The debate about Christmas Holidays December

Mark Wolf, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 10, 2005 at midnight

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At Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Santa Claus is nestled amid a lavish display featuring large snow globes promoting the holiday fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia.

Jerry Nye, age 2 1/2, is nestled in Santa's lap, poised to ask for a pair of Wiggles slippers to show up under the tree. Holiday decorations abound, but it's hard to find much that says "Christmas."

That's no surprise to Jerry's grandmother.

"In a mixed culture like we have, I'd be surprised to see a 'Merry Christmas' sign. We have to cover everybody," said Ila Jean Nye.

Carie Carroll, a family friend, also isn't put off by the lack of Christmas-specific decor.

"The job of the store is to sell merchandise. They're going to call it something neutral. What you do at home is your own business," she said.

To others, however, the interchangeability of Christmas and holiday dampens the spirit of the season.

"Political correctness has gone way overboard. A lot of Americans are saying 'For Pete's sake, call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree,' " said Amanda Banks, spokeswoman for Focus on the Family, whose founder, James Dobson, recently devoted a 30-minute radio broadcast to the topic.

"The Debate," about how to celebrate a season that encompasses an increasingly diverse America, touches governments, schools and businesses in an annual collision among culture, civics, commerce and Christmas.

It's beginning to feel a lot like . . .

That pine tree in the living room, brightly decorated with an array of spiritual and secular ornaments? Now it's a cultural flash point.

When Lowe's home improvement stores hung a banner outside their stores advertising "Holiday Trees," they heard from more than 1,000 customers and dropped the banner.

"We've always said 'Christmas trees' inside the store. We have a 'Home for the holidays' theme from October through January, and someone, thinking they were being consistent, inserted 'Holiday Trees.' We never intended to change the name of the tree," said Chris Ahern, a spokesman for Lowe's.

"It was not a strategic decision or an attempt to be politically correct, and we apologize for it."

Conservative Christian groups, most notably the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, have criticized several major retailers this season for neglecting Christmas in their advertising and in-store signs.

"Many businesses in America would not survive the months of November and December if it wasn't for people going out and buying Christmas gifts," said Focus on the Family's Banks. "That's where our frustration comes from. You're making bucks from us but not willing to acknowledge where you're making it."

For others, the notion of Christmas under siege is so much curdled eggnog.

"This is supposed to be a time of the season for peace and happiness, and you have the American Family Association and Jerry Falwell selling a lot of divisiveness," said Jeremy Leaming, spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

"It's not political correctness. They're the ones who are tremendously oversensitive."

'A very diverse customer base'

The fact is the word Christmas has faded from many retailers' advertising and store signs. In a recent edition of the Rocky Mountain News, only the Christmas City specialty store used Christmas in a retail ad. In an edition of the News in the same week 20 years ago, there were more than a dozen mentions of Christmas in ads.

Businesses often feel they need to walk a Christmas-holiday tightrope to avoid offending any credit-card-carrying customer.

"What's happening is retailers are giving a lot of thought to the fact that they have a very diverse customer base with different beliefs," said Mike Gatti, executive vice president of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. "They look for a message that encompasses all of them."

Target responded to criticism of a paucity of Christmas in its advertising and store signs by saying its "Gather Round" holiday theme "is designed to encompass all the holidays of this season, evolving as we move closer to celebration dates."

"Over the course of the next few weeks, our advertising, marketing and merchandising will become more specific to the holiday that is approaching - referring directly to holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah.

"We do not have a policy or intention of excluding the word Christmas from our holiday advertising or marketing."

Getting lost in the new age

Much of this latest cultural skirmish revolves around society's confusion about religion's place in the public square, said Carl Raschke, a professor of religious studies at the University of Denver.

"We can't figure out if it's supposed to be there (and) how do we affirm it in such a way that we don't trod on somebody's rights," he said. "It's called politically correct, but it's just a desperate attempt to deal with all the options and sensibilities in society and that people are so easily offended."

Some Christians may feel a spiritual- secular tug of war about Christmas marketing.

"They're concerned about two things. One is that Christmas is part of American history and culture and not just a generic holiday. It really is Christ-mas, and they don't want that to be flushed down the memory hole, to use an Orwellian phrase," said Douglas Groothuis, a professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary.

"On the other hand, a lot of Christians are definitely against the commercialization because Christianity doesn't support extravagant lifestyles."

