‘Tis the season: Keep Christ in Christmas

Nov 25, 2008
JONI B. HANNIGAN
Managing Editor

Boyd Pridmore, a deacon at Scott Lake Baptist Church in Lakeland, holds the sign he designed in 2005. He attended the Florida Baptist State Convention in Lakeland. FBC photo by Ken Touchton

GAINESVILLE (FBW)—‘Tis the season some retailers decide “holiday trees” are less offensive than “Christmas trees,” children might be asked to refrain from using religious themes at school, and those working in government offices could be subject to decorating limitations. In the interest of keeping Christ in Christmas, however, others are finding a way to proclaim the truth in an increasingly secular culture.

Wayne Harvey, founder of a tiny, family-owned business in Gainesville, and director of missions for the Santa Fe River Baptist Association, created a button which reads, “Please wish me Merry Christmas.” It is complete with an online “test” to help people determine how the button, which can spark conversations about the true meaning of Christmas.

He’s not alone. Boyd Pridmore, a deacon at Scott Lake Baptist Church in Lakeland, with help from family members in 2005, designed his own yard sign “Jesus is the reason for the Season, Merry Christmas,” now distributed throughout his community and as far away as Indiana.

In the spirit of offering legal resources on how to “save Christmas,” Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based civil liberties law firm, announced the launch Nov. 11 of its sixth annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign.”

Featuring a “Help Save Christmas” action pack which may be purchased through its website, the resource includes an educational legal memoranda, an “I (shape of a heart) Christmas” button and sample ads for churches.

As part of the annual “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” Liberty Counsel publishes a “Naughty and Nice” list (www.lc.org) which catalogs retailers that seek to profit from Christmas shoppers but exclude their stores and advertisements from references to Christmas.

Harvey said it was a friend from church who got his attention in 2005 when he wished him “Happy Holidays” at church one Sunday morning.

“That was just ridiculous. We can’t even say Christmas in church,” Harvey said he remembers thinking.

In response, he and his wife, Joan came up with the phrase, “Please Wish Me Merry Christmas.” They put the simple request on 50 buttons which they sold in just a few days. Now they continue to provide thousands to those who order the buttons.

“I don’t want to offend people, but at the same time I want to be able to celebrate Christmas together” with those who might feel like they just don’t have permission to initiate the greeting in public anymore, Harvey said.

Harvey said he had never before started a business (http://merrychristmasbuttons.com/) but had learned a lot in the process.

“We are doing it for a profit,” Harvey said, “but it is ministry to the extent that we are trying to keep the cost down and make just enough profit to keep the business going.”

Pridmore told the Witness he came up with his idea for yard signs after hearing about schools in neighboring communities “banning” Christmas, and government employees being told they “couldn’t say anything about Jesus and Christmas.”

“I had an inspiration to do something about yards where we have freedom of speech,” Pridmore said.

Urging his church and the South Florida Baptist Association to get involved, Pridmore said in the years since the word has spread about the signs. Today, thousands of signs are spotted throughout Polk County during the Christmas season and in a town in Indiana where a Methodist minister routinely picks up a vanload for his community.

Pridmore believes the effort can one day encompass the United States and said he has read of a man in his nineties in Oregon who began a similar movement out west in 2004.

“I read his story on the internet,” Pridmore said, familiar with the Associated Press story about Al Jagger, a member of First Church of the Nazarene, who said he was frustrated about the commercialization of Christmas. The AP story said in the first year alone about 9,400 of the signs Jagger created and distributed, “Christmas, Jesus, Celebrate his Birth,” were spread across Oregon and in several Western states.

“The Lord gives the same message to different people simultaneously,” Pridmore said. “The phrase that came out several years ago. I think everybody is just more aware now that you have to do something in your own yard or you might be breaking the law.”

Keeping the cost down has been important as the project has grown, Pridmore said, with the signs now costing $3. The 24X18-inch sign includes a metal stand, and he designed an 18X12-inch sign that sells for $2. The smaller sign was created for shop windows and for use by people who live in restricted communities where yard signs are not allowed. For information on how to order, call Scott Lake Baptist Church, 863-644-6444.

Liberty Counsel, in addition to educating the public about which retailers are either hostile to or readily promote Christmas, has been involved in numerous cases throughout the years where they have defended cities and schools for their holiday displays. Last year they successfully represented residents in senior living facilities who had tried to ban them from displaying traditional religious items.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, said their “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign” offers important information and can send a resounding message to the culture.

“Renaming a Christmas tree to a holiday tree, stopping students from wearing red and green, and censoring religious Christmas carols are absurd, but true, examples of the war against Christmas. Over the past few years the ‘Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign’ has successfully put the ‘grinches’ on the run,” Staver said. “This year millions of Americans will join us to help save Christmas. If a government entity censors Christmas in violation of the Constitution, then we will first seek to educate but, if necessary, we will litigate. If retailers choose to profit from Christmas while pretending it does not exist, then we will patronize their competitors.”

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