Lowe's listens: 'Christmas trees'

One day after a WorldNetDaily story brought national exposure, the home-improvement retailer Lowe's dropped references to "Holiday Trees" in favor of "Christmas Trees" only.

As WND reported, a Lowe's store in Austin, Texas, featured a banner that referred in English to "Holiday Trees" but in Spanish said "Christmas Trees."

Banner at Lowe's store in Austin, Texas advertised "Holiday" trees in English, but "Christmas" trees in Spanish

The American Family Association says its supporters contacted Lowe's to express their displeasure.

The company responded in a statement: "To ensure consistency of our message and to avoid confusion among our customers, we are now referring to the trees only as 'Christmas Trees.' We have also removed a banner that read 'Holiday Trees' from the front of our stores."

Lowe's, in fact, issued a press release Nov. 8 touting its selection of "Christmas trees," but in its stores, it took a different tack.

AFA President Tim Wildmon said companies that choose to abandon the national observance of Christmas are finding Americans are not afraid to speak out with their pocketbooks.

"It's good to know Lowe's is a company that listens to their customers, a rarity in today's politically correct retail marketplace," he said.

Wildmon added, "Since they can't take Christ out of Christmas, many national retailers are trying to simply do away with Christmas."

The list, he said, includes Kmart, Sears, Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Staples, J.C. Penney, Dell and Best Buy.

After a series of reports by WND, however, Wal-Mart officials satisfied demands by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which had called for a national boycott after accusing the retail giant of discriminating against Christmas while promoting other seasonal holidays by name, such as Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.

More than 425,000 people have signed AFA's petition to stop bans on the use of "Christmas." The petition is being sent to retailers, although Wildmon acknowledged it may not have an impact until next Christmas season.

"Last year we called for a boycott of Federated Stores because they banned 'Merry Christmas,' and this year they are using 'Merry Christmas,'" Wildmon pointed out.

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