• Ad Age, Friday, November 19, 2010 10:51 AM

The percentage of retailers who are recognizing Christmas -- as opposed to the generic "holiday" or "season" -- in their advertising has risen from 20% to 80% during the past five years, according to the American Family Association. In fact, there are only eight retailers left on the advocacy group's list of "Companies Against Christmas," Natalie Zmuda reports, and Randy Sharp, director-special projects at the AFA, suggests that its mission may be soon accomplished.

An NRF/BigResearch survey finds that 91% of American consumers plan to celebrate Christmas this year, Zmuda reports, compared with 5% for Hanukkah and 2% for Kwanzaa. Sharp rejects charges that the boycotts it has organized against retailers who don't hew to the Christmas message constitute bullying in any way. "When your advertising has trees and ornaments and gift wrapping, you're advertising Christmas, so don't call it holiday," he says. Dick's Sporting Goods is this year's main target.

There's a book being flogged,What Do You Do With a Chocolate Jesus, that claims that Christmas as we know it today -- with cards, carols, Santa, gift-giving, reindeer, evergreen trees and all the hoopla that makes many of us jolly -- is basically less than 200 years old. Oh, and there's nothing in the Bible that suggests that Dec. 25 was actually Jesus' birthday, it points out, and "the two Gospels that tell the Christmas story (Matthew and Luke) hugely disagree with each other about almost everything." The AFA could do its author, Tom Quinn, a big favor, I bet, by calling for a boycott.

The Brandweek BrandIndex Report by YouGov, meanwhile, reports that retailers rolled out Christmas ads and promotions as early as Halloween this year and that Black Friday marketers have extended their shopping windows from two to three days.

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