We wish you a merry, er ... December
Bratina greeting tweet raises blizzard of outrage for not mentioning ‘Christmas’
Some years ago a cartoon in New Yorker magazine portrayed a bunch of executives sitting around a boardroom table.
The CEO anxiously looked over a holiday card and said, “‘Seasons Greetings.’ Looks OK to me. Let’s run it by the legal department.”
One wonders if there might have been similar caution before MP Bob Bratina’s office tweeted an online greeting card Friday that said “Wishing you a great month of December, Bob Bratina M.P.”
The tweet with accompanying words “Wishing everyone in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek a great month of December” was met with a blizzard of outrage because there was no mention of “Christmas” in the dispatch.
According to the online newsletter The Post Millenium, the tweet had “307 mostly negative, mocking comments compared to three retweets and 18 likes” by Monday.
The author of the article, Ali Taghva, wrote “The response online is not a surprise ... as December tends to bring out the so-called War on Christmas, where politically correct politicians and other members of the chattering class become Grinches ...”
He certainly got that right. “Jesus Christ Bob ... seriously,”
tweeted one not-so-merry gentleman.
“It’s ‘Merry Christmas’ Bob, and it’s what a lot of us Catholics who live in Stoney Creek celebrate in December,” said another.
“Jesus is the reason for the season. MERRY CHRISTMAS,” added a third.
Bratina, a former Hamilton mayor who was re-elected as MP for a second term in the October federal election, could not be reached for comment.
But he did issue a short statement saying his record shows he has stood up for Christmas in the past, most notably with the giant, illuminated Merry Christmas sign by the Jolley Cut access. For a time that greeting message raised holly jolly indignation when the wording was changed to “Peace on Earth.”
“As Mayor, it was my choice for the seasonal message on the Mountain access. I always chose Merry Christmas,” Bratina wrote.
Bratina sends out first-of-the month greeting tweets with December being the last of 12 this year. “December is remarkable in itself because of the longest night of the year, which throughout history inspired prayer and ceremony for the return of the sun,” he said.
“I love each month for its uniqueness, but my favourite is November.”