One of Hallmark’s new Keepsake tree ornaments for 2013, the Holiday Sweater, revises a line from the well-known carol, “Deck the Halls.” The company ditched the traditional, “Don we now our gay apparel,” because in many contexts, gay means ‘homosexual,’ replacing it with “Don we now our fun apparel,” which Hallmark felt would be more acceptable to a general audience that includes prudish adults, impressionable children, and fundamentalists.Īccording to the Los Angeles Times, Hallmark initially responded to critics of this move by arguing that the words “gay apparel” were not necessarily authentic to begin with, but rather translations from a Gaelic original, so they could be replaced by other, synonymous words. Hallmark-“when you care enough to send the very best”-has caused a stir by taking the “gay” out of Christmas.
