Google memory holes Jesus, replaces with Barbie

Five ways the search giant is trying to kill Christmas

By Richard Stenger

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The search engine currently features a Doodle adorned with Christmasy lights in homage to December holidays, but goes to considerable lengths to minimize the month’s signature celebration.

Click on the image at Google.com and up pops “December global holidays” content that downplays and diverts readers from the true meaning of Christmas, the world’s most popular holiday.

‘What country does not celebrate Christmas?’

First, it shares a default page from worldstrides.com that dryly mentions Christmas and gives equal weight to a list of contrived and obscure celebrations such as Kwanzaa and Boxing Day (sorry, Mum and Canada). It gives Christmas, observed by more than a quarter of the planet, less space than Hanukkah, a minor one in the Jewish calendar.

Second, Google intentionally pushes a non-Christmas narrative. The search results include a “People Also Ask” box that directs users to content such as: What country does not celebrate Christmas in December?” and “What holidays besides Christmas are celebrated in December? “

The box also asks and answers “What are Global Holidays?” by touting the spiritual significance of the month for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans and Zoroastrians.

Hail Festivus, Omisoka, and Saturnalia

As for Christmas, it declares it “now mostly celebrated as a cultural holiday rather than a religious one.”

Third, the search giant sends people to a December holiday video that features an exhaustive list of celebrations, including such gems as Festivus, Omisoka, and Saturnalia, in which Christmas seems an afterthought.

Fourth, click on the images associated with Google’s December global holidays Doodle and one pattern becomes evident. Among the countless pictures of Santa, Hanukkah candles, presents, trees, feasts, cartoons, Disney characters, Barbie dolls, Kwanzaa costumes, and Google icons, one image type is conspicuously absent: The Nativity. See for yourself:

Christ becomes Where’s Waldo

Fifth, there’s a “Christmas” sub tab at the top of the image results. Presumably a click here would provide more meaningful results. Hardly. The baby Jesus in a manger goes from non-existent to barely perceptible, hidden among thousands of non-religious images in a kind of Where’s Waldo manner.

Why does Google take Christ out of Christmas? It has a preferred celebration for its users. One whose name it repeats over and over again with its December doodle content. So let us be the first to wish you a Merry Global December Holidays!