FLORIDA CATHOLIC JOINS THE CAUSE

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Florida Catholic Keeping Christ in Christmas

Remember my Godmother, Aunt Kay who started this movement which inspired this blog? Here's her story in her diocesan newspaper, Florida Catholic.BOCA RATON Two neighbors here have spent most of the year launching anationwide “Keep Christ in Christmas” campaign to spread the word with carmagnets.The plan began in October 2006, when Ron Hollander happened to chat withneighbor Kay Mansolill, who was out in her driveway picking up the morningnewspaper.“We began to talk about all the non-Christian aspects of the approachingChristmas season, things we both had seen on TV or read in the papers —teachers not allowed to wear earrings that relate to Christmas, noChristmas trees and such in public schools, school bus drivers not allowedto play their portable radios because maybe a Christmas hymn might come onand the kids would hear it,” Hollander said.“Why don’t we do something about it?” Mansolill said to Hollander thatmorning at 6.“First we thought that we should do something right here in Boca Raton andthe rest of Florida. Then we decided let’s do something nationwideinvolving all Christian churches,” she recalled.Hollander, 65, a retired food manager and member of Our Lady of LourdesParish, and Mansolill, a retiree in her 70s who belongs to St. JudeParish, went to work. In February, they formed a committee and Hollandergot busy with research.“I learned that we could order car magnets from China, but we would haveto buy a minimum of 10,000 and pay up front. ... We (did) not have thekind of money it would take to do this.”Hollander stumbled upon a firm in Pompano, Creative Advertising, thatcould have the magnets made in the Midwest and let purchasers pay directlyto Creative Advertising, with no money going to Hollander and hiscommittee.Creative Advertising sells the magnets in bulk to parishes and otherorganizations for $1,300 per batch of 1,000, not at an individual orretail level.Dennis Throm, a sales representative there, said the sales level has beenin the hundreds and thousands per order, paid for at parish and diocesanlevel.“We don’t make much money on this,” he said, “so we give the bulkpurchasers a break on the price.“We very much believe in the concept and the importance of Christmas beingChrist-centered.”The committee’s role is to promote the sale of the magnets — which areoval-shaped and bear the words “Keep Christ in Christmas” and a silhouetteof the Christ Child in the manger — through mailings to churches.Hollander said the committee has sent out more than 2,000 packetspromoting the idea with a brochure including a photo of the car magnet andinstructions on how to order.He and his committee first targeted Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist,Episcopal, Baptist and churches of other denominations in the Southeast.They have since blanketed Catholic dioceses in the entire country, plusall Lutheran districts and all Episcopal dioceses.“We are trying to unite all the Christian churches in a common cause,”Hollander told the Florida Catholic. “Not only do we need to keep Christin Christmas, we need to bring him back to public places where he has beenexpelled in the name of holiday commercialism. It occurred to me that weshould not be fighting back, we should be forging ahead.”Naturally, he and Mansolill sent letters and packets to all the parishesin the Diocese of Palm Beach.“We have already sold 12,000 magnets by way of responses to our mailingsor by direct contact from Catholic and non-Catholic churches,” Hollandersaid.Here are some examples of the sales:• 5,000 were bought by the Archdiocese of Miami, with distribution handledby Joan Crown, of the archdiocesan Respect Life Committee.• 2,000 were acquired by St. Rita Parish in Wellington.• 1,000 went to the First United Methodist Church in Coral Springs, thefirst of all the recipients to order them.• 600 were ordered by the Lutheran Ministries in Christ in Coral Springs.“We bought 1,000 of them,” said Brian Rivera about the purchase made bythe Knights of Columbus Council 11241 of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish inBoca Raton.“Our council is fortunate because this man is taking this upon himselfjust simply to promote Christ in Christmas,” he said about Hollander, afellow Knight in the council. The national Knights of Columbus has its own“Keep Christ in Christmas” magnets that various councils around thecountry are selling as fundraisers for charities they support.The Rev. Dennis Glick, pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Boca Raton,also came on board with an order of a few thousand magnets. He isdistributing them through his school, which has 500 students.“To me the whole thing about the commercializing of Christmas is a farce,”Rev. Glick said. “How can you not have Christ in Christmas? Christmas isChrist.”To learn more about the Keep Christ in Christmas magnets, write tolinandron@comcast.net