Who fired the first shot in the War on Christmas in 2006? Some say Sam's Club, the Wal Mart subsidiary that published their August/September issue of Source magazine that prominently showed Christmas items without once mentioning the word Christmas. Others say it is the American Family Association, whose annual campaign against those who shun the word Christmas in advertising kicked off their annual finger-pointing early with their anti-Sam's Club attack.

This ad is the source of the early Christmas angst for the AFA. From the abundant over-use of the word "holiday" and the absence of the word "christmas" the AFA had enough fuel to garner wide-spread media attention for Sam's Club and their early-season advertising.

"On June 26, AFA wrote Wal-Mart (which owns Sam's Club) asking that they not ban "Christmas" in advertising and promotions. Included in that letter was a CD with the names of 201,595 individuals who signed the petition asking for no ban. Wal-Mart, ignoring the letter, did not even bother to respond."

Sam's Club eventually did see fit to respond via their website. "SAM'S CLUB serves 47 million members with different faiths across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil & and China. We attempt to take a very thoughtful approach to the words we choose in communicating with our members. In some cases, we use the word "holiday" or phrase "happy holidays" to include the season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. In other cases, we name specific holidays such as Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or Easter. In our upcoming December/January 06 Source Magazine we plan to reference specific holidays such as Christmas and others, as we have in the past.

So did the AFA win this opening battle of Christmas 2006? You'll have to watch for Sam's Club ads later this fall to find out.