Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

That wraps up Christmas for 2009. We had a great time with a bunch of my wife's family, including some little ones, which always make Christmas special. I hope you had a wonderful day (i.e. "a Merry Christmas").

If there are any comments in the future, I'll read them and respond. I may do this again next year, or maybe not.

Have a Happy New Year 2010!

An Open Letter to Retailer

In my penultimate post before Christmas, I'm going to pose an open letter to retailers.

Dear Retailers:

Most sources I read say that Christmas spending is down, or at best about the same as last year. Most cite the recession and unemployment as reasons.

I'm sure those to factors are quite important. But I think there is another reason contributing to lackluster sales: YOU'VE TAKEN THE FUN OUT OF IT!

If you really want to break out in Christmas sales in 2010, putting up decorations the day before Halloween isn't the way to do it. The big Black Friday sale isn't either. Every store has those covered.

No, if you want to differentiate your business for Christmas 2010, make Christmas shopping fun again! Shoppers having fun are documented to spend more money.

If you have forgotten how to do this, let me offer some suggestions.
1. Put up LOTS of Christmas decorations...AFTER Thanksgiving.
2. Let your employees wear Santa hats or elf outfits or whatever they think is fun.
3. Encourage every employee to say joyfully "Merry Christmas!" to every customer.
4. Bring in high school choirs to sing Christmas carols.
5. If you're a big store have your OWN Santa Claus, not the mall clone. GIVE AWAY Santa pictures if you REALLY want to draw a crowd of shoppers!
6. Offer free gift wrapping!
7. Drop the imaginary pretense that any of your customers are shopping for any holiday but Christmas.

That's it! Try that "Old School" approach, and I would bet your sales increase substantially. (If so, you may send commission checks to me directly)

Take care and Merry Christmas.

No Fun Allowed!

Because I was tardy, here's a special Christmas Sale: Two for One today!

As I’ve written these blogs, the root of my irritation has begun to gel in my mind. While the “Merry Christmas” stuff bugs me, it’s more the symptom than the illness. Maybe I have a better handle on that now.

The problem is Christmas Spirit has been quashed. See if any of you remember this:

I recall the Christmas play at school. All the kids dress very nicely, all the parents sat on cold metal seats in the acoustically-perfect grade school gym, and both parents and children were bouncing with anticipation and smiles. The kids sang Christmas songs, which they all knew by heart, and the parents smiled and cheered despite most of the children singing off key and mispronouncing a word here and there. Afterwards, there were always Christmas cookies (nobody made “holiday cookies”), fudge, and other treats.

When you went to the stores and the malls, there were Christmas decorations everywhere…and music. In the stores, they were all cheery; employees wore Santa hats and smiled. When you checked out, each clerk smiled broadly and said “Merry Christmas!”

And, they didn’t say it mechanically, in a Ben Stein voice. They didn’t have to: they had the Christmas Spirit and it just came out of their mouths as easily as “Hello!”

Kids actually were organized in school and walked neighborhoods caroling. It was great to get a cup of hot apple cider or a cookie after singing. At every house at which the carolers sang, the occupants came outside regardless of the weather and smiled and laughed.

Now before all you young ‘uns say “OK Mark, you’re talking about the ‘olden days’ again you old fart!”, I’m not! I’m describing what my children did, 15 years ago! This is not ancient history.

The bottom line I’m getting to is this: The politically-correct crowd has done more than just purge “Merry Christmas” from our vernacular. They have purged the FUN from Christmas.

The Christmas Spirit was FUN and JOY. Now it’s just DOLLARS and CENTS.

What month is this?

Sorry I’ve missed a few days…last minute shopping and projects at work stole me away.

But, Sunday, I went shopping at the mall. While I love Christmas and especially children opening gifts, I really hate shopping at the mall anytime, especially with the crowds at Christmastime.

So I walked the 14 miles from my parking spot to the entrance, and I was not disappointed: the crowd looked like a sardine can except the fish were moving. And I noticed the din of so many people milling around.

Wait a minute? Din of the people? Where is the Christmas music?

Even though this is one of my “Christmas Spirit” stores, they had no Christmas music playing. As I looked around, I could find next to no Christmas decorations as well. All this despite having a “Christmas Headquarters” with decorations at one corner of the store.

I made my selections and headed for the cashiers. Pleasantly surprised, I found they had every one open and the lines really weren’t too bad. I made my purchases and paid.

The cashier looked at me and smiled. Now, the moment of truth: will he say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”??? I waited in anticipation (sort of).

