I read where Britain’s ruling Labour Party’s favorite think thank has Scrooged-up a new policy alternative which should capture the imagination of Canada’s liberal left. And I say bring it on. Expose them. They and they alone launched the War on Christmas, and aside from their War on Cigarettes and their War on Bush and Cheney, and their war on Conservatives and their War on Christians and their War for No War against Islamofascist Terrorists and their War to Lose The Iraq and Afghanistan War, and their War Against Traditional Marriage and Families, and their War To Advance the “Man-Made Global Warming” Freak Out Religion, and their War For A Global Socialist Secular Progressive World Order, there is nothing more important to the little monkeys.
So there could be no better way to reintroduce my annual Shame and Fame List. The list relies on your help, so please send emails with names for me to include in the Shame or Fame side, and help win the war. Participants in the war, aside from citizens like you, usually include retail stores, TV shows, government “corporations” and departments, cities and towns, schools, and more —pretty much anybody who does mention Christmas (Fame!), and those who don’t, on purpose (Shame!), in their advertising or programs or goings-on. The ones who don’t sometimes choose instead to call Christmas the likes of “happy-tree festivus of yummy politically-correct secular-progressiveness, anti-Christian-ness, and multicult immigrant apple-polishing”. (Usually they just opt for “holiday” or “the season” instead of what it is, which is of course “Christmas”).
As usual, I will post the Shame and Fame list on this web site along the right side of the page, as soon as I can start (I’m still busy re-configuring PTBC as promised a week or two ago). But to get you going, here’s some of my last year’s commentary which lead the discussion forum thread. (I’ll resume that thread for this year, today or at least early this week). Note that I only comment on the Shame list entries in order to explain why they’re on the list.
Bear in mind that this is 2006 commentary—not this year’s.
CANADA POST:
See blog entry here.
SEARS:
They’re on our SHAME list because in two fliers delivered Nov. 9 2006, they constantly refer to “wish” and “wishes”, and apparently made an effort to not use the word “Christmas”, much as Canada Post opted for the word “joy”. Their flyers are both premised on the theme of “wishes”. While they have in the past had a “Christmas Wish Book” flyer program, they now seem to call it the “Wish flyer”. They’ve obviously made an extraordinary effort to not use the word “Christmas” in their Christmas flyers so far, however it does crop up in one or two spots (“Christmas lights” for example, and Christmas “decor” and even, God forbid, “Christmas trees”). So while they don’t shun the word completely, they’ve made an obvious attempt to mask it as much as possible.
SHOPPERS DRUG MART:
Nov. 9 2006 flyer: “Christmas cards” are included in the big front page section of the flyer under the words in giant typeface, “Holidays Made Easy”. What holidays? Kwanzaa? Sprinkled throughout are such things as Christmas Light graphics to decorate the pages of the flyer, and headings such as “Everything you need to get your home holiday guest-ready”.
HOME OUTFITTERS:
Nov. 9 2006 flyer, in a remarkable apparent copy-cat of Canada Post (see above), is all about the “joy”. “Joy” this and “joy” that but never “Christmas”. Even all their Christmas decorations are called such things as “holiday table linens” and “Holiday Home Dinnerware”.
ZELLERS:
The flyer on Nov. 9 2006 is all about “holiday” and “magical” “lit trees” and “unlit trees” and such which are apparently for anything BUT Christmas. They do make the odd obscure reference to “Christmas” in two or three spots within the flyer (CDs that are “Great hits for Christmas giving” and include in that bunch one called “Justin Timberlake’s Future Sex/Love Sounds”), but it’s manifestly about some weird “holiday” or another which happens to occur on December 25.
MICHAELS:
Nov. 9 2006 flyer is all about “holiday glitter” and “holiday” this and “holiday” that. Like Zellers, above, they make the odd obscure reference to Christmas, but it’s manifestly about “holidays”.
CANADIAN MINT:
Reported by a reader as decidedly non-Christmas, I checked their web site and sure enough, like the state-run Canada Post, they disagree with our history and traditions and heritage over there at this Canadian government agency. They refer to “holiday gift sets”—the holiday being Christmas but you have to simply imagine that to yourself personally in private I understand. I did a search using their (our) fabulous search tool and entered the word “Christmas”, and here’s the result: “No results have been found for christmas.” Made ‘em say it!
HOME DEPOT:
In automaton lockstep with other secularist outfits, Home Depot is all about…. not Christmas. Rather, they’re in favor of “Holidays”. Apparently, we should all join them in “Making Holidays Happen”. Home Depot made it happen? OK. Home Depot, Jesus, you know, whatever.
LINENS AND THINGS:
You could probably guess: it’s “Your Home Super Store For The Holidays”. What holidays? Christmas holidays? No, just any old holidays. Labor Day, for example! In their cookware department, it’s “Holiday Cooking Headquarters”.
STAPLES BUSINESS DEPOT:
Sure enough, you can buy “gifts”, but apparently they’re for any occasion, even though I don’t remember them ever advertising the idea of buying “gifts” in any of their flyers at any other time of the year. Hey why not visit their printing department and buy some “Custom Holiday Greeting Cards”? I’ll tell you why not. They made an apparent effort to not include the word “Christmas” once in their entire flyer. That’s quite a feat.
