Hallmark Pollutes Sacred Christmas Wording on New Ornament

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Moving right along in the holiday-themed controversies department, Hallmark has tinkered with an age-old carol, inviting the ire of many a Facebook commenter (as well as the support of a few). The ornament above, which reads "don we now our FUN apparel," has been alternatively deemed offensive to gays, heterosexuals, the Gaelic language from whence the song came, and Christmas carols everywhere. The full description reads:

Hang up this flashy sweater to make your tree's outfit complete. With its catchy phrase, Don we now our FUN apparel! everyone will be in on the joke. [Capitalization theirs]

Kansas City News reports that Hallmark will not pull the ornament because its already been put into production. The company offered this statement on Wednesday:

Hallmark created this year's Holiday Sweater ornament in the spirit of fun. When the lyrics to 'Deck the Halls' were translated from Gaelic and published in English back in the 1800s, the word "gay" meant festive or merry. Today it has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation. The trend of wearing festively decorated Christmas sweaters to parties is all about fun, and this ornament is intended to play into that, so the planning team decided to say what we meant: 'fun.' That's the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it.

And amended the statement to this on Thursday:

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.

Man, remember the time when Christmas controversies would wait until after Thanksgiving to flare up?
· Hallmark Regrets Nixing 'Gay' From Christmas Carol [KCTV5]
· American Apparel Voodoo Halloween Window Causes Controversy [Racked]