Is it Christmas yet!?!

[DEFYANT]

NO! Dammit! It is not Christmas yet.

Am I the only one annoyed by the pushing of holiday season? My kids just took of the Halloween costumes and WHAM! Christmas.

Wal-Mart has half the store dedicated to lawn decorations, X-mas trees, lights, ornaments, dancing Santas, wrapping paper.... :puke:


:mad: HEY IT IS TOO DAMM EARLY!:mad:


Am I the only one who remembers when holidays did not blend into each other? Oh, and what happen to Thanksgiving? Did we forget that one? The day after New Years Eve, you will hear about Valentines day! Hell, after x-mas the drug stores will start to stock the shelves with candy hearts and fake flowers! Then come the corny jewlery and flower comercials!

Humbug! I don't want to seem like a grinch, but come on! I have to work at not falling for the Chrismas hype too early, otherwise, I'll be all "Christmas'ed out" by December 25th!

Yo, corporate America: :down: You Suck!

[DefyantExWife]

why do i suddenly have the song "Mr Grinch" in my head?:rolleyes:

[DEFYANT]

why do i suddenly have the song "Mr Grinch" in my head?:rolleyes:

Carefull you, Santas watching! :mad:

[DefyantExWife]

well, i've been very good :rolleyes:

[SergntMac]

I know this drill, it's a beef with me too.

No time to enjoy the next holiday season before the next next, and next next next after that. Holidays do not sneak up on you anymore, it's fast ball league pitching, without stepping into the cage.

Same exchange with the "ex-" too...

But, I fixed that.

[PhastPhil]

I agree too! This year I saw some places start with the Christmas stuff at the end of August!!! Don't get me worng, Christams is my favorite holiday. Heck, I buy things all year long and save them for Christams presents. Usually just small stuff. And I do like to get my shopping done early cause I hate the mob scenes at the malls. But let us enjoy it at the proper time.
I think it is the stores trying to cash in on the holiday shopping as soon as possible so they can earn the most money.

[MM03MOK]

It's never too early to think about those that won't have a holiday except for the generosity of others. I'm a founding member of my local citizens police group and we're providing 12 Thanksgiving and 12 Christmas dinners, complete with all the trimmings, to families affected by domestic violence. We're also collecting new toys for these children that would not otherwise have anything under the tree.

This is the Spirit of the Holidays - the Spirit of Giving.:wreath:

[Ryans PI]

My store started putting out Christmas stuff a week before Holloween.

[TripleTransAm]

I'm in the same (sinking) boat. My wife keeps it to herself, but I know she's annoyed with my attitude.

I don't know when it happened, I used to get all warm and fuzzy (usually due to alcohol) as the holidays approached... in university, the engineering department usually had the earliest and the last exams, and there was that moment when you walked out of that last exam session to a quasi-deserted school (all the arts and commerce students were long finished) and even though most of the brain was in exhaustion-related shutdown, you knew there were a couple of pitchers with your name on them waiting for you just a block or two away.

Fond memories of standing in a circle outside a rock bar with a cheap cover charge, 4 or 5 of us shivering in the cold with hands in pocket and hopping from one sneaker'ed foot to another on the slushy snow, a "cigarette" being passed around (I always abstained, perhaps my bum lungs actually turning out to be a blessing in disguise?) before heading in to catch the band of the week and sampling the local talent. And at the end of the long tiring night, after quelling the munchies with a burger and soda at the all-night Burger King before heading off in different directions to our respective places of residence, we'd wish each other a happy restful holiday break and then begin our individual search for a way home (bars close at 3 am here, subways shut down at 1 am... how smart is that?).

And then you had maybe 3-5 days TOPS to borrow a family vehicle and race around getting the gift shopping done, while sneaking in a few extra hours here and there at the part-time job to help pay for the upcoming semester. But mostly you soaked up the time at home, basking in the warm glow of lit trees and shimmering ornaments. Good times and good laughs with cousins not seen in 6 months or so. The marathon stream of parties day after day at aunts' and uncles' and grandparents' houses. It was intense, but it was delivered as a crash course: no sooner it had come and hit you in the face, it was over and time to clean up and get back to the reality of the impending deep freeze of January and February.

That was then....

Now I see a meaningless stitched-together scarf of Doctor Who proportions (the 4th Dr, of course) of "holiday" seasons one after another, with their endless sales pitches and "oh my God, you MUST take advantage of this one time only offer, MUCH different than the exact identical offer we proposed last month for this OTHER holiday season" etc.

We've pushed it too far, in my opinion.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've said "Merry Christmas" to anyone in recent memory... and I have a good memory. It's become so commercial, I'd rather extend my wishes for a peaceful healthy happy and love-filled holiday season because that's probably the best thing to wish for others. I didn't even bother putting up exterior lights last year (truthfully, I was in Austin and Tulsa most of December last year, so...). The tree and all associated lights DO go up inside the house without fail, though, and I might do something outside this year as well for the sake of my children's future childhood memories. But something inside has died (apologies to Carole King...)

