Deck The Halls: Jingle Balls

Remember the controversy years ago with Hallmark’s Kissing Mistletoe Bears? They sold boy/girl stuffed bears with magnets that attracted each other, but if you tried putting two boy bears together, the magnets would repel each other. One enterprising fellow managed to find two boy bears with same-sex attraction, but the store refused to sell them together. I don’t remember how it ended, but I’m pretty sure the bears had a Bravo show for a while.

Now, Hallmark is back in the news for another dunderhead holiday move that is guaranteed to make eyes roll and heads shake. Take a look at their latest keepsake ornament. 

Yes, that’s right, they replaced the word “gay” in “Deck The Halls” with “fun.” 
Why? According to a Hallmark spokesperson, it was to prevent misinterpretation. 

“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,” Kristi Ernsting told The Huffington Post in an email. 

“Today it has multiple meanings... 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.’” 

She added: “That’s the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it.” 

This obvious attack on the traditions of Christmas is outrageous, and I can’t wait for Bill O’Reilly and the rest of the Fox News crowd to take on Hallmark. 
Now that would really make the yuletide … “fun.”

A good book about gay men and clothes

The Backlot - the American website that was After Elton before - treating this silly story with all the silliness it deserves.
Here's Gay Star News' typically joyless take on it, complete with some "Outraged of Iowa" comments
I'm not sure Hallmark are selling these "keepsake ornaments" in the UK, by the way.
Nor can I find a reference to the same-sex Kissing Mistletoe Bears.
But anyway...
This must be making hysterical gaybores tiny little brains explode!
Do we applaud Hallmark - or boycott Hallmark???
Is there an e-petition or should we send them a traditional greetings card in protest/support?
Are the mass manufacturers of massively overpriced bits of paper friend or foe?
Ho ho ho!
Fagburn's filing this one under; "Who Gives A Festive Fuck?"
And how recent is that sick new reading of the innocent word "gay" in the song?
Watch The Monkees perform it on their 1967 Christmas show...