“Have a good one!” he said with a big friendly smile, just as if it was August 19th, rather than December 19th.

“You too.”

I would have gladly settled for “Happy Holidays”.

Vote with your Wallet

Last night, I was headed home and an accident had traffic backed up for miles. So, I exited instead and decided to wait it out having dinner. I was supposed to grill a steak, so I decided to stick with that theme and went “down undah” to Outback Steakhouse.

I’m not going to give a complete restaurant review; let’s just say I would go back.

But the highlight wasn’t the Bloomin’ Onion, but the waiter (that’s Old School for ‘server’). He was quite attentive, and at the end of the meal he stopped by as I was putting on my coat.

“Happy Holidays!” he said with a smile. And then, after an ever-so-brief hesitation, he said “and Merry Christmas!” Of course I returned the greeting to him as well.

Now, my friend Dean thinks I’m being silly to segregate my shopping to pro-Christmas stores. But, you vote with your wallet, so that is what I do.

And as for “Dave” at Outback and his Christmas Spirit…I tipped him and extra $10 beyond the 20% for service. On the receipt, I wrote “An extra tip for saying ‘Merry Christmas’! Thank you.”

It serves no point to protest in silence. Let people know when what they do is appreciated…or not!

Old School

You know a term that is becoming annoying to me? "Old School". It seems that almost everything I do is "old school."

I officiate high school football. I went to my first game after moving to the area. One of the younger officials (i.e. ALL the other officials) said "Oh...you carry your penalty flag in your back pocket. That's cool...Old School."

Well, wanting to fit in — after all a good official is supposed to be invisible — I tucked my flag inside the front of my belt. Five times I stuck my hand into my hip pocket only to find lint. Yes, I'm old school.

One of my coworkers is pregnant. I think pregnancy is really exciting, so it's fun to see her changes each day. I asked if she was taking Lamaze classes. "Oh...that's old school. They're called 'birthing classes' now." Ok. Old school again.

I have a buddy who's in his LATE 30s. He played guard for the Boise State University football team. If you follow football, you know they have an outstanding program, and it's no surprise that Mike is a BIG MAN. I said "You played pulling guard?" Mike, in the always tactless manner of an athlete replied "well, they haven't been called that for several decades, but yes, I played guard." Hmmm. Old school again.

These changes are inevitable. Things evolve; they get better. I can understand that.

But with Christmas, I'm happy to be "Old School". What has happened is de-evolution (see "Devo"). The traditions have devolved into something more like a feeding frenzy than a celebration of the birth of the Son of God.

Old school was a smile and a hearty "Merry Christmas!" from every store clerk; now you're lucky to get "have a nice day"...in English anyway.

Old school was kids saving their allowance to buy mom, dad, and brothers and sisters presents; now, mom and dad buy the presents for the kids to give (and teach the kids zero about managing money and responsibility).

Old school was a Christmas play at school where every parent (non-Christians alike) smiled, laughed at their children and had one fantastic time building a fantastic memory; now, well, you just better not mention the word "Christmas" in school. It's about as unwanted as the "n-word".

Old school was Christmas decorations the city put up and Christmas music in ever store. Everyone was excited and happy. Now, God forbid any city acknowledge that Christmas even exists, and once in a while you MAY hear Christmas music if you listen closely. The excitement is still there, but only after the stores count their money.

When it comes to Christmas, Old School was so much better in every way.

King of Christmas!

This is one of the best Christmas Spirit stories I've seen in a long time, so I wanted to pass it along.

It seems that a National Guard (thank you!) 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry Unit from Maine is now in Indiana in preparation for deployment in Aftghanistan in January. They weren't going to be able to afford to travel home for Christmas before leaving for deployment.

So, STEPHEN KING came to the rescue and donated ALMOST all the money for the trip. I say almost because the trip was to cost $13,000. King thought that was an unlucky number, so he donated $12,299 and his personal assistant donated $1.

Nice job and great spirit!

The "New" Christmas Tradition?

CBS recently ran a perverted Frosty the Snowman cartoon, said "a combination of the raunchy television show "How I Met Your Mother" with the children's holiday classics "Frosty the Snowman".'

Now, I went to college on an athletic scholarship and spent a lot of time around athletes. I can swear with the best of them. I watched a clip from this video, and I can see a couple of guys in a locker room making this up and laughing hysterically.

What I can't see, is this on network television.

