Here in my area in Southern California, eggnog season ended the day after Christmas last year. I was shocked as supermarket shelves suddenly gaped like mouths with missing teeth. This year I don't know if the eggnog is gone yet or not, since I have stopped going to stores.
Well, at least Amazon doesn't have a Christmas soundtrack. Yet.
Christmas should be in late January, early February. Usually (not this year, I'm in shorts and a hawaiian shirt) it just gets dark and cold, we run around like crazy folks, then hibernate until a plant buds.
If the holidays were later, then they'd be more help to people stir crazy in the dark and cold.
If the holidays were later, then they'd be more help to people stir crazy in the dark and cold.
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For many believers, this is the formula for some serious bah-humbug. Me? I'm pretty much done with it. I'll tolerate a little of the secular goofiness.
my family had retail stores. we'd have thanksgiving together, then go decorate our store windows for christmas. the day after christmas, the windows were changed for the new year. qne so on.
any retailer should know that to be boring, old, worn-out and trashy is to display too early and too long, as it offends and bores the clientele.
any retailer should know that to be boring, old, worn-out and trashy is to display too early and too long, as it offends and bores the clientele.
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The commercialization of Christmas is definitely winning. Christmas lost its religious aspect a long time ago. 99% of the time and effort around Christmas (Nov+Dec so two months worth) is not religious for most Americans. Spending an evening in church cannot compare to spending months buying presents and creating the computerized light show on the front lawn.
Christmas is going the way of Halloween and that is a good thing. By making Christmas a cultural and commercial event the economy gets a boost and everyone can be involved. You do not have to be a practicing Christian to wear a Santa hat or attend events at local churches.
There is no war on Christmas, it has been co-opted by a changing society and morphed back into its pagan roots. We need fun and light and good food during the dark days of Winter. Besides, wasn't Jesus born in April or September?
The earliest I remember seeing Christmas things for sale is August.
Christmas is going the way of Halloween and that is a good thing. By making Christmas a cultural and commercial event the economy gets a boost and everyone can be involved. You do not have to be a practicing Christian to wear a Santa hat or attend events at local churches.
There is no war on Christmas, it has been co-opted by a changing society and morphed back into its pagan roots. We need fun and light and good food during the dark days of Winter. Besides, wasn't Jesus born in April or September?
The earliest I remember seeing Christmas things for sale is August.
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I volunteer in a nonprofit thrift store and gauge when stores put out Christmas stuff. There's no doubt that it starts right after Halloween. I'm utterly Christmassed out by the time Christmas comes. I'm not Christian, and I prefer when people wish me happy holidays instead of a merry Christmas. But I smile anyway and wish them the same.
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I turned on some Christmas music at home recently and could barely stand it. I wondered why in the past it felt nostalgic and warm and now it's unbearable. Then I realized... it felt like I was at the mall. Ugh.
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I can't wait until 'Christmas ' starts the day after Labor Day.
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I agree with those who long for the time when the "Christmas push" in stores, on radio stations, and with outdoor decorations didn't even begin until after Thanksgiving.
As for the meaning of it all, I'm an ex-Catholic (last mass I attended was in 1968) and have considered Christmas a secular holiday for decades. Paradoxically, I find it weird when people are offended by hearing "Merry Christmas". It's a benign statement of good cheer, and not religious. Our company sent out "holiday cards" this year and some colleagues even had a problem with the word "holiday". I reminded them that the office is closed for over a week, so SOMETHING must be going on.
As for the meaning of it all, I'm an ex-Catholic (last mass I attended was in 1968) and have considered Christmas a secular holiday for decades. Paradoxically, I find it weird when people are offended by hearing "Merry Christmas". It's a benign statement of good cheer, and not religious. Our company sent out "holiday cards" this year and some colleagues even had a problem with the word "holiday". I reminded them that the office is closed for over a week, so SOMETHING must be going on.
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Sadly, there is an open hostility towards Christian belief by many on the left in our country. That is the War on Christmas. As we finish the Advent season, and prepare to celebrate the Christmas season through Epiphany, it matters not what radio stations are playing or when eggnog sells (although the radio stations should play Christmas music after December 25). What matters is that we pray for those who do not believe in Jesus, whose birth we celebrate.
All are free to believe or not; fortunately, we as Christians do not force our beliefs on others. But, we do ask that those who do not believe accept and respect our beliefs as well. Do not try to make Christmas the holiday that dare not mention its' name.
All are free to believe or not; fortunately, we as Christians do not force our beliefs on others. But, we do ask that those who do not believe accept and respect our beliefs as well. Do not try to make Christmas the holiday that dare not mention its' name.
