"Best Buy Chooses 'Happy Holidays,' Eschews 'Merry Christmas'"
"Walmart scraps 'Seasons Greetings' in favor of 'Merry Christmas'"
It's already fucking started again - except maybe a bit earlier this year. These are mundane times for the news outlets. The election has passed, Thanksgiving is yet a week away, and so the editors dig deep in the dregs of the journalistic engine to find something newsworthy. And if it was newsworthy last year, why not try it again this year? Well, I'm not going to rant about it. The subject is old, dusty, and worn out. So I'll search on for a gentler, kinder headline......
"Britain's 'Fergie' Wants To Compete On 'Dancing With The Stars'"
Ah, sigh. That's better. And newsworthy!
But seriously. It has been beginning to look a lot like Christmas since about August this year, at least in the stores. It's hard to escape the onslaught of Christ-buying. I have nothing against Christmas, and I never have; it's always been one of my favorite holidays. It's a major part of the month of December for me. And that's where I wish to keep it.
But on my way home from town today, I couldn't help but count the number of houses that were already decked out for the holidays. Twelve. Many already had their lights turned on. And besides those twelve, there were two homes that were still bejeweled in Halloween decor; the half-rotten pumpkins now frozen in place for the winter. Christmas and Halloween are 55 days apart, which is almost 8 weeks. So you'd think there would be a lull in between - a few sacred days that we could just celebrate as "Fall" or "Autumn" or "Eww it's Cold" days.
As a kid, my sisters and I would beg our parents to set the tree up after Thanksgiving dinner. My mother never wanted to give in, but my dad usually would go drag out the artificial tree, set it up, and we would start decorating it. We had so many ornaments, many of which we had made ourselves. The tree was very green (a little too green) and the branches were rather matted and sparse - in other words, it was faky-looking. It was draped in ropes of real aluminum tinsel, topped with an angel that looked like a half-Barbie, and hung with real construction paper ornaments that we had made in school. Other than the tree, we had a plastic light-up santa that the dog barked at, and a wreath my mother had made out of quilting, among other quaint seventies holiday garnishings. All in all, it was rather mismatched, distasteful, and everything clashed. But it was ours, and it was personal, and it was the seventies.
As the years went on, Christmas decorating got a little more elaborate. Plastic trees were no longer a novelty, tinsel became passe', and the look became more subtle - more "traditional." By my final years at home, our christmas trees were more inclined to be real, and decorated simply with red bows and white lights, with a few delicate glass balls in tasteful colors thrown in. The look had changed, but there was still an air of simplicity to Christmas decoration - it was meant to send out a feeling a warmth, of home. But every year crept by a little more bloated than the next, and the air of wintergreen and frankincense gave in to the air of something much stronger - commercialism.
I went to Walmart today, to take back some cans and bottles for the deposit money. I know many of you are thinking 'hypocrite! Talking this way and going to Walmart!' Well, I admit that I shop there on occasion, not only because Walmart has engulfed most of the other small-town shopping outlets here, but because it's cheap. Anyway, I take my returnables there - I figure I give enough of my paycheck to that store, so why not return the favor by giving them some of my garbage?
Back to the point. Walmart has had their Christmas decorations out since mid-summer, but I just took my first good look today. The theme this year is BIG. VERY BIG. Apparently, modern technology has made it possible to create the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in your own front yard, for a very attractive price! Huge snowglobes of acrylic plastic, filled with a wonderland of blowing snowflakes and reindeer. Nylon Santas, fashioned of tent-material and hooked to leaf-blowers, that reach ten feet high. Whole nativity scenes of life-size molded plastic figurines, with faces that resemble cute Disney characters, housed in mangers so big that you could use them later on as carports. And all of these bountiful "ornaments" are priced very reasonably, probably owing to the fact that they were made by hindus, muslims, and buddhists in other countries, who could probably afford those same decorations if they gave up several paychecks.
These blimp-like decorations are brought home and set up in the yard, kept permanently deflated by their own built-in fans. I've never looked up close, but I would suspect that there are some kind of anchoring stakes or ropes, lest these monster santas launch and fly away in a stiff breeze.
But one super-santa isn't enough for most people. I notice that, if people have one of these in their yards, then they also must have the snowglobe, and the nativity scene, and a set of reindeer, and some giant angels, not to mention thousands of strands of lights. It's a frightening sight - all these blimp-people forced into a yard, as if they were in a holding cell or a detention camp. There is nothing quaint, or pretty, or nostalgic about it. It's just commercialism at its finest - because everyone wants to have more than their neighbor. There is no message behind the decor - just a huge electric bill and a lot of work. It frightens me.
