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Canwest News Service
The heathens are coming, clad in knitwear and argyle socks.
The first shot has been fired in the annual Christmas culture wars, with the American Family Association calling for a boycott of Gap for "censoring the word Christmas." The only hitch is that the clothing retailer does, in fact, call the holiday by its religious name in a TV commercial currently in heavy rotation.
The apparent misstep has ignited debate over whether these yearly exercises in organized outrage are truly about defending Christmas or merely a publicity gambit to rally the troops – as was claimed in a widely disseminated Los Angeles Times column this week.
"They could complain just as loudly about stores using a bunny instead of a crucifix at Easter. The fact that they don't shows they're being a bit opportunistic here," says Ken Wong, professor of marketing at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.
"If I'm selling the product of the far right and want to make my case visible, I need to hit home – and very few things do that like Christmas."
The AFA, having been called on its gaffe, revised its position Tuesday, suggesting the boycott is still deserved because Gap ads name Christmas in the same breath as solstice – an occasion "celebrated by Wiccans who practice witchcraft!"
Millions of people are passionate about keeping Christ in Christmas. Scott Smith, a lifelong conservative from Edmonton, writes on Twitter this week: "Time to begin my yearly boycott of stores that won't wish me a Merry Christmas. Have a `Happy Holidays' without MY consumer dollars."
The debate here, however, is more specifically over the annual publicity blitzkrieg that claims a religious threat in everything from non-denominational baking (think cookies shaped like snowflakes instead of angels) to the presence of Santa in malls – an attitude Wong notes runs counter to Canada's cultural mosaic.
"As a general rule, Canadians are not only accepting of diversity, we tend to embrace it," says Wong. "So while (protesters) may endear themselves to the ultra-far right, they tend to lose the middle majority."
Indeed, even some Christians say they've had enough of the boycotts and bellyaching.
"Among the progressive people I know, there's no real offence taken to `Happy Holidays,"' says Rev. Yme Woensdregt, an Anglican priest from Cranbrook, B.C. "I don't think we need more self-righteousness in a world that's already so dangerously polarized."
Woensdregt considers retailers' use of the term `holidays' an act of inclusiveness, not as part of a sinister, godless agenda. He says it's not stores' job to spread the message of Christmas but rather that of the religious faithful.
Robert Lanham, a noted pop-culture commentator, observes that some conservative groups get so riled up over the holidays, it's a miracle they don't have post-traumatic stress disorder come January.
"The people I know who are sincere about keeping Christmas sacred are more interested in de-commercializing the holiday than boycotting Gap in favour of Walmart," says Lanham, author of a book on evangelical culture. "These days, most people would rather suffer through a muzak rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas performed on pan flute than listen to another tirade about the War on Christmas."
Contrived though the idea of a single, unified crusade may be, Christmas expert Gerry Bowler says there do exist "innumerable skirmishes and battles" over the powder-keg holiday.
"Merry Christmas is still a dangerous phrase in government offices and in public schools. I was even told once that saying it was anti-Semitic because it implied a privileging of Christmas over another religious holiday," says Bowler, a history professor at the University of Manitoba.
"But if it looks like a Christmas tree and smells like a Christmas tree, don't tell me it's The Giving Tree."
mharris@canwest.com
