Neiman Marcus Purges ‘Christmas’ from Holiday Catalog, Brings End to 98-Year Legacy
The Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, a luxury gift guide that has been published since 1926, will be rebranded as the “Holiday Book” for its 2024 edition. This marks the first time it will not include the word “Christmas,” a change attributed to a desire for inclusivity to appeal to a diverse customer base. While the catalog will continue to offer high-end products, including luxury clothing, jewelry, and unique gifts, the decision has stirred significant backlash among employees and customers alike. Many feel the name change erases the holiday’s significance and reflects a broader trend of “performative wokeness” in branding. The cover of the catalog, lacking any holiday designation, instead presents the phrase “A Neiman’s Fantasy,” drawing further criticism. The situation has prompted discussions on social media, with calls for boycotts and expressions of frustration from both customers and employees, who feel that the leadership’s focus on diversity and inclusion may detract from the business’s profitability and heritage.
If you’re using the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, you can get gifts ranging from something overpriced but still doable, all the way up to a $1.9 million 18th-century Spanish carriage.
It seems as though if you’re bougie enough, you can find almost anything in there. Except the word “Christmas.”
According to the Dallas Morning News, the 2024 edition of the catalog will be called the “Holiday Book,” the first time in the book’s 98-year-old history that it won’t bear the name of the holiday that the buying season is all about.
“The Holiday Book is a new name for what was formerly the Christmas Book, whose name was changed in the spirit of inclusivity as it welcomes customers of all backgrounds, religions and traditions to celebrate the season, a spokesperson said,” the Dallas Morning News reported Oct. 16.
“Within the book, customers this year will find photos of clothing for men and women from luxury names along with handbags, shoes and perfume. There’s also a lot of jewelry in the colorful pages.”
But no Christmas! And, for a tradition that started in 1926, that’s rankling a lot of people — including some inside Neiman Marcus. The idol of inclusivity has struck again, and folks aren’t happy.
“The name change has raised hackles inside the luxury chain’s Dallas headquarters, where veteran employees have chafed under CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck, whose restructurings and layoffs they fear are wiping out the last vestiges of the 117-year-old retailer’s institutional history,” the New York Post reported.
“If Geoffroy and his team put as much time into running the business as they did on expressing viewpoints about DEI, we would be buying Saks or launching an IPO,” one anonymous Neiman Marcus employee told the Post.
The employee tersely added: “Instead, my job is at risk because of our business failure.”
“We found out via the Dallas Morning News article,” another employee said.
That employee argued, “The book didn’t need a name change. Personal opinions about inclusion — from Geoffroy and his leadership team — changed this.”
It’s also worth pointing out that the book doesn’t even bear the name “Holiday Book” on its cover, as well. They’re not just hiding Christmas, “Holiday” is apparently a bit too based for the Neiman Marcus crowd.
Instead, the cover simply bears the words “A Neiman’s Fantasy.”
Neiman Marcus quietly bans ‘Christmas’ from iconic, annual gift catalog — and workers are livid https://t.co/M7rEt75Z1Z pic.twitter.com/gVdFX1rnfF
— New York Post (@nypost) October 24, 2024
The “fantasy,” I’m going to assume, is Christmas-season profitability, judging by how this was received on social media:
Boycott Neiman Marcus. Buy nothing from them this CHRISTMAS SEASON…did they learn anything about their customers from the miller light debacle? Obviously not. pic.twitter.com/CBfHy840KM
— ⚔️Fear & Loathing in Twilight Zone⚔️ (@FALITTZ) October 25, 2024
Welp. Won’t be shopping Neiman Marcus this year.https://t.co/wRFrUrjhhN
— civil-servant-savant (@civillibertari2) October 24, 2024
Fox Bus reports Neiman Marcus is “quietly” killing its “Christmas Book,” in print since 1926, first started as a 16-pg booklet. In the years since, the sales catalog “for the wealthy” has made the company a fortune. But now NM has taken the joy & real meaning out of the holiday.
— davd soul (@davdsoul) October 25, 2024
Overpriced foreign merchandise, no great loss.
Get woke, go broke.🙄🤷🏾♀️https://t.co/5SbEFxIowu— ❌Aurora Tracy❌ (@auroratracy0621) October 25, 2024
Now, granted — if you’re not the kind of person who can hire someone to manage your social media presence, you probably aren’t the type who is going to be shopping at Neiman Marcus, period. However, this is probably indicative of a wider problem with how the retailer is perceived — and how brands can become flashpoints for performative wokeness gone amok.
Bud Light and Neiman Marcus have virtually nothing in common except for the fact that they’re brands that have faded slightly over the years — and are relying on virtue signaling to build back a different audience, only to find themselves facing a massive consumer backlash.
Of course, not everyone is in the market for an 18th-century carriage that lists for almost $2 million. But if you are, maybe get it from a retailer that is willing to acknowledge the holiday that has people buying presents at the end of the year. Just saying.
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