oh joy, here we go again...

[lagilman]

Anyone who actually goes to a Black Friday sale before 8am? That's so wrong I just can't talk to you (going anywhere near a store on Black Friday is more than I'm willing to do, but I acknowledge that some people have more tolerance for that shit than I do).

Also, do the people at Kay Jewelers know how much we hate their ads? Someone should tell them. Seriously.

And the first person who talks to me about "bringing Christmas back into [fill in the blank]" is going to be asked flat-out when we established a national religion, and/or the Right to shove their observances into my face. I suspect having, oh, an Islamic observance brought front and center like that would not go over so well....

And so, in honor of the season, I bring back my official Bah Humbug icon.

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I've never seen an ad for a jewelry chain that didn't make me loathe its creators. (There's one for a local non-chain jewelry store I've seen that's tolerable, but that's it.)

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

I'm dreading having to go grocery shopping on Friday, because I'll be DAMNED if I do it tomorrow.}:(

[lagilman]

my local supermarket has a "five items or less, no coupons" line set up at the holidays, manned by one of their old-timers. In and out while most people are still digging for their swipe-cards....

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Wish they'd do that here.}:/

[elizawrites.livejournal.com]

I started shouting BLOOD DIAMONDS at the TV when the Kay Jewelers commercial came on at my parents' a few hours ago. I skip through the ads when I'm at home so seeing them at all is rather jarring.

[knitmeapony.livejournal.com]

Stephen Colbert's bit is the funniest thing I have ever seen, and I will trot out this icon now and forever.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Some lowlife scum of a cheap department store is opening at (gasp) 4 am. I hope they are paying their employees huge amounts of money and no one shows up to shop.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Those Kay Jewelers commercials annoy me almost as much as the whole "War on Christmas" bullshit.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I am losing the gf for the evening and most of Black Friday (*whateverz*) so that she can prep her store for "the first Official Shopping Day of the Christmas Season."

No, no I really do love the holidays.

Really. :(

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Well, it's better than losing her to another guy permanently, non? LOL

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I am losing her to another guy, his name is Santa Claus.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

I really do looooove this icon. LOL

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Hey, I supposedly belong to the "majority" demographic (born that way anyway), and it makes me mega-cranky, too. We celebrate the Solstice, thankyouverymuch.

Did you see the news report from somewhere in the middle of the country not too long ago, in which copies of the Qur'an were presented to legislators, and one of them went on a grand tear and demanded that they all be returned to the donor, with the sort of vocabulary and spit-spraying ignorance you would expect? It was pointed out by more than one pundit that when Bibles were presented to this same legislature last year, he went on and on about how "that was the most wonderful gift we could ever receive."

Gag me with a spork.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I've repeatedly and fervently called (since about 1980) for allowing formal teacher-led prayer in schools. As long as they pass out prayer rugs and point the students toward Mecca.

And I WILL be shopping on Black Friday - at the LosCon art show and dealers room.

[kessadebra.livejournal.com]

...and as long as my Spud's rug can have a pentagram on it ;-)

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Decorated any way the parents want!

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I want to start a schism within the Pastafarians about the nature of the sauce. Tomato- or Cream- based? The ascetic fundamentalists only allow for plain, though some get by with butter or olive oil.

[lagilman]

and what cheese, man, what cheese? Is 18 months aged somehow more pleasing to His Noodly Self than 9 months? And Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano? These are vastly important questions!


(we'll leave the Black Pepper Heretics out of the question, for now)

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

Any shopping I committ on Friday will be done via my wireless laptop.

I have to go into work in the morning, but should be home by noon.

The painters should be finished with the great room by the end of today, so I'm hoping for a damp and gloomy Friday so I can justify lighting the fireplace for the first time. No furniture in the room yet, but that's okay, as long as I get a mug of hot cocoa.

[lagilman]

One of these years, Spouse and I are going to skip the whole thing and just go out for Chinese food. ;)

Growing up, Christmas Day, to me, was my grandparents' wedding anniversary (hey, all their friends had off for the day, anyway!) and the family dinner in Chinatown, along with every other Reform Jewish family in the NyC area...

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

The best thing about Christmas is that everyone in my family gets the same day off, and we can manage to visit in person for a few hours. Other than that... what a horrible time of year if you have to leave the house for anything.

[sci-o-biscuits.livejournal.com]

The jewelry commercial playing constantly here features a 40-something couple, not married, still dating. As they are driving to or from a date, the guy is thinking that he loves the woman. She's staring out the window and appears bored and devoid of personality. While still driving the car, the creepy looking man gives her the jewelry box with the multi-diamond gift inside. She is thrilled, of course, and the music plays and the announcer babbles about diamonds and love and holidays.

Haven't seen any male cologne commercials yet - but they're acomin'.

And one of the radio stations is already playing holiday music rather than its regular programming.

It just feels too early for the whole Xmas thing to begin. I'm still gearing up to make it through Thanksgiving.

[chibiaingeal.livejournal.com]

Oh! I am so hermiting on Friday....

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm chiming in with my 2 cents worth.

I hate the fact that the Christmas season starts in October. And I hate the fact that Christmas is becoming even more commercial every year. But, I love Christmas carols and Christmas decorations because they remind me of simpler times when I was younger and believed in Santa Claus and I thought that being nice to people was something that happened every day of the year, and not just at Christmas.

But I can also appreciate that, coming from a different background, different religion, different culture, these Christmas-y things might not have the same meaning for all. Still, I hate it when everyone gets so negative. When I say "Merry Christmas" to someone, I'm attempting to spread the warm feeling inside, not to push a religious belief down someone's throat. When I ask someone to come to a Christmas party, it's a way to share something that I love with other people, not an attempt to evangelize.