The Crude snowman encouraged awhite rabbit in the movie to have sexual fantasies: "You should have hit that. Dude, your pants were already off. You had a classroom full of people to cheer you on. And you can't knock her up because it's a dream."

And it's not all sexual locker room humor. He also rejoices in "scoring front row seats to a lethal injection."

As I said, I can't claim I would laugh at some of this in a locker room, but on network TV? What are you people thinking? Do you have no boundaries?

What's next?

PC Gone Nuts

From Comcast’s website:

“Plan & Organize features Comcast's popular Tip of the Day - a full section devoted to helping customers leverage the power of broadband to make the holidays better. These tips are supplemented by Planning Calendars, developed by shopping and party-planning experts to help relieve many of the stresses associated around the holidays.

Want to know when the best time for decorating your tree is? What about determining the right time to send Hanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa packages to long-distance family and friends?”

Ummm. Kwanzaa packages…and Hanukah?

I didn’t know much about Kwanzaa, so I did some research. I found two important things:

1. Gifts are not a “necessary” part of Kwanzaa, but if given they are supposed to be for their children and “educational”, such as books or learning games. Hmmm…Christmas could benefit from that idea!

2. Kwanzaa is NOT a religious holiday, thus many, or even most people who celebrate Kwanzaa are ALSO Christians, celebrating Christmas.

As for Hanukah, many of my Jewish friends give small gifts to their children on Hanukah, but more to placate the children that for any Jewish tradition. Many also give gifts at Christmas.

So, why does Comcast make believe that anything but a few hundredths of a percent of those long distance packages are NOT about Christmas? This is political correctness gone absolutely NUTS!

Just the Facts, Ma'am

As I've been writing this blog and perusing the Internet and print for interesting topics, I've been pleasantly surprised to see there is a growing number of articles, opinion pieces, and polls. I found these results over the weekend.


A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 72% of adults prefer "Merry Christmas", while 22% like "Happy Holidays" instead.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/holidays/november_2009/most_americans_prefer_merry_christmas_to_happy_holidays

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans and 70% of adults not affiliated with either major political party like store signs that wish them a "Merry Christmas," compared to just 58% of Democrats.

Last year, 68% of all adults wanted holiday signs to read "Merry Christmas," while 25% preferred "Happy Holidays."

That last tidbit is the most promising. That means that the number of people preferring "Merry Christmas" rose 4% in the last year, while the number of people preferring "Happy Holidays" dropped 3%.

I'm still confounded, however, why so many stores thumb their noses at their customers overwhelming preference.

Mats

I moved into my home in October 2002. In my shopping for furnishings, I set out to find a door mat for the front door. As it was nearing Christmas, I decided to get two: a “regular” one and a Christmas one.

As I began looking for the seasonal mat, I discovered that there were dozens of styles and messages: “Happy Holidays”, “Season’s Greetings”, “’Tis the Season”, and the like. But, there wasn’t a single mat that said “Merry Christmas”!

I even went to a couple of store managers and asked if they could order one. To our joint amazement, they could not find one in their supplier’s catalog!

I was finally able to find one at Walmart (One of my Christmas Spirit stores), and I thank you for carrying the obvious.

As you are out shopping this year, or even online, take a moment and notice how difficult it is to find anything, from Christmas Cards (for crying out loud!) to door mats that say “Christmas”.

When you find this, would you please take time to complain to the store manager? That’s the only way we can reverse the Purging Of Christmas.

Winter Break

So we’re rapidly approaching one of the real highlights of the school year: Christmas vacation.

OOPS! How could I be so “intolerant”? I mean Winter Break.

Yes, your schools…the organizations that you PAY to educate your children, (supposedly) the way that you, the “owners” want…have excised “Christmas” from their vocabulary. There is no Christmas Pagent; no Christmas lunch; no Christmas vacation.

Those words have been censored from your schools by the very people that we entrust to expose our children to ideas without censorship.

Why did they do this?

Because you let them. It’s really that simple.

It began with Easter vacation. “They” were a bit more subtle then. First, they re-arranged their calendars so that Easter was not the focus…or sometimes, not even included in the vacation. This gave them the justification to say “Well, we call it Spring Break because Easter falls on different days each year and we need consistency.”

And, we sat by and nodded.

Now, over the last 4 or 5 years, Christmas is completely gone. It’s fine to have a big tattoo that says “God is dead” but don’t you dare utter “Merry Christmas” in school!

Is this what we want from our schools? Censorship of our core beliefs under the misguided label of “Tolerance”?