BEST BUY and FUTURE SHOP (same owner – Best Buy):
Future Shop? Sure they sell gifts. “Gifts” “gifts” and more “gifts”. But in their 80,000-page flyer not once could I find the word “Christmas”. If you’re interested in an Apple “iPod”, apparently it’s “The Perfect Apple holiday gift”. The flyer was all decorated in that Christmas-y kind of way, though. Over at Best Buy, it’s all about “wowing them” with your “gift”. “Wow” this, “wow” that. Even “Discover the wow”. Interested in giving a camera? “Imagine Capturing The Priceless Joys Of The Season”. What season? Winter? By the way you can always buy a gift card from them loaded with cash “and simplify your holiday list”. Nary the word Christmas anywhere in the whole flyer.
AVON:
A PTBC reader reports by email: “I’m looking at a ‘Holiday Wonder” Avon catalogue… lots of glitter, Ho Ho and ‘last minute’ gift ideas. Conspicuously absent is the word “Christmas”. Some cheesy musical lighting table ornaments… not a Manger Scene to be seen.”
GREAT CANADIAN SUPERSTORE:
Apparently they don’t think Canada is so great—at least not its its state-sanctioned sacred traditions, heritage, and history, like Christmas. No no, it’s the “One Stop Holiday Shop”. Be sure to visit their “Photolab” studio and “share the holidays with a portrait package. And while “the season” is indeed winter, and so firelogs and snow shovels should be sold as a matter of Canadian course, having “seasonal trees” on that page without calling them Christmas trees required effort.
CHAPTERS and INDIGO:
This book seller, owned by Liberal Party-sponsoring liberals, commits multiple sins of left-wing moonbattery. First, they call their Christmas-decorated Christmas flyer a “Holiday Gift Guide 2006”, but in the suggested reading section called “Big Ideas”, out of 13 selections, only one is even remotely non-left-wing. One is overtly communist. See blog entry here.
DELL COMPUTER:
Like so many others, they’re more than happy to take your money for your Christmas gift buying, or “Holiday Frenzy” as they call it at their web site, but they’re not so happy to call it Christmas. A reader tells me their flyer is all about the “holidays” too. I’ll take that to mean next Labor Day then and make my computer purchase then—unless somebody gets to me before then.
AMAZON.CA:
Hmm. Slight problem here in that all the major book retailers who want Canadians to love them, have apparently abandoned Canada’s Christmas tradition and heritage and history in favor of advancing their agenda or appeasing liberals. At Amazon.ca, they want you to buy “holiday gifts”. But I want to buy Christmas gifts. Like Christmas CDs. I looked, and at least a third of the top sellers at Amazon.ca are Christmas CDs, and it’s only November 23. So they do enjoy Christmas, those secular-progressive politically-correct automatons at Amazon.ca, but they refuse to call it Christmas. The have a whole page about getting gifts delivered by some mysterious day in December—the 25th I believe—but they only refer to it as “the holiday”. Maybe they should break down and say “merry Christmas!” on their site and feature some of Canada’s Christmas tradition in books and music. Bet they’d sell tons. Of course that would advance the notion of “Christmas”, so… never mind I guess!
COSTCO:
The big-box retailer sure takes up a lot of Canadian real estate—unfortunately it doesn’t much care for Canada and its traditions, heritage, history or Christmas. But damn please spend all your cash there on their “Holiday” decorations and “Holiday gifts” so they can help take the Christmas out of Christmas! On the plus side, unlike the Canadian Mint, when you search for “Christmas” using their online search tool, you actually get to something rather than “sorry, nothing was found matching that funny word”.
THE SHOPPING CHANNEL:
A PTBC reader (“soccermom”) reports: “Hey, Joel, you may want to check out The Shopping Channel. On their website, they have a “Holiday Shoppe”, and “Holiday” this and that all over the place. On TV, they mention Joy and Peace but never say the word Christmas while the models stand next to the “Holiday” tree that is decorated so brilliantly… “.
DELTA, B.C.
The annual “pretend it’s not Christmas” negativity-fest has begun in secular-progressive-led Delta, British Columbia. So far they have the banners hanging on the street lights that don’t mention Christmas (on purpose, in order to appease secular-progressives and liberals), but rather “Ho Ho Ho”. Ironically, much of Delta is actually an enclave of fervid Christianity, and as a resident, I’ve never, ever spoken to anyone in my community who doesn’t love the actual Canadian tradition and heritage and celebration called Christmas. Or to put it another way, as usual, when city council or any government is dominated by secular-progressive politically-correct minions, they get it all exactly wrong; or they simply don’t care what the stupid citizens think; or they simply think they know better. And usually it’s all three.
OFFICE DEPOT:
TIM HORTONS:
Canadians love to think of Tim Hortons as “Canadian”, but in actual fact, it’s as “Canadian” as Michael J. Fox, who was born Canadian but is as American as Wendy’s. And apparently Tim Hortons cares about Canada and its traditions and heritage and history as much as a donut does, as exemplified by their “Holiday” spirit web page and their “Holiday Collection”.
OTTAWA CITIZEN:
This liberal’s liberal, politically-correct run amok, clearly biased against Canadian traditions, Canwest newspaper decided that those Christmas Carols that have been sung in this nation since way before confederation are actually “holiday songs”, and thus they released their annual Christmas Carols insert (complete with Christmas songs and music) under the label “Holiday Song Book”. I imagine this is the template for all Canwest papers.
Etc!
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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