So my department sent out email flyers for the annual “Holiday” party last week. Although I am not a Christian, I regard the fear of acknowledging Christmas in American public life (other than as a commercial event) as pathological. I was interested in how the flyer handled any mention of Christmas.
The flyer generally conformed to the politically correct requirements of today’s corporate culture: the party was called a “Holiday Party” (fine) and there were no overt references to Christmas. I noticed one small thing: of the six clip-arts on the flyer, one was a Christmas tree. The others were snowmen and elves. I thought that was a reasonable approach for a company that has a high proportion of Jews and people from non-Christian countries. A menorah wouldn’t have bothered me either.
Then I get into work this morning and there’s a new email: Please disregard last week’s flyer. A new flyer was attached in which the only change was that the Christmas tree was replaced by bells.
I would like to call attention to this craven display. My plan is to reply to the second flyer to the distribution list, saying that I accidentally deleted the second flyer, and to please let me know what the difference was from the first flyer. That way, whoever changed the flyer has to fess up in public, but I don’t look like a troublemaker. Do you agree with my strategy? What would you do?
Note: Some people may disagree with my opinion that removing the Christmas tree was stupid. I don’t want to debate that point, so if you have a problem with it, please start your own thread. Of course, if you agree with me, feel free to post :).