Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday offered an
alternative gay ornament in response to Hallmark's controversial
ornament.
Hallmark found itself embroiled in
controversy after it altered the lyrics to Deck the Halls on a
miniaturized version of a holiday sweater it began selling earlier
this month. The ornament replaces the word “gay” with “fun”
in the phrase “Don we now our gay apparel!”
The change attracted controversy on
social media, with some people, including CNN anchor Carol Costello,
stating that the decision was homophobic. After initially defending
itself, Hallmark issued an apology.
“It's ridiculous, because everyone
knows in the old song 'gay' means 'fun,'” DeGeneres told her
daytime talk show audience. “And apparently people didn't like
that they changed the word, so I decided, 'Well, I'll change words
too, if they can do that.'”
DeGeneres' ornament shows two men in a
sleigh under the caption “Oh How Gay it is to Ride in a One Horse
Open Sleigh.”
“Which, of course, means fun,”
DeGeneres said. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)