How long do you think it will be before December 25th is not among the days of “Winter Break”?

We need to stop this perilous slide now. Let’s start with bringing back Christmas.

**************

Here's a quick update from Radio Shack. I called the media relations and they assured me that "Christmas" was included in their advertising. Unfortunately they didn't send any links, but I did find one commercial that mentions "Christmas", so I will remove them.

Interestingly as well, searching for "Christmas" on their website yields zero hits, but I did find at least one product (Christmas Karaoke) with "Christmas" in the description. It DID find the same product when I searched for "Karaoke", so I must conclude that their search engine is not all that good.

Kay Jewelers: They have the Christmas Spirit

Just a short entry on a Sunday.

I have a new store for the CHRISTMAS SPIRIT list: Kay Jewelers.

They have a fantastic and touching commercial running where a man gives a gift to his deaf girlfriend, explaining that he is still rough with the sign language.

"But I learned a new one..." and he signs "Merry Christmas"!

And, of course, Every Kiss Begins with Kay (their registered trademark)

Thank you, and Merry Christmas Kay Jewlers!

Leaving the "Silent Majority!"

Last night, I did something I've never done before: I left the "silent majority."

Having become fed up with excuses of not saying "Christmas" because "someone might be offended" or "one person complained", I decided it was no longer appropriate to be silent.

So, after completing my project shopping list, I headed for Lowe's after dinner. I found what I needed, checked out and asked to speak to the manager. The usual horrified look appeared on the clerk's face, but I assured here "I want to compliment your store."

When the manager arrived, I told him that I'd never been in his store before, but he was looking at a new customer "solely because of Lowe's attitude to Christmas...'The Christmas Destination'" as their website proclaims.

Following this, I drove quite literally across the street to Home Depot. I went in and again asked to speak with the manager. I politely told her that I would not be shopping at Home Depot because they censor Christmas and I was tired of being in the silent majority.

She was actally surprised and told me that all the employees support Christmas, were having a Christmas party (hmmm...my own employer refuses to have a Christmas party!), and then produced several print ads with "Christmas trees" in them.

I felt a bit sorry for her, because her attitude clearly didn't reflect the corporate attitude. I showed her the web page on my iPhone, and I think she was surprised.

And, it could actually be that some ad writer in the bowels of their corporate marketing department did this on his/her own. If that is the case, I would sure hope Home Depot disciplines the person...maybe make them manage a store for a week and see just how difficult it is to get customers in the door and keep them coming back.

With the economy what it is, I am surprised that Home Depot would do something as ignorant as the "Holiday Tree" web page, especially when their chief competitor is often, as here in Vancouver, directly across the street.

At any rate, it felt quite liberating to speak my mind. Hopefully, both managers will forward my comments up the corporate ladder.

Just say YES to Merry Christmas (especially to DISH Network)

So, with the pervasive effort of businesses to strike “Christmas” from the lexicon, I’m still left with the question “why?”

Consider that the National Retail Foundation reports that 192 million Americans spent $41.2 Billion (with a B) between Friday and Sunday this year1 (November 27-29). Further, they say shoppers will buy more than $23 Billion (that B again) on gift cards2.

These are ENORMOUS numbers…that’s over almost $350 per person spent on Thanksgiving weekend. It’s obviously a fair estimate to say that the majority of these 192 million people were CHRISTMAS shopping.

With that in mind, and considering that some businesses to as much as 50% of the annual revenue in December, why on earth would any business risk offending the very shoppers that keep their stores afloat?

This is the true mystery of Christmas for me.

The only answer I can even postulate is that they know we’re just too stinkin’ lazy to actually do anything about it.

Let’s change our behavior! Let’s all shop at “Christmas Spirit” stores and not the “Humbug” stores. Let’s go back to joyfully saying “Merry Christmas!” with each purchase.

Remember how wonderful Christmas was when you were a child? Let’s give that legacy to our children and grandchildren and CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS this year and every year hence.

Just say YES! to “Merry Christmas!”

1: http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=841
2: http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=831


CHRISTMAS SCORECARD

Something good has happened! Old Navy (and parent) have been deluged with complaints and have actually responded. Beginning about December 1, they began actually running a Christmas commercial!

So, I will remove them from my Humbug list. I don’t think that realizing your revenues are going down the toilet and changing your mind ranks a “Christmas Spirit” rating, but maybe next year…IF THEY’RE GOOD!

