instructions, warned folks to order by a certain date in order for things to arrive by… “December 25”! Well done secular-progressive fundamentalists!)
Home Depot:
(Sent in by Christin)—As they last did year, this year they once again bend backwards over a set of huge saw horses to avoid any use of the word Christmas. If you go to their web site, you’re confronted with a pile of Christmas lights, over which they describe them as “holiday lights”. Hang ‘em on labor day! Don’t miss their “Holiday Gift Centre”. Buy some “holiday gifts” for Canada Day—or whenever you’re taking holidays! Unfortunately, they don’t have any Christmas trees this year at Home Depot. They only have “holiday trees”. So go somewhere else to buy your Christmas tree!
Wal*Mart:
Our annual controversial entry isn’t on the Shame list because they do celebrate Christmas, and made quite a deal out of it last year when they made a total 180, and turned their policy around due to public pressure. They changed their policy of NOT saying Merry Christmas as they greeted shoppers, and instead made a policy of saying Merry Christmas as they greeted shoppers. And their flyers are replete with “Christmas”. Unfortunately, there is some argument about their charitable giving, which includes some very liberal-left, secular-progressive outfits. That can only lead to bad things.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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