So... let's make it clear: I DON'T want Santas or reindeer or holly or snowflakes on my Coca Cola cans, on my bags of sliced bread, on my boxes of facial tissues, on my boxes of blank DVD-Rs and most certainly NOT on my rolls of toilet paper (cause I can promise you Santa will be going "Ho-Ho-Ho" in a totally different tone of voice in that last example!).


(side rant: up here, Boxing Day sales were a BIG deal, with folks lining up 2-3 hours on Dec. 26th before stores opened at around noon or 1pm for a short run until 5pm to try and rid themselves of inventory that did not sell before the 24th. Nowadays, they have boxing day sales starting 2 weeks BEFORE the 25th!!!!! commercialized holiday? Nah....)

[RCSignals]

It all started in the US when Thanksgiving was moved to November to kick off the shopping season.

Thanksgiving should be in October, as it still is in Canada.
It is after all an end of harvest celebration..........what harvest ends toward the end of November?

If Pilgrims and Indians really did sit down, outside, for a harvest feast, it certainly wasn't on the 24 November.

[rayjay]

Ok, I've always wanted to know, what is Boxing Day? Is it still ok to say Merry Christmas here??? since it is becoming more and more politically incorrect. :bs: Oh yea, it IS a little too early to start the season.

[Petrograde]

NO! Dammit! It is not Christmas yet.

Am I the only one annoyed by the pushing of holiday season? My kids just took of the Halloween costumes and WHAM! Christmas.

Wal-Mart has half the store dedicated to lawn decorations, X-mas trees, lights, ornaments, dancing Santas, wrapping paper.... :puke:


:mad: HEY IT IS TOO DAMM EARLY!:mad:


Am I the only one who remembers when holidays did not blend into each other? Oh, and what happen to Thanksgiving? Did we forget that one? The day after New Years Eve, you will hear about Valentines day! Hell, after x-mas the drug stores will start to stock the shelves with candy hearts and fake flowers! Then come the corny jewlery and flower comercials!

Humbug! I don't want to seem like a grinch, but come on! I have to work at not falling for the Chrismas hype too early, otherwise, I'll be all "Christmas'ed out" by December 25th!

Yo, corporate America: :down: You Suck!

^^^what he said!^^^

I dread the holidays,.. I hate spending all the $$$,...and I hate being compelled to spend time with people that I have sucessfully managed to evade for the past year.

[grampaws]

Line-ups, looking for hours for some oddball gift,
trying to figure out what to get everyone,then
it just gets returned anyways,then the other 37
relatives-lets do it again??!! The wife won't let me
just write a cheque! imagine the Gas I would save.
The warm fuzzies replaced with the tired,poor and boreds..
The commercial BS has taken all the enjoyment out!!
Get a fridge full of food and couple of bottles of warm fuzzy
and call the family over pick a movie and spend some time
with them--thats more how christmas should be!!
Gifts for the kids and a donation to Toys for Tots.

[miamisilvermm]

Now I can take all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations out of the attic in October, and put them all back in January.

[Donna]

Sad to say....the Hallmark stores have had their ornaments out since the summer :( I remember as a child (yikes...years and years ago) that Christmas ads and stores waited until Thanksgiving time to decorate and put things out.

[Donna]

Carefull you, Santas watching! :mad:

And so is Elf Keema from the Rainbow Bridge...he may be there, but he still does his Elf duties :) here and he is with us in spirit. Now, he said to tell you all that if you get this Bah Humbug feeling.....he is letting Santa :santaw: know to put coal in your stockings. And believe me, Elf Keema has very close ties the the BIG MAN :D . After all, Keema is santa's number 1 lead dog !!!!

[rayjay]

Now I can take all the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations out of the attic in October, and put them all back in January.

Hallothanksmas??? :D

[spub]

How the Grinch stole Christmas was on T.V. two nights ago. I almost fell off my bar stool (I own a bar. I was working. REALLY). It was followed by the first of many showings of The Wizard of Oz. I thought I'd been in a coma and woken up after Thanksgiving!

We're all going to hell in a handbasket.

[twolow]

You can't say Merry Christmas anymore...must say Happy Holidays.

The company I work for doesn't want to offend anyone so the decorations all just say happy holidays and there isn't any reference to Santa, Christmas,.0 or anything....just plain color wrapped boxes and bows and images of snow flakes.

[DEFYANT]

I don't mean to flame the holidays or the season. I have two little ones at home and look forwad to the time with them. It is just the corporate take over of the holidays through out the year that really has me ticked.

I know X-mas is coming, I just dont want it in my face untill Thanksgiving.

[DEFYANT]

You can't say Merry Christmas anymore...must say Happy Holidays.

The company I work for doesn't want to offend anyone so the decorations all just say happy holidays and there isn't any reference to Santa, Christmas,.0 or anything....just plain color wrapped boxes and bows and images of snow flakes.


Perhaps the greatest offence of them all during the holidays: political correctness.

[VNMUS]

Snow here right now, so it sure feels like Christmas is close. Wish I'd bought those snow by now. Wish me luck on my way to work :rolleyes: