Chrsitmas Craziness (Porter: income, work, house)

[colleeng47]

Is Christmas as nutty in OK as in NJ? I'm wondering if the hysteria about one day every year is a USA thing or worse in some parts of the country.

In NJ Christmas decorations come out in the store before Halloween. The advertising in the newspapