Christmas 1, Wal-Mart 0

Blogger Daithí Mac alerted me to a battle between two titans of dubiousness: the Catholic League and Wal-Mart (Shame on You, Catholic League!). It seems that while Wal-Mart made it possible to search for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa stuff on its website, a religious freak who tried to search the word "Christmas" was directed to an aggregation of "holiday" items. The Catholic League, whose goal is to defend the First Amendment rights of Catholics and to call the secular media to account on their portrayal of Catholics, took some time out from blurring the distinction between being gay and molesting children to denounce this unbalanced secularism.

Well, it gives me the heebie-jeebies agreeing with these guys, but in this case, they're absolutely right. It'd be one thing, as the League's initial press release said, if December holidays for all backgrounds were filed under "holiday," but to treat only Christmas this way denies that Christians, unlike observers of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, see, well, meaning in the "holiday" season. The Catholic League eventually yanked their boycott because Wal-Mart got their act together and started calling Christmas Christmas, though I recently noticed they continue to icky up the season with a special blend of non-values, introducing "a much more aggressive approach to the holidays", which certainly does warm the heart.

Seriously, though, eliminating the word "Christmas" is just boneheaded. How many people do we think search retail websites for a "holiday tree?" Is it seriously news to anyone that not all the folks with trees in their living rooms show up at Christmas Mass? Lots of Americans observe different Christmas traditions because they were once religiously observant or just because they enjoy them, but I've never heard anyone pretending that what they do is something called "holiday." Meaningful acts that make the winter sparkle, whether they're religious or not, should be celebrated for all their diversity, not lumped into one pernicious retail juggernaut. The most recently ridiculous? A woman where I work went around wishing everyone a "good holiday" last week. Apparently it's no longer PC to assume that people you know all celebrate Thanksgiving.