To One and All

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours!

Steve, Tonya, Evan, and Peanut Heartsill

A Victory for "Christmas"

Several weeks ago, I featured a blog about a New York State city who had changed the name of their annual Christmas parade, to make it more “inclusive.” Well, their desire for being inclusive really, really, really didn’t work—if you go by numbers of people who attended!

The annual Patchogue, New York, annual parade of boats on a Long Island river that dropped “Christmas” from its name has apparently lost lots of supporters. About 1,000 people showed up Sunday for the Patchogue Boat Parade of Lights. That’s 500 fewer than usually showed up when it was called the Patchogue Christmas Boat Parade.

Brookhaven-based fireworks company Fireworks by Grucci dropped its sponsorship after the Greater Patchogue Foundation removed “Christmas” from the parade’s name. The change was made after some residents complained the name wasn’t inclusive enough.

Grucci vice president Philip Butler opposes the secularization of Christmas. His supporters encouraged area residents to stay away from the parade on Patchogue River.

Well, the way I see it, in two years, the inclusiveness of their decision will kill the annual parade and it will be no more. Maybe as it should be! Or, do you think the parade officials will listen to the majority of people and change the name back to what had worked for years?

I’m going to keep watching this and see what happens in the future.

Dropping the name “Christmas” to be inclusive? Give me a break!

Merry What?

You’d better watch out. You’d better not pout. I’m telling you why. Jesus isn’t coming to town! At least not to one American city.

In Washington, D.C., there’s a new Christmas war battling. No, it has nothing to do with the Obama’s arriving in town.

Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December.

The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday. In lifting lyrics from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square, and the meaning of Christmas.

“We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you,” said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. “Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists, and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion.”

Edwords said the purpose isn’t to argue that God doesn’t exist or change minds about a deity, although “we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people’s minds.”

There was no debate at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority over whether to take the ad. Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the agency accepts ads that aren’t obscene or pornographic.

What do you think? Should the transit authority have allowed this? Why? Why not?