[lagilman]

We're not talking about wishing someone "Merry Christmas." we're talking about people who actively and aggressively work to re-establish the massive Christmas Tree in the middle of (town-owned) property, complete with a Nativity scene, and to change the name of the "Holiday Parade" back to "Christmas Parade" (two recent examples from locally) -- an then are PROUD of whatt hey've done because it suits what THEY want ("like we used to have" one guy was quoted as saying.) And if we get started about the whole "wishing someone Happy Holidays is immoral because it cheapens Christmas" thing, both neadods and I will begin to froth and rant, and nobody wants to see that. Really. It's not even good theater any more...

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

about the whole "wishing someone Happy Holidays is immoral because it cheapens Christmas" thing,

Oh, I have no problem with saying Happy Holidays. I don't think it cheapens Christmas. It is, after all, a holiday. And I do use this formula, when I know someone doesn't celebrate Christmas. But having to know what everyone's personal celebration (Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah,…) takes a bit of the spontaneous festivity out of my greetings.

I'm sure that having the whole Christmas season shoved down your throat for years when you don't celebrate is grating. I personally would not support putting a creche on public property, though I remain undecided on the tree.

I guess it all comes down to deciding where one culture's liberty to celebrate begins to tread on another culture's liberty to not celebrate. I think people who fight to put up decorations are maladroitly attempting to recapture the secure feeling they had before they realized they were sharing their world with people who didn't necessarily share their cultural viewpoint. Some people have reacted to the feeling that they were losing something radically, by trying to impose the "way it used to be" on everyone else regardless of the point of view of everyone else. Others have left the public displays to wayside and concentrated on private displays, some of which are incredibly tacky. On the other side of the fence, some people have reacted to the force feeding of another's holiday culture with an "oh well, what ever", while others have become miltantly opposed to anything that smacks of it. I feel uncomfortable with both the radical imposers and the militant opposers.

In France, we say, "Bonnes Fêtes, and it seems to cover the gamut. But I am often chided for my enthusiasm for the end of the year festivities. My friends reject the whole holiday due to the omnipresence of Santa, presents, and commercialization. They tend to see Christmas as only for kids. Though I am not religious at all, this belittling attitude takes away from my joy, which I think is mean.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

My friends reject the whole holiday due to the omnipresence of Santa, presents, and commercialization.

I would like to see that end of things morph into a secular celebration of charity, which I think all of us can get behind. Angel trees, Toys For Tots, holiday meals, that sort of thing, are a nice way to celebrate a mid-winter holiday, particularly since winter is often the hardest time of year for people whose incomes are seasonal. I am religious, and to me Santa is not about Christianity any more than Thanksgiving is. Even though both originated there, it's generally accepted that Thanksgiving is not necessarily a religious holiday any more, except for people who choose to celebrate it as such.

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Totally agree with your post!

I am evil

[argillaceous-d.livejournal.com]

I did my time as a retail worker for over a decade. For two years after quitting my last retail job, I wouldn't leave the house the entire day after Thanksgiving.

Hate me if you must, but I now get up and am at my local retailer at 6am. Call me a lemming...a lunatic. I have a large family and I actually purchase a majority of my gifts that day. When the item that your niece/nephew would really like to have is drastically discounted before 8am...for me, the savings are worth the inconvenience and crowds. I also don't live in a vastly populated area, so my crowds are likely not as bad as most.

When this time of year rolls around, and the insanity gets close to overwhelming, I tend to get resentful. Resentful that my religious Holiday has been hijacked. The shopping crowds and the 24 hour "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" on the radio don't have anything to do with religion.

Re: I am evil

[lagilman]

I'm glad to see your retail scars have healed. *grin* I can see your point about the savings, but when places like Khols advertise thier sales starting at 4 AM! I wonder what exactly they're selling so cheap that it's worth it. At that point, might as well just go to Denny's at midnight at stay up, then go to bed at 7am, after you've made your dawn kill...

And while combat shopping IS a religion, I'd like to practice it without the media-induced mass hysteria, thanks.

[vincam.livejournal.com]

(going anywhere near a store on Black Friday is more than I'm willing to do

Both of my kids work in retail. Travis is high enough in the food chain now that he won't have to work on Friday, but Nikki just started at a store in the mall and is doing a Fri/Sat quick-turnaround.

Also, do the people at Kay Jewelers know how much we hate their ads?

And the Jared ads. They're for people who look upon jewelry as status symbol. I see it more as pretty baubles I like to look at when I'm bored.

"bringing Christmas back into [fill in the blank]"

Huh? Who's saying that? And what is it they want to bring Christmas "back" into?

The other day I noticed the decorations on Main St. are different this year. They used to be Christmas wreaths, but now they're big, white snowflakes. I miss the traditional wreaths, but the snowflakes are pretty, too. There has been secular vs. religious Christmas as far back as I can remember--probably further. Traditions change, whether we like it or not. Some people just need to get over it. What would have truly burned my butt would have been if they'd simply removed the decorations entirely.

[lagilman]

Huh? Who's saying that? And what is it they want to bring Christmas "back" into?

Google "The War on Christmas."

[vincam.livejournal.com]

Google "The War on Christmas."

::google::

Huh. I wonder why that guy thinks his fussing is any less oppressive than the very thing he finds so heinous. This is as all-around stupid as the whole Pledge of Allegiance hoohaw. Some people just need to get a grip.