Hallmark has decided to re-write one of the lines of the traditional holiday carol “Deck the Halls.” The re-write appears on one of the company’s 2013 keepsake ornaments named “Holiday Sweater.”
Splashed across the front of the ornament is the line, “Don we now our fun apparel,” clearly an intentional edit from the more familiar lyric, “Don we now our gay apparel.”
According to the Huffington Post a spokeswoman for Hallmark said the line was intentionally changed to prevent misinterpretation by holiday shoppers.
“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.”
