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"  Even classic Christmas carol lyrics aren&amp;#039;t safe anymore. The moment Hallmark swapped the word &amp;quot;gay&amp;quot; out for &amp;quot;fun&amp;quot; on a Christmas ornament, the internet predictably boiled over with controversy and boycott pledges. The company said that they considered the fact that the lyrics to &amp;quot;Deck the Halls&amp;quot; wouldn&amp;#039;t exactly carry over from 1877. (Since now people read &amp;quot;gay&amp;quot; as homosexual rather than the giddy anticipation associated with ten leaping lords.) Here&amp;#039;s the apology Hallmark issued: &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we&amp;#039;re sorry to have caused so much concern. We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products, and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn&amp;#039;t have changed the lyrics on the ornament.&amp;quot; Dear companies, This is the age of the Internet where everyone sees everything and will share it with everyone, so if you think something has even a chance of being badly received, don&amp;#039;t do it. Just don&amp;#039;t. Don&amp;#039;t waltz into that PR shitstorm. There&amp;#039;s no way you edit the word &amp;quot;gay&amp;quot; out and think &amp;quot;yeah, this&amp;#039;ll go smoothly.&amp;quot; So don&amp;#039;t do it. Or even better, use a different carol. Because the ornament&amp;#039;s designer, Matt Johnson, will have to go back to the drawing board, here are classic Christmas carols annotated so there&amp;#039;s no possible way for us to get the ancient jams twisted.    Photo Credit: Ashley Hoffman "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/news/a16295/gay-ornament-wtf/?click=cos_new>