Hallmark Cards is about much more than greetings cards. Much, much more! Look at their online catalogue and you'll see all kinds of stuff. Including "keepsake ornaments", which include 287 "Christmas" ornaments (of which a mere 20 are "faith-related").
One of the "secular" Christmas ornaments is this lovely miniature sweather -- you'll find it about a third of the way down the page -- bearing a phrase from the old Christmas carol "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly". [Isn't it "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie"? Ed.]
But, as you can see, the phrase has been updated a bit. Hallmark seems to think no-one wants to don "gay apparel" any more, so they've changed the adjective to "fun". "Don we now our fun apparel"... Doesn't have quite the same ring, does it. And, as surely as Boxing Day follows Christmas, the change has drawn the wrath of the LGBT "community".
On Thursday a spokesthingy for Hallmark Twittered, "We’ve been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we’re sorry to have caused so much concern. We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products, and in hindsight we realize we shouldn’t have changed the lyrics on the ornament."
Hallmark did not say where negative reaction to the ornament came from, but according to Reuters a leader of at least one gay rights organization said on Friday that the company went overboard in using the word "fun" on the ornament. "The whole thing seems silly to us," lisped Mitch Levine, "community ambassador" of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Kansas City.
Perhaps Hallmark should send Mr(?) Levine one of their "craven apology" cards!
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