Those who push for more Christmas references in retailing, he said, "are arguing for free speech in the public realm, to be able to call it Christmas without it being made generic. To call (a Christmas tree) a holiday tree seems rather petty and unnecessary."

Christmas is found in a most unlikely place at Park Meadows shopping center - Abercrombie & Fitch, the oversexed, hip retailer that two years ago was the target of a Christian-group-led boycott. While its retail neighbors post storefront fliers beckoning "Happy Holidays" and "Holiday Sale," Abercrombie's four front windows boldly spell out, albeit in small print, "christmas 2005."

Cindy Boyer, a sales associate at jeweler Bailey Banks & Biddle, said her store has had trouble keeping in stock the Spanish porcelain maker Lladro's Nativity and Father Christmas figurines. They're not only popular but pricey - $850 for the latest limited 12-inch high edition of Father Christmas.

Still, the store's $70 ornaments celebrate "2005" but not "Christmas 2005."

"I've been here six years, and I don't really remember a time when they said Christmas," Boyer said.

Finding Christmas merchandise isn't a problem at the mall's St. Nicks store, a 20,000-square-foot seasonal version annex to the 30-year-old Littleton retailer's year-round Christmas store on South Sante Fe Drive.

"We believe in the spirit of Christmas; that's what we do," said Ira Sealy, one of St. Nicks owners.

"Everybody is afraid to say what they mean anymore for fear of hurting someone's feelings. The tradition of 'Merry Christmas' is getting lost in the new age. But if you don't believe in Christmas, what the heck are you doing here?"

'It's about respecting each other'

Margaret Armijo sliced a red, green and white birthday cake with icing proclaiming "Happy Birthday Jesus" in the lobby of the Wellington E. Webb Office Building.

"If you're celebrating Christmas and helping the stores make a profit, they should be open to using Christmas as well as holiday," said Armijo, a public information supervisor in the assessor's office.

Also on the table were pencils stamped with "Jesus is The Reason for The Season" and other religious material.

Sharing space in the airy lobby were displays hosted by city employees explaining and celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Vietnamese New Year, pagan Yule rituals, Pueblo Feast Days and Spanish Colonial Christmas.

First-graders from Remington Elementary School belted out songs from Feliz Navidad to Jingle Bells, and the County Court Holiday Singers' repertoire spanned Jingle Bell Rock to Silent Night.

The Wednesday celebration, hosted by the city's Diversity Advisory Committee, was not about "The Debate," said Janice Alexander, human resources director of the Community Planning and Development Department.

"It's just about raising awareness about the many different cultures, the many different beliefs and the many different people that make up a work force," she said. "And so it's about respecting each other."

Variety of civic holiday displays

Mayor John Hickenlooper will decorate his office with poinsettias and other holiday flora from the Parks and Recreation Department greenhouse.

And he spoke not a word about changing the "Merry Christmas" sign at City Hall to the generic "Happy holidays," as he proposed last year before a flood of complaints triggered a rapid about-face.

A sampling of civic holiday displays found mostly secular items, although Denver's extravagant lights display does have religious icons.

• A large Christmas tree decorated with bows, pine cones, violins and other nonreligious ornaments holds center stage in the lobby of Jefferson County's Administration and Courts Building.

County Administrator Patrick Thompson said he doesn't know if the ornaments are limited to nonreligious themes by design or if it is by coincidence.

The county's Christmas tree also sprouts paper ornaments with tags containing the names and ages of youngsters who might face a bleak holiday unless a county employee takes a tag and donates a gift.

"I think that is what (Christmas) is all about," Thompson said. "You should see the gifts that come up here. They are actually quite generous."

• Decorations at Lakewood's City Hall and Cultural Center feature such traditional Christmas details as poinsettias, festive winter scenes and ornamental boughs, a long-standing practice, a city spokeswoman said.

"We haven't changed our holiday displays, and it never has been an issue since I have been here," said Joni Inman, who has been a city spokeswoman for 15 years. "That's one issue we have not been mired in."

• The Boulder County Courthouse has wreaths with green bows.

• A wooden toy train adorns the Longmont City Center sign.

• Louisville's City Hall features a Christmas tree with lights and a star.

• Boulder's Pearl Street Mall has reindeer made from branches and decorated with lights.

• Wheat Ridge City Hall has a sleigh and reindeer on the lawn and a Christmas tree outside the city manager's office.

School district policies generally allow teaching about religious holidays but not celebrating them. Sacred music is usually allowed to be performed, based on their musical value.

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