We’re all familiar with the annual attempts to clamp down on Christmas. Be it schools banning Christmas songs, Obama’s VA banning Christmas carols and cards for veterans, schools removing Christmas from calendars, or outrage and fainting vapors over the mere of sight of a Christmas tree, we expect this barrage of intolerant insanity each year.
This year, it seems, will be no different. A mall in Long Island, worried about offending people with the sight of Santa, decided to set up a glacier display and barricade Santa within it.
A Long Island mall swapped Santa’s sleigh for something resembling a spaceship and nixed the Christmas tree because it didn’t want to “offend” anyone, irate shoppers told The Post.The Roosevelt Field Mall ditched its traditional holiday village and put Ol’ Saint Nick inside a winter-themed “glacier” instead. But some say the white and blue display looks more like something out of “Star Trek” than “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”“Santa comes along with a decorated tree; he doesn’t come with a spaceship,” Maria Lovdahl fumed.The Williston Park mother of two was shopping Thursday night when she spotted the apparently futuristic Santa photo kiosk.“Me and my husband looked at each other and said, ‘What is that?’ ” Lovdahl recalled. “They said it was because people were offended by the traditional Christmas display, that they had gotten comments in prior years.”
Apparently, the mall relented in the face of the backlash and quickly placed Christmas trees at the display.
The NY Post continues:
By Saturday afternoon, workers claimed a large Christmas tree would be up in about two or three weeks, and three small trees with white lights — but no decorations — were standing next to Santa.There were no Christmas wreaths or other typical holiday decor, and Santa’s helpers weren’t elves, but regular folks with red ties covered in white snowflakes. While the sound of ringing bells was in the air, no traditional carols played.Shopper Cathy Corbett wasn’t impressed, comparing Santa’s workshop to “George Jetson’s pad.”
The backlash and subsequent retreat by the Long Island mall are heartening, and I hope that we continue pushing back against this Grinch-like behavior.
[Featured image via The New York Post]
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