Just days after the American Family Association launched a campaign to encourage Sam's Club to return "Christmas" to its "holiday" ads, the retailer has announced it will be highlighting the Christian event in future publications.

"Holiday" items in Sam's Club magazine

"In our upcoming December/January 06 Source Magazine we plan to reference specific holidays such as Christmas and others, as we have in the past," the company has announced on its website.

The company's August/September issue included one page of Christmas items, but they were listed as "holiday" items instead, according to the AFA's Randy Sharp, who told WorldNetDaily the campaign produced 218,000 e-mails to the company and uncounted telephone calls.

"We're going to continue to monitor companies," Sharp said. "We're making our list and checking it twice, and we're going to let folks know who's naughty or nice."

The issue was a big one a year ago, when a number of major retailers started to pursue what Sharp described as the "politically correct" procedures of avoiding references to anything Christian. Then arrived the Sam's ad, the first of this season.

"The first thing we did was look at the ad. When we saw the items presented in the ad, they weren't Hanukkah items, they were Christmas tree bulbs, Christmas wrap. It was very clearly a Christmas decorating ad," Sharp told WND.

It said, "Coming soon. Plan ahead for the holidays." And on the page decorated in Christmas fashion were three products: "Holiday Cards," "Holiday Ribbon," "and "Holiday Gift Bags."

The AFA said it notified supporters of the campaign launch on Aug. 22 because of the extensive efforts to remove "Christmas" from the "holiday" season a year ago and the fact this was the first Christmas ad that has appeared.

"Is is very important that as many as possible send an e-mail to Sam's Club. … We will notify major retailers of the number of e-mails sent," the organization said.

The group said it had contacted Wal-Mart, which owns Sam's Club, in June, asking that there be no ban on "Christmas" in advertising and promotions.

"Included in that letter was a CD with the names of 201,595 individuals who signed the petition asking for no ban. Wal-Mart, ignoring the letter, did not even bother to respond," a website posting by AFA Chairman Donald E. Wildmon said.

Sharp said retailers should recognize from the response that those in the United States celebrate "Christmas," not just "holidays."

"Don't lump Christmas into just a generic term," he said. "When you try to please everyone, you please no one."

He said he had talked with Wal-Mart a season ago about the retail giant converting its "Christmas" specials into "holiday" specials. Comments from a few dozen triggered the change, he said he was told.

"A few dozen people caused a major corporation to change their policy," he said.

"People are watching. They're fed up with this kind of activity. They're going to talk with their pocket books," he said.

The Sam's Club statement did include an explanation:

" We have received some comments about using the word 'holiday' in place of Christmas in our August/September 06 Source Magazine," the company said.

"SAM'S CLUB serves 47 million members with different faiths across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil and China. We attempt to take a very thoughtful approach to the words we choose in communicating with our members. In some cases, we use the word 'holiday' or phrase 'happy holidays' to include the season between Thanksgiving and New Year's."

Last year, both Target and Sears were the subject of temporary AFA boycotts because of their ad policies that neglected Christmas. Both campaigns ended, the Target effort after nearly 700,000 people signed an AFA petition on the issue.

Concerned Women for America also worked on the issue last season, compiling three lists of businesses, categorized by their recognition of Christmas as the "reason for the season."

Last year, stores were dubbed "nice" for "honoring the reason for the season" and "scrooges," for having "removed the mention of Christmas from their business."

"Somewhat naughty" straddled the middle, and included Wal-Mart.

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