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Each winter as Christmas nears, Americans are treated to a media creation known as the "War on Christmas" and the pretended righteous response to it. The theory behind the War on Christmas is that there are legions of anti-Christian or hyper-politically-correct people who are out to remove all references to Christmas from the public square, and these pseudo-militants need to be stopped before they succeed in eradicating Christmas altogether. The correct way to fight them is simply to beat them at their own game and to make sure that stores, public events, and personal greetings contain as many references to "Christmas" as possible. "Holiday" won't do it; "holiday" is, in fact, one of the enemy's tools used to kill "Christmas." This may sound laughable, but millions of Americans take this absolutely seriously. Unfortunately, it leads to a strange, indirect form of anti-Semitism, where the targets of the pro-Christmas warriors are Jewish-run businesses.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Boycott

In 2005, the right-wing American Family Association published on its website a list of companies that allegedly "banned Christmas' from their retail ads, in-store promotions or television commercials." "Banning" Christmas, a term the AFA uses imprecisely, only amounts to using the word "Christmas" selectively - some would say judiciously. The full list, as viewed online that December, identified active boycotts against the seven worst corporate offenders. Office Max and Best Buy were tagged with the brief complaints that they produced "no 'Christmas' in their advertising." The online search engine of the office supply company Staples was found to offer merely three results for "Christmas." Kmart dared to refer online customers who "need it by Christmas" to a "Holiday Shipping Dates" section, while Nordstrom, even more egregiously, published a "holiday shipping" schedule that referred to "December 25."

Groups like the AFA do not use scientific standards to measure which companies are neglecting Christmas. They do not consider or compare the demographics of the stores' clientele, the percentages of company profits earned during the Christmas season, whether the stores sell items intended to be given as Christmas gifts, or the number of references to "holiday" versus "Christmas." They simply find an examples of stores that someone thinks don't look quite Christmasy enough and they boycott them.

Other crusaders also put retailers through the ringer. Macy's, after being attacked by

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