Fill in Name of Holiday

'Tis that season again -- Halloween is over, which means it's time once more to indulge in Ameria's favorite winter-break tradition. I'm referring of course to the annual debate about whether it's okay to use the word "Christmas" in public. I expressed my opinion last year, in one of my earliest posts and a followup. This year, guess who's weighing in on the anti-Christmas side? Yes, Wal-Mart.

The evil megastore has replaced "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays," and when a customer complained, an employee named Kirby wrote her as follows:

Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than ‘christmas’ which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with ‘christmas’ red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses[sic], mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.

Kirby has been attracting open-mouthed attention for his little display of erudition. Blogger Relapsed Catholic calls him "Dumbest PR Flack, 2005: We Have a Winner!" I found the story in a Good and Happy link where Dilys carves up Kirby like a "holiday" goose.

Season's greetings, Kirby, wherever you end up in your next job!

UPDATE: KIRBY HAS BEEN FIRED!

A link to this has been posted by Good and Happy.

I was sort of hoping that Kirby would rise to become a Wal-Mart vice president and get them really screwed up.