My neighbors set up their Christmas display today - and they must be poor, because they didn't have too many Hindenburg-size ornaments. Instead they had lots of lights, and they wound them around every object on the property - the house, the fence, the bushes, up and down the flagpole, all around the driveway...........the colors don't match either. Some strands are all-blue, some multi-colored, some white, and they are just put in random order, so there's no congruity to it. It's just a mess, but it's their way of saying "look at us! We can afford to celebrate Christmas too!" I'm sure that by holiday's end in 2 months, they will have saved up for a mega-sleigh to perch on the roof, or something along that line. And they'll probably keep them on through the winter - because around here, the snow hits early, and who wants to dig out all those decorations? Just wait until spring to do it, but keep them lit up! Remind everyone that you celebrated Christmas, even though it's Easter! Oh, that's right. People decorate their homes for Easter now, too.
The amount the average person spends on Christmas gifts is staggering - depending on what article I read, it's anywhere from $498.00 per person, to $1,000.00 per family. Mind-blowing. And whether the store banners read "happy holidays" or "merry christmas", people will spend, and spend, and spend. How does spending great gobs of money on dvds, foot massagers, expensive toys, and ugly sweaters equate to celebrating the birth of a baby that was born 1000 years ago, when the average person probably walked around barefoot and ate bugs to get enough protein? Well truthfully, the wisemen DID bring all that expensive frankincense and myrrh - but nowdays you can go to Bath and Body Works and find that stuff in the clearance bin. Nobody bought the baby Jesus a $599 Sony Playstation 3 - although I bet he would've enjoyed it. But at the time, he was probably too worried about all that prickly straw and being "swaddled" to think about gifts.
Anyway, this year I plan to decorate too, just so I can keep up with the neighbors. But I'm going to go simple - maybe a candle in each window - or a string of lights around the eaves. I could put a sleigh and eight reindeer on the roof - but with the state of my house, it might all cave in..........
So, if I forget later on, have yourselves a merry seasonal holiday hannuchristmakwanzal new year! And go spend that money before the turkey starts thawing!
"Walmart scraps 'Seasons Greetings' in favor of 'Merry Christmas'"
It's already fucking started again - except maybe a bit earlier this year. These are mundane times for the news outlets. The election has passed, Thanksgiving is yet a week away, and so the editors dig deep in the dregs of the journalistic engine to find something newsworthy. And if it was newsworthy last year, why not try it again this year? Well, I'm not going to rant about it. The subject is old, dusty, and worn out. So I'll search on for a gentler, kinder headline......
"Britain's 'Fergie' Wants To Compete On 'Dancing With The Stars'"
Ah, sigh. That's better. And newsworthy!
But seriously. It has been beginning to look a lot like Christmas since about August this year, at least in the stores. It's hard to escape the onslaught of Christ-buying. I have nothing against Christmas, and I never have; it's always been one of my favorite holidays. It's a major part of the month of December for me. And that's where I wish to keep it.
But on my way home from town today, I couldn't help but count the number of houses that were already decked out for the holidays. Twelve. Many already had their lights turned on. And besides those twelve, there were two homes that were still bejeweled in Halloween decor; the half-rotten pumpkins now frozen in place for the winter. Christmas and Halloween are 55 days apart, which is almost 8 weeks. So you'd think there would be a lull in between - a few sacred days that we could just celebrate as "Fall" or "Autumn" or "Eww it's Cold" days.
As a kid, my sisters and I would beg our parents to set the tree up after Thanksgiving dinner. My mother never wanted to give in, but my dad usually would go drag out the artificial tree, set it up, and we would start decorating it. We had so many ornaments, many of which we had made ourselves. The tree was very green (a little too green) and the branches were rather matted and sparse - in other words, it was faky-looking. It was draped in ropes of real aluminum tinsel, topped with an angel that looked like a half-Barbie, and hung with real construction paper ornaments that we had made in school. Other than the tree, we had a plastic light-up santa that the dog barked at, and a wreath my mother had made out of quilting, among other quaint seventies holiday garnishings. All in all, it was rather mismatched, distasteful, and everything clashed. But it was ours, and it was personal, and it was the seventies.
