Christmas: Are they shoving it down our throats too early?

[D'Snowth]

Actually, my mom had almost the opposite problem when it came to Christmas carols on the radio. While she did think it kept getting earlier and earlier, she was very disappointed that the day after Christmas, they stopped that music entirely.

I'll admit that does kind of bother me a bit... I mean, they get into such a hurry to rush Christmas music on the radio, rush Christmas retail out into the stores, yadda-yadda-yadda, but immediately the day after Christmas, they waste no time yanking the Christmas music off the radio and such. I mean gee, there's like six days after Christmas before the New Year, we can't have a grace period to enjoy the calm down? Heck, Comcast's seasonal Music Choice channel still plays Halloween music like for the rest of the week after Halloween ends (but then again, they don't start at the beginning of October because they play German music for Oktoburfest)... but yeah, they're already playing 24-hour Christmas music, and they brought back their Christmas TV screensavers On Demand as well.

But then again, I think part of it is because other culturals DO try to end Christmas immediately the day after... Canada has what they call, "Boxing Day" on December 26, which is basically their excuse to try and make a special day out of boxing your decorations back up for the year.

Soooo yeh.

 

[The Count]

Pfft. You guys should come here then and revel in the length of our celebrations.

Christmas on the 25th of December? Check.
The 12 Days of Christmas immediately afterwards? Well, not so much specifically celebrated as so much the overall Christmas feel and decorations left evident everywhere.
New Year's Eve/Day? You betcha, fireworks explode loud and clear.
Three Kings Day on the 6th of January? You'd better believe it. There used to be a display of big statuesque figures of the three wisemen near the historical/touristy strolling section of San Juan (what we refer to as "Old San Juan", not the city itself proper). That holiday is a big deal to my family both growing up and now in the present, we have to make the annual visit to my paternal grandfather's house that afternoon.
The period from Jaunary 7 to the 14th is known as "octavitas" or "eighths", as in eight additional days to keep the festive mood, transitioning to January 15 which is the Feast of Saint Sebastian or "la Fiesta de San Sebastián" which basically equates to our local version of Mardi Gras. No worries D'Snowth, that holiday isn't recognized as an actual substitution of Mardi Gras in January... I'm just using relative terms to help explain the holiday. And Mardi Gras is just the Tuesday that preceeds Ash Wednesday whenever it falls in either February or March.

So yeah... That'd be what, a month and a half of Christmas/holiday celebrations for us in PR.

 

[Drtooth]

On that subject...

 

[The Count]

Wha? Seems the thought got lost there in translation Drtooth.

 

[Drtooth]

Dr. Doofenshmirz's Vlog. Even cartoon characters feel Christmas is pushed too soon.

 

[The Count]

Oh, so it was an embedded youtube link. Those don't get reflected in the posts when I read them, if that's the only thing in a post it comes up as blank text between the block quotes at the opening and closing of each post.

Christmas... It's not just for Christmas any more.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I've long been trying to live with the commercial overkill of Christmas, seeing it's an inevitable trend that won't subside any time soon. But things really went to ridiculous lengths in 2009 when Wal-Mart had their usual holiday hype running: Christmas trees, lights, decorations, Santas and reindeer up the wazoo, but no mention of the word CHRISTMAS. This was December 22, in the midst of their HOLIDAY sale. Even the store hours posted open December 24 til 9pm, closed December 25. Their signage had absolutely no mention of the word Christmas (and of course, nary a Nativity scene to be found).

Ya gotta love how political correctness has seeped into every possible nook and cranny there is. In the last 25 years, so many facets of society- media, government, education, business, etc.- have been busy tripping over each other to devise a new all-inclusive-but-emotionally-neutral language out of fear of offending anybody.
Great to include Christmas, Hanukkah, and Quanzaa in one fell swoop. Who knew the word Christmas could be so offensive? (Is it the Christ or the mas part?)

So I get up to the register and I could hear the cashier droning to every customer like a robot "ThankyouforshoppingatWalmarthappyholidaysblahblahblah..."

I thought the whole atmosphere was insane, so on my way out the door, I stood at the exit, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I almost got arrested for disturbing the peace.
So much for Wal-Mart and their Yuletide cheer.

But a year or two later, with their Holiday rush well under way, they at least mentioned the word "Christmas" again.

I hope everybody gets the opportunity, at least once in their life, to shake people up and bring about a change for the better. It'll warm your heart.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well... as far as someone actually saying to you, "Happy holidays" instead of, "Merry Christmas," I would at least give them the benefit of the doubt on that one man... I mean, how does that person know what holiday you celebrate? It probably cuts down on a lot of awkward little moments where we have exchanges like this:

"Merry Christmas!"
"Um, I celebrate Hanukkah, I'm Jewish."
"Oh, sorry."

So, yeah, as far as that's concerned, I think that's just cutting down on going through those little to-dos.

But yes, you're right, in some cases, the word "Christmas" (and yes, nativity scenes) can be offensive, and in this day and age, it's safe to keep one particular group of people happy as opposed to others. Apparently, it's better to remove religious references to avoid offending irreligious people than it is to keep religious references in to avoid offending religious people.

 

[CensoredAlso]

So much for Wal-Mart and their Yuletide cheer.

Frankly I don't want my Yuletide cheer anywhere near Wal-Mart, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

On the Subject of Happy Holidays:

As I've said before, this whole "politically correct" Christmas stuff is a fake outrage created by the Limbaughs and Fox Newses of the world to tick off Christians who are afraid that some group is going to take away their religion or something to start some fake culture war so the pundits can sell more books. Is there some litigious group of jerks out there that goes after religious references? Possibly. You hear about one every year that manages to do something vastly unimportant.

The main thing is, Happy Holidays doesn't actually spare the feelings of anyone. Who the heck is it for? Every time I see something Christmas related (or stolen from the Pagans that became Christmas tradition) labeled Holiday, who the heck is that for? And Hanukkah isn't even that important a Jewish Holiday. it just got bumped the big status to compete with Christmas. The only way a store section is even a true Holiday section is if it has Hanukkah stuff in it, and I'll give Target credit for that much. It does carry some napkins and dreidles and stuff.

On that subject, you do not know how friggin suck of BOTH sides of this argument I am! I agree with AVGN... I also suggest replacing Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas with "Happy Shut the *&^%$ Up!" Seriously. No one has a *&^%$ gun to your head to be that polite to people. And if someone says it to you and you don't celebrate Christmas... IGNORE IT!!!!! You know how many times I was at a store, had a terrible day, and powered through someone telling me to "Have a Nice Day?" Know how many times I want to turn around and say "I am NOT HAVING A NICE DAY!!!"?