If you are a Christian, would you greet your friends "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"?
For Eddie DelValle, a pastor of With Love Ministries, a small church in downtown Orlando, that is not the way to go, and for that reason, he's saddened Disney has omitted the word "Christmas" from its billboard to celebrate its annual December party.
DelValle noticed Disney's billboard "Mickey's Very Merry Party" - with Christmas missing from the sign. The pastor told OneNewsNow that the Disney billboard always says "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" and he was surprised to see the change this year.
In response to the omission, DelValle made a series of calls to the employees of Disney to ask them about the billboard.
"They weren't aware that the billboards did not have 'Christmas' on there," DelValle told OneNewsNow.
Eventually, the pastor was able to talk to one of Disney's employees who was familiar with the change on the billboard. DelValle said the employee told him that the company was trying a new marketing strategy.
The marketing strategy, the employee told DelValle, was designed to avoid offending non-Christians.
The Orlando pastor then explained to the employee that Christ - not Mickey - is the reason to celebrate the season and that it is called Christmas because it is Jesus' birthday.
"Well, that was the purpose of my call: to [ask] Why do we even celebrate birthdays then?" DelValle relayed to OneNewsNow what he told the Disney employee. "You know, if I have a birthday, I would hope they would make me the guest of honour and mention my name at the birthday party."
As a result, DelValle is encouraging everyone to rethink how they celebrate Christmas. He said he has no plan to spend money on going to Disney this year. He even suggested that Christians might consider spending their Christmas season somewhere else.
Meanwhile, DelValle is not the only person who noticed the missing Christmas. John Frost, a writer of no religious affiliation, wrote on Disney's blog about the billboard and expressed his dissatisfaction.
Frost said he is 100 per cent in favour of Disney trying to be more inclusive in its marketing, contracting, hiring and story-telling. However, he also pointed out that the word Christmas is more important on the billboard and not less.
"You don't cut the word Christmas out of your marketing and suddenly become more inclusive," Frost wrote. "You do it by actually being more inclusive, celebrating additional holidays, recognising there are other cultures out there as valid and (often) more ancient than your own."
Frost added that there is no excuse not to use the word Christmas to advertise a Christmas party.
