Once again that festive time of year, the generic holiday season is upon us, and retailers are making a frenzied bid for your bucks. It’s purely a survival tactic – the annual spend-fest accounts for at least 20% of their annual sales. But too many stores are more than happy to rake in your hard-earned cash… while pointedly ignoring the Reason for the Season. Somehow they just can’t bring themselves to mention the C-word.
Oh sure, they like to pretend they’re being “inclusive” – can’t forget all the “holidays.” Like, um…ah… well… actually, the only one that comes close to being an occasion for gift-giving is Hanukkah. But until a couple decades ago, when advertisers latched on to the money-making potential of a festival featuring eight days of gift giving, most Jews didn’t even get that excited about it.
Here’s the thing: Christians celebrate Christmas by giving gifts, in recognition of the greatest gift of all – Jesus Christ. And if hypocritical retailers don’t want to acknowledge that truth, why support them with your dollars?
Before you head to the mall or go online, you might want to check out the American Family Association’s (AFA) helpful list of the “Naughty & Nice” retailers – available HERE. There are lots of Christmas-friendly stores to patronize, including some of my faves; Amazon, Kohls, Meijers, Nordstrom, Office Max and JC Penney.
Here are the “Scrooges” so far this year – retailers that avoid or ban the use of the term “Christmas” in their advertising:
• Banana Republic
• Barnes & Noble
• Foot Locker
• Gap Stores
• L.L. Bean
• Limited Brands
• Office Depot
• Old Navy
• Radio Shack
• Staples
• Supervalu
• Victoria’s Secret
[L.L. Bean?? Say it ain’t so! Having spent a considerable “holiday” sum with them over the years, I’m afraid I’ll have to take my Christmas 2011 funds elsewhere.]
AFA updates their list when warranted. Just this week Walgreens was moved from “naughty” to “nice” after many calls, emails, etc. from AFA-inspired customers.
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So know where you’re spending your money. Avoid the retailers that delete “Christ” from Christmas. If a store chooses to ignore Christmas, I plan to ignore them.
Wishing you HAPPY HOLIDAYS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
