Christmas Ban

Here are some examples of what we are likely to encounter during the Christmas season. I have either witnessed these first hand or heard about them on the news. 
2000- New York, N.Y.C.C. A policy involving 1,200 schools, encouraged students to bring their menorahs for Hanukkah and Islamic crescents for Ramadan, reflecting Judaism and Islam, but Christmas decorations were prohibited.      

2001- "Orvis Clothing Sales On Line" had a sweater with holly, fir tree and snowflake designs, in red, green and white, advertised as a "Winter Solstice Sweaters".

2001 - San Francisco, Ca. The word "holiday" is not a proper noun. yet it is appearing as such. In a December "Gap Clothing" ad the slogan read "Holiday is here". If it had read "Holidays are here" or "A holiday is here" it would have made sense, but as it was  the wording was incorrect.  
2001 - Oakland, Ca. The merchants' organizations for Jack London Square and City Center advertised for the December line up of free events to draw shoppers to these shopping districts. In both cases Hanukkah and Kwanzaa events were listed by their proper names but Christmas was not. Instead the Christmas event  were called a "Holiday Tree Lighting" and a "Holiday Program". The switching of "Christmas" with generic "holiday" is seen in newspapers, magazines, and elsewhere when describing traditions that are unique to Christmas.
"Christmas stocking" becomes "holiday stocking", "Christmas carol" becomes "holiday carol". It's also not unusual for T V specials, ice skating shows and various kinds of entertainment in December to be called "holiday entertainment" even when the content of them is entirely Christmas content. "Holiday" functions as a kind of disclaimer.

2003 - Oakland, Ca. At the conclusion of Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir's Christmas concert, a member of the choir called out to the audience "Happy Holidays, whatever they may be!" A simple and direct "Merry Christmas!" was thought to be not as appropriate as this inclusive, recompensing expression.

This suggests that in a situation where an event is admitted to be about Christmas, there is felt a need for some sort of atonement. Christmas is almost never given a duty or penance-free go ahead.

2004 - Plano, Texas. Parents were informed that only white paper napkins would be allowed at a school party - no Christmas red and green would be permitted at the generic "Winter Break" party.

2004 - Pasco, Florida. Officials decided to take down Christmas trees from county facilities saying such displays could cause problems. Also, a school administrator stopped a boy from entering his classroom because the "goody bag" he had brought to the school party contained candy canes with a religious message attached to them that told a story " The Legend of the Candy Cane".
2004 - Freeland, Michigan.  Children came home from school worried about a  taboo pair of words that were the equivalent of swearing. The phrase that would get them in trouble if they said it was "Merry Christmas".

2004 - New York, N.Y. Federated Department Stores, a company owning Macys, Bloomingdales, and other stores, announced the official switch in their slogan from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays".

2004 - Washington state. A teacher replaced the word "Christmas" with "winter" in a song" Carol from an Irish Cabin" that was performed in a school concert. When a  surprised mother of one of the children asked the school about it, she was told they didn't have an agenda about omitting Christmas. However in the same concert there was a song mentioning Hanukkah by name several times, and also the folk song "Green sleeves" was sung, which has the same melody ( but different words) as "What Child is this".

2004 - Oakland. Ca. An e -mail came to my partner from a relative saying "We don't like seeing "Happy Holidays" all the time either. It doesn't seem to mean anything. We decided it's simpler to just send New Year's cards and avoid the whole thing."

2004 - Denver, Colorado. A church choir was not allowed to sing carols in a downtown parade.The parade originated as a Christmas parade.

2004 - San Francisco, Ca. S.F.Ballet denies it intends to excise "Christmas" from the Nutcracker Ballet, but the following season (2005) excises "Christmas" from The Nutcracker story anyway.

2007 - Oakland CA. An employee at the historic landmark "Chapel of the Chimes" Columbarium stated she would be working to stop the annual Christmas decorating because "someone might feel oppressed by the red and green", even though no one had complained about the decorations. Other reasons sited for this change were that "If you go to the Holy Land you won't see red and green decorations in December", and that "Not all holidays are destined to go on into eternity".

2007- San Francisco Bay Area, Recipients of Christmas cards that are clearly marked as "Christmas cards", not "Holiday" cards, still refer to them as "Holiday" cards.

2007 - San Francisco Bay Area, A trend has been noticed where individuals have a policy of never saying the phrase "Merry Christmas", only "Happy Holidays" , even though they observe Christmas themselves and know the person they are well wishing do as well. The reason for this is because they want to always be inclusive.