However, there is a new CHRISTMAS SPIRIT addition: Dish Network. This is from their website http://dish.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=427551:

“Since being called a “Patriot” on last night’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” (http://bit.ly/4KW3xs), DISH Network has received an outpouring of both support and displeasure from people across the country over the use of the phrase “Merry Christmas” in a holiday greeting to customers. DISH Network acknowledges and respects the diversity of faith in our country, but at the same time recognizes the overwhelming majority that celebrate Christmas. We cannot imagine that Americans of all faiths would not want to embrace the spirit of the holiday and join us in wishing Christian Americans a very Merry Christmas.” (bolding is mine)

And MERRY CHRISTMAS to you DISH NETWORK!!

We do have an addition to the HUMBUG list: RADIO SHACK

"The Shack" has been working on an effort to 'rebrand' the company, and the nickname "The Shack" is part of it.

Too bad their new image COMPLETLY ELIMINATES CHRISTMAS from the company. As I always do when I get a tip on a company, I went to their website and searched for "Christmas". Often, I'll find a company that doesn't actually promote Christmas, but does sell things with the word Christmas in their title, such as "Christmas Cards" or "Christmas ornaments".

However, with Radio Shack, there isn't a single hit for "Christmas". That really sounds more like censorship than just being Politically Correct.

So, sorry 'Shack, I'll be buying my electronics elsewhere.

Diversity?

We’ve all been pummeled by the two holy words of the extreme left for decades now: Diversity and Tolerance. By now, most of us know that what they really mean is ‘accept what we deem diverse and tolerate our views’, but there is no reciprocation.

However, it’s oddly ironic how the holy concepts of Diversity and Tolerance are suspended for the Christmas season.

If Tolerance was truly something that every American subscribed to, not just demanded by PC leftists, there would be ultimate tolerance for Christmas, wouldn’t there? After all, we’re told that we should be tolerant of others and their views so as to not offend them.

Unless you’re Christian. Christian views are not to be tolerated.

Then there is the celebration of Diversity. We are told that to be a proper citizen, we must rejoice in other cultures and their customs. Frankly, I don’t have a problem with that because I’ve always thought and acted that way without a pointed head telling me to.

But I despise the hypocrisy of the left and their claims of celebrating diversity.

Consider: if you truly believe in Diversity, would you not celebrate each of the seasonal holidays separately in order to Celebrate the Diversity of each Culture?

No one truly interested in “Diversity” would lump three (or four or however many holidays have been “discovered” at Christmas time) fundamentally different holidays into the “Holiday Season” unless it was purposefully intent on ERASING diversity…at least erasing Christian Culture.

Truly, the PC crowd is caught with their pants around their ankles on this. You can’t have diversity while simultaneously trying to expunge one culture from the environment.

If we only had a press that actually asked questions, such as “why the hypocrisy?” instead of just publishing the latest poll data….


CHRISTMAS SCORECARD

Unfortunately, I have to put a store on the HUMBUG list that I like. In fact, I just spent $191 starting a project there last week. But…they won’t be getting any more money during the Christmas Season.

You may remember from my first post that nothing chaps my ass more than substituting “Holiday” for “Christmas” when the use is specific to Christmas, and excludes any other “holiday”.

Well, HOME DEPOT is up to it again. You may remember a few years ago, they ran a newspaper ad advertising “Holiday Trees.” They were inundated with complaints and retracted it saying it was a “typo”. Uh huh.

Well, they’ve made another typo this year, and the strange coincidence is, IT’S THE SAME TYPO!

This year, we are treated to “Holiday Tree Safety” tips.

Now, help me here…which holiday is it that has a tree?

Hmmm…I haven’t see a Kwanza Tree lot. My Jewish friends have never shown me their Chanukah tree.

Could it be CHRISTMAS?

Yes, Mr. or Ms. Home Depot, it is a CHRISTMAS TREE, not a “holiday tree”. Take a look:




CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
On the other hand I am PLEASED AS PUNCH to tell you that Home Depot’s chief competitor, LOWE’S recognized and promotes CHRISTMAS and CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

They actually call themselves “Your Christmas Destination.”

Where are the complaints? Where are the lawsuits???

It looks like I’ll be finishing my project and buying additional lights at LOWE’S, not Home Depot.

The Best Defense is a Good Offense?

For a number of years, we have been subject to an unusually well-organized campaign to strike the word “Christmas” from our daily lives. Despite the obvious evidence that this campaign truly is organized, there is no indication that I am aware of as to exactly who or whom “runs” the organization, if you will.