As the years went on, Christmas decorating got a little more elaborate. Plastic trees were no longer a novelty, tinsel became passe', and the look became more subtle - more "traditional." By my final years at home, our christmas trees were more inclined to be real, and decorated simply with red bows and white lights, with a few delicate glass balls in tasteful colors thrown in. The look had changed, but there was still an air of simplicity to Christmas decoration - it was meant to send out a feeling a warmth, of home. But every year crept by a little more bloated than the next, and the air of wintergreen and frankincense gave in to the air of something much stronger - commercialism.
I went to Walmart today, to take back some cans and bottles for the deposit money. I know many of you are thinking 'hypocrite! Talking this way and going to Walmart!' Well, I admit that I shop there on occasion, not only because Walmart has engulfed most of the other small-town shopping outlets here, but because it's cheap. Anyway, I take my returnables there - I figure I give enough of my paycheck to that store, so why not return the favor by giving them some of my garbage?
Back to the point. Walmart has had their Christmas decorations out since mid-summer, but I just took my first good look today. The theme this year is BIG. VERY BIG. Apparently, modern technology has made it possible to create the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in your own front yard, for a very attractive price! Huge snowglobes of acrylic plastic, filled with a wonderland of blowing snowflakes and reindeer. Nylon Santas, fashioned of tent-material and hooked to leaf-blowers, that reach ten feet high. Whole nativity scenes of life-size molded plastic figurines, with faces that resemble cute Disney characters, housed in mangers so big that you could use them later on as carports. And all of these bountiful "ornaments" are priced very reasonably, probably owing to the fact that they were made by hindus, muslims, and buddhists in other countries, who could probably afford those same decorations if they gave up several paychecks.
These blimp-like decorations are brought home and set up in the yard, kept permanently deflated by their own built-in fans. I've never looked up close, but I would suspect that there are some kind of anchoring stakes or ropes, lest these monster santas launch and fly away in a stiff breeze.
But one super-santa isn't enough for most people. I notice that, if people have one of these in their yards, then they also must have the snowglobe, and the nativity scene, and a set of reindeer, and some giant angels, not to mention thousands of strands of lights. It's a frightening sight - all these blimp-people forced into a yard, as if they were in a holding cell or a detention camp. There is nothing quaint, or pretty, or nostalgic about it. It's just commercialism at its finest - because everyone wants to have more than their neighbor. There is no message behind the decor - just a huge electric bill and a lot of work. It frightens me.
My neighbors set up their Christmas display today - and they must be poor, because they didn't have too many Hindenburg-size ornaments. Instead they had lots of lights, and they wound them around every object on the property - the house, the fence, the bushes, up and down the flagpole, all around the driveway...........the colors don't match either. Some strands are all-blue, some multi-colored, some white, and they are just put in random order, so there's no congruity to it. It's just a mess, but it's their way of saying "look at us! We can afford to celebrate Christmas too!" I'm sure that by holiday's end in 2 months, they will have saved up for a mega-sleigh to perch on the roof, or something along that line. And they'll probably keep them on through the winter - because around here, the snow hits early, and who wants to dig out all those decorations? Just wait until spring to do it, but keep them lit up! Remind everyone that you celebrated Christmas, even though it's Easter! Oh, that's right. People decorate their homes for Easter now, too.
The amount the average person spends on Christmas gifts is staggering - depending on what article I read, it's anywhere from $498.00 per person, to $1,000.00 per family. Mind-blowing. And whether the store banners read "happy holidays" or "merry christmas", people will spend, and spend, and spend. How does spending great gobs of money on dvds, foot massagers, expensive toys, and ugly sweaters equate to celebrating the birth of a baby that was born 1000 years ago, when the average person probably walked around barefoot and ate bugs to get enough protein? Well truthfully, the wisemen DID bring all that expensive frankincense and myrrh - but nowdays you can go to Bath and Body Works and find that stuff in the clearance bin. Nobody bought the baby Jesus a $599 Sony Playstation 3 - although I bet he would've enjoyed it. But at the time, he was probably too worried about all that prickly straw and being "swaddled" to think about gifts.
Anyway, this year I plan to decorate too, just so I can keep up with the neighbors. But I'm going to go simple - maybe a candle in each window - or a string of lights around the eaves. I could put a sleigh and eight reindeer on the roof - but with the state of my house, it might all cave in..........
So, if I forget later on, have yourselves a merry seasonal holiday hannuchristmakwanzal new year! And go spend that money before the turkey starts thawing!
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