Again, this was my main point:

If you start a photo contest called “The Best Dog Photos,” and you state in the rules, “If you don't have a dog, you may post a photo of another animal,” then someone might legitimately ask: “Why not just call it 'The Best Animal Photos'?”

The rules for the “Christmas Season” photo contest said “If you don’t celebrate Christmas, you may post something that represents your holiday.” Well, if the contest is open to all holidays, it's a Holiday Season photo contest, no?

Nowhere did I say I had an “expectation” that it should be renamed. Refer to my previous comment: I simply said it would have “made more sense” to rename it. (They are perfectly free to persist in not making sense if it pleases them.) I'm asking why the photo contest would be given a name that is more specific than the submissions that are actually being solicited. That's a marketing problem that confuses the readers and contributors.

Hopefully this is the lesson learned: When you organize an interfaith activity, you have to change your usual practice, because it's no longer just about YOUR holiday, it's about the feelings of EVERYONE who is invited to participate. The contest organizers started what was essentially an interfaith poetry contest, then insisted that all submissions be filed under the name “Christmas.” If they wanted their contest to be devoted to Christmas, they should have said “Christian material only, please.” That wouldn't have been offensive. Instead, their message came off as something similar to: “People of all religions are welcome to submit, but this is OUR season, so don't expect us to do anything special to acknowledge the diversity of your submissions.” That's a self-contradictory message that insults the people who are submitting (generously giving them free content for their blog). If they don't want non-Christian submissions, they should say so. They shouldn't claim they're open to non-Christian submissions when they have no real interest in acknowledging those diverse viewpoints. They shouldn't make an inclusive gesture with one hand and take it away with the other hand. Minorities aren't fooled by that mock-inclusive, dismissive attitude and they'll just be annoyed that their time was wasted.

If they want to run a “Christmas Season” blog that posts Chanukah photos, they can go ahead and do so, and they can find out how many more people are confused by their publishing selections and their haughty response to a simple question from one of their readers. They don't have to accept anyone's marketing advice. After all, what do I know about marketing and interfaith sensitivity? I'm just a religious minority who's worked in the communications industry. Don't listen to me.

This is the Christmas Season for me. If you want to participate in a contest that I run called The Christmas Contest, but don't celebrate Christmas, it is entirely up to you. I will not change the name of my contest to something OTHER than what it means to me to accommodate your submission.

Your expectation that she should do that is… well out to lunch. It's her contest, her chosen method to celebrate the season. If you don't like it. Don't submit. Simple as that. Go find a contest that is titled to your liking and submit there.

Since the contest was explicitly open to submissions of holidays other than Christmas, it would indeed have made more sense to refer to the theme as the “Holiday Season”.

When the contest organizer responded, “I’m not taking Christmas out of OUR season,” she claimed the entire season for herself and her religion. Obviously, the season belongs to everyone, including those who celebrate other holidays or no holidays at all. When she continued, “Christians don’t tell others not to celebrate or change the names of their respective holidays,” she seemed to have a very short-term memory indeed. By inviting people to submit photographs of various winter holidays but insisting that they be subsumed under the title “The Christmas Season,” what else was she doing, but pressuring people who celebrate other holidays to collectively refer to those holidays as “Christmas”?

Merry CHRISTMAS