We’ve been told that it might (might???) offend someone who is not Christian if you say “Merry Christmas!”

HUH??

I’ve done quite a bit of searching and I cannot find a single legal case filed by someone offended by someone at a retail business saying “Merry Christmas.” I’ve searched further and can find no evidence of anyone ever even complaining that someone at private business said “Merry Christmas” (yes, there are cases of complaints and suits against the government).

And, why is it they are petrified of offending even one person by saying “Merry Christmas”, while at the same time offending the 81% of Americans who classify themselves as “Christian”? 1

What I want to know is this: First, WHAT exactly is offensive about saying “Merry Christmas!” to someone, even if that person is not Christian? Second, what is the apparently extreme risk that businesses face when an employee says “Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!”?

I mean, I’m not saying “I want you to become a Christian!” nor am I promoting my religion at all — not that there is anything wrong with that either since I have a constitutional right to do so. What I am really saying is “Share in my joy during this most-important holiday for me.” It’s like saying “It’s a beautiful morning — share its wonderfulness!”

“Be joyful! Celebrate! I wish you peace!”

Yep, those are truly offensive concepts.

I’ll be honest with you: I don’t really have a clue as to how anyone would find “Merry Christmas!” anything but wonderful, regardless of your religion or absence of it.

And what about those folks who are not Christian? I have quite a few Jewish friends, and a typical exchange around the Christmas season would be:

“Merry Christmas!”
“And to you. And Happy Chanukah!”
“And you too!”

Yes, that is truly offensive. Subversive. Just Awful. No wonder so many people want that kind of bigotry deleted from our lives.


1: http://pewforum.org/publications/reports/poll2002.pdf page 49.

What's This All About?

For the past several years, I've become more and more tired of the systematic purging of the word "Christmas" from Christmas. I have thought of writing a blog for the last couple of years, but haven't been sufficiently motivated.

That changed last Thursday while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. I'll give credit to NBC on their web description as "Heralding the start of the Christmas season". However, the commentators were altogether different.

When Santa Claus appeared in the last float of the parade, one commentator said that Santa Claus "signalled the beginning of the HOLIDAY SEASON."

Really? Which holiday is it that has a Santa Claus? Could it be Christmas?

I don't mind when the "Holiday Season" term is truly used to describe the period of time from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. But when it is used solely as a substitute (which is the vast majority of the time) for the specific word Christmas that offends me. I'm actually surprised that the anti-Christmas Nazis have not made it improper to say "Santa Claus" in a goverment building, since "Santa" means Saint.

I also am offended by stores that ignore the fact that Christmas shopping supplies a huge chunk of their annual revenue, instead pandering to some PC-crazed wingnut.

So, for the next 25 days, I will be posting daily blogs with my opinions on a number of Christmas issues. I'll also update a list of stores I have a high opinions of, and those for which I harbor a low opinion. You could call it my Merry Christmas scorecard.

Here's my first Christmas Scorecard:

The Christmas Spirit:
To be listed in "The Christmas Spirit" category, a store must acknowledge and appreciate Christmas shoppers.

Being an outdoors person, the first two are easy:

Cabellas: This outdoor store has about everything you could imagine for camping, boating, fishing, and hunting. And, they have a CHRISTMAS SALE, not a holiday sale, and actually say Merry Christmas!

Bass Pro Shop: Another outdoors store, Bass Pro has pretty much everything Cabellas does, including a superior Christmas Spirit!

Walmart: Christmas sales, Christmas decorations, and Christmas Spirit. Thank you Walmart!

The Humbug:
The Humbug list comprises businesses that would make Scrooge proud. The Political Correct attitude is in full swing.

Old Navy: For many years, I bought my daughter a fairly substantial gift certificate to Old Navy for Christmas. Then I heard they would not let their employees mention Christmas. I went in to buy the gift certificate, and the clerk said "Happy Holidays" I smiled and said "and Merry Christmas!" She told me she wasn't allowed to say "Merry Christmas."

Then I perused their web site. Sure enough, there is no mention of Christmas, and very, very intentional excision of the word where it would normally go. For example, you are advised to do your "holiday shopping" (which holiday would that be, Christmas?) at Old Navy, where you can find something for "everyone on your list" (which list would that be, a Christmas list?)

We're also advised that the "holiday shopping season has begun" (uh..which holiday is it that we purchase gifts for? Is it Christmas?). Please....I want to barf.

By the way, the parent of Old Navy also owns The Gap and Banana Republic.