It wasn't the filmmakers' idea, actually. There are, as is usual in these cases, two sides the story.

Macy's, the venerable New York department store named in the original and famed for its holiday spirit, is the store where Kris Kringle worked in the 1947 "Miracle on 34th Street" -- for the seven or eight of you in the world who haven't seen this movie, he's a department-store Santa who insists that he's the actual St. Nicholas. However, the store refused to let its name be used in the 1994 remake, telling the New York Times that the original is "a one-of-a-kind classic that just gets better with age."

However, the remake's writer and producer, John Hughes, pointed to another factor. He had added to the new film a subplot of the store going through financial troubles, while in real life Macy's actual financial troubles -- a recent bankruptcy filing and a hostile-takeover bid -- were frequently on the cover of newspaper business sections nationwide.

All the same, Hughes told the Times he was surprised.

"The heat's always on pictures for putting products in, the advertising aspects. This is sort of a unique story, someone turning down a product placement."

Business analyst Kurt Barnard, publisher of Barnard's Retail Marketing Report, agreed with Macy's decision.

"If there are some scenes in the new version that cast a somewhat dubious light on this big department store, and if I were the CEO, I'd say thumbs down - even though in real life, that's exactly what happened. Why remind people?"

All this didn't hurt the film too much in the long run, though. It debuted to mixed reviews but still raked in more than $17 million.

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