Conservatives are being some serious scrooges this holiday season over Target’s inclusive Christmas products.
The retail giant was already hit by a storm of right-wing whiners over its Pride Month products earlier this year. Now, Target is receiving more conservative backlash due to its merchandise, this time because of its “Pride Christmas Nutcracker” products and Santa Claus figurines in wheelchairs.
“Target outdid itself this year for Christmas,” wrote @EndWokeness on X, formerly Twitter.
“Go woke go broke. Why do people support these businesses that don’t support us?” grumbled one user.
Fox News’ Jesse Watters also spent a portion of his Thursday program making a fuss about Target’s “gay nutcracker.”
OutKick host Riley Gaines, who appeared on primetime television to discuss the Christmas decorations, told Watters she thinks a “majority of people” would acknowledge that the products have “gone way too far.”
At least one of the inclusive products isn’t new, however, as a clip of the Pride Christmas Nutcracker went viral on TikTok ― and got love from social media users ― in 2021, The Miami Herald reported.
The latest wave of conservative backlash arrives months after Target saw a dip in second-quarter sales while stores in at least five states received bomb threats in June over its Pride merchandise.
The backlash led to the retail giant removing some of its LGBTQ-friendly items in May, a decision that Target CEO Brian Cornell recently defended in a CNBC interview with Becky Quick.
“I’ve seen natural disasters,” Cornell said. “We’ve seen the impact of COVID leading into the pandemic. Some of the violence that took place after George Floyd’s murder. But I will tell you, Becky, what I saw back in May is the first time since I’ve been in this job where I had store team members saying, ‘It’s not safe to come to work.’”
Cornell emphasized that they had to “prioritize the safety” of its teams, adding that he knew the decision wouldn’t be “well received.”
A number of politicians and human rights organizations criticized Target’s decision to remove products, including Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress.
Balint wrote in May, “If companies like @Target give in to the whims of a hateful few, they may need a lesson or two on the history of pride and what it means to the LGBTQ+ community.”