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The Winter Solstice has been celebrated by all cultures in the northern hemisphere from long before Christianity. Everything about "Christmas" is distinctively pagan, except for the manger scene, and come from the Roman feast of the Saturnalia, the Scandinavian and Germanic Yule celebration, and the birthday of Mithra. The assault by Christianity to take over this festive and joyous season for their own is a modern invention. It is time that people of good will take back the Winter Solstice celebration. Christians, you are free to do what ever you like, but you do not own this celebration, so stop pretending that you do. Happy Solstice and Welcome Yule!
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To 'The Wanderer's' observations I must add that the Virgin birth itself is pagan. Early Christian theologians were often perturbed by the proliferation of divine figures fathered to human, often virgin, females by gods in Greek, Roman, and other mythologies, and by the derisive snorts of non-Christians (and some rabbis): 'a likely story!' One Christian theologian - I forget which - actually suggested that Satan, who, like God, is supposed to live 'outside time' seeing past, present and future, actually planted the stories of Danae, Alkmene, Leda et al. in anticipation of God's plan for Jesus, so as to discredit the virgin birth in advance. (I've always said if God had wanted to make an indisputable miracle, he'd have impregnated Joseph.)
Christianity has flourished in part due to its genius for co-opting local customs, as when pagan minor deities have been transmutated into 'saints', a process most easily seen in Santeria and the morphing of pagan goddess worship into Mariolatry - polytheism sneaking back in under a new guise.
Christianity has flourished in part due to its genius for co-opting local customs, as when pagan minor deities have been transmutated into 'saints', a process most easily seen in Santeria and the morphing of pagan goddess worship into Mariolatry - polytheism sneaking back in under a new guise.
I will gladly join the "war against Christmas," since Christians impose their beliefs upon us every other day of the year. Sign me up, I'm ready to fight.
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By my calculations, we are now spending at least 10% of our year in Christmas mode. If there is to be a war on Christmas, sign me up for Team Thanksgiving.
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I liked it when the season started after Thanksgiving and lasted until New Year's Day. I also used to enjoy the fact that the good music was played sparingly and a bit after Christmas Day. Now the rush for Christmas starts after Labor Day and the cheer doesn't. I refuse to set foot in a mall from Black Friday until just before New Year's Day. Why? The crowds, the noise, the loud music, and the fact that shopping and presents are not what Christmas is about.
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Ah yes, the canard about the war on Christmas. Some people will believe anything Donald Trump says is true.
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At least you can change the channel or turn off the radio if the Christmas music starts too early for your tastes. There is no escaping having Christmas shoved in your face by many stores beginning Immediately after Halloween. It really takes the specialness out of the holiday when it is too much and too long. After all, "familiarity breeds contempt."
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I hope the radio stations that start playing Christmas music more than a month before the holidays realize that many of us loathe their same unimaginative trite playlists year after year. Rum Pa Pa Pum and Jingle Bell Rock inspire negativity and cynicism during this awful commercialized season, for many of us who love music, or merely appreciate good rhythm, witty lyrics, sacred chorale music or thrilling new melodies.
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When I was tending bar my manager came to me gleefully with the Muzac tape of "Christmas Grafitti", a heinous collection of 60's Christmas "songs" similar to the American Graffiti soundtrack the first day of November and wanted me to plug it into the sound system. Later that day, after being tortured with it, I accidentaly dropped it in a garbage can with sweet and sour concentrate ruining the tape, and it was to late to get a replacement. That was a good Christmas season. That one is for you Sal (who I still really like).
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The 60's pop Christmas music is the worst.Every celeb back then (before we'd invented the term or knew that our lives were incomplete without them) had to record a Christmas Album. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause. Jingle Bells. Frosty, and Rudolph, ad nauseaum. My favorite bar started playing this schlock around December 1st. Thank heavens it's almost over.
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Just in case you're keeping track, Valentine's Day candy is in stores right now.
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My local chain drug store has already put Christmas ephemera on sale and emptied shelves to ready for the next onslaught of (fill in the blank as you will).
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Walgreen's puts out Cadbury's Easter eggs around this time, in fact.
The purpose of putting out holiday-themed candy really early is to get you to buy it, give in to the temptation to eat it long before the holiday, and then buy more. It's that simple.
The purpose of putting out holiday-themed candy really early is to get you to buy it, give in to the temptation to eat it long before the holiday, and then buy more. It's that simple.
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My complaint is that is ends very abruptly the day after Christmas, when I am just getting into the spirit. Its obnoxious anytime before about the first of December. How about Advent through New Years. Jan 6 used to be the end of the season.
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I like Lindsay's idea! Also, to the programing elves of all these playlists: would it kill you to just once include Joan Jett's cover of "Little Drummer Boy" from the "I Love Rock n Roll" album. A great song covered by a great singer.
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