American Family Association calls for Gap Boycott

As the holiday season begins to approach it’s time for the annual “battle for Christmas”. It’s that time of year where some conservative Christian groups begin to look for companies and organizations that they feel slight the Christian faith by not referring to Christmas by name in advertisements and promotional materials.

One group that is known for its hard work each year to try and bring “Christ back to Christmas” is the American Family Association (AFA). Every year the group creates their “Naughty or Nice” list which consists of three segments:

• Companies FOR “Christmas” – Companies that use the word “Christmas” on a regular basis and is considered Christmas-friendly.
• Companies Marginalizing “Christmas” – Companies that infrequently use the word Christmas or only use it in one advertising medium but not all around.
• Companies Against “Christmas” – Companies that use the word sparingly or only in one unique product description.

This year the AFA is calling for an all out boycott of Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, all companies owned under the Gap Inc. banner, because of their lack of acknowledgment of the Christmas holiday. Two other companies owned by Gap Inc., Piperlime and Athleta, were not named in the boycott.

Currently a television commercial from Gap, entitled “Ready For Holiday Cheer”, has the AFA up in arms because they mention Christmas alongside other winter holidays including Solstice, the Winter Solstice, which is honored in various Pagan traditions including Wicca where it is honored as Yule.

In a press release calling for a boycott the AFA commented:

“Gap compares Christmas to the pagan holiday called "Solstice." Solstice is celebrated by Wiccans who practice witchcraft!”

When it comes right down to it, the issue is not a comparison of Christmas to Solstice but the undeniable fact that these two holiday celebrations, with more in common than the AFA may like to acknowledge, happen around the same time every year and there are thousands of people the world over that celebrate Solstice and not Christmas. Gap is simply acknowledging that they have a wide customer base that consists of people of many spiritual traditions and walks of life who deserve to be acknowledged. This is the same reason that many companies simply use “holidays” rather than any specifically named ones in their advertising this time of year. It is an attempt to be inclusive, not exclusive, where calling everything Christmas leaves out not just Pagans but many other people of many faiths that celebrate many different holidays.

Where you spend your money this time of year and the reasons you do it is personal choice, but it’s important to also stop and remember what this time of year is really about. It’s about giving, sharing and caring for others while celebrating the gift of life. Not debating who gets the naming rights for the whole winter retail season and then withholding from those that don’t put you at the front of the line. Maybe this year instead of spending as much money on retail goods as we might usually do, we could all give a little more to a charity of our religious preference that honors the winter holiday we celebrate and give one less material gift this year. Then we can feel that our hard earned holiday cash is really going to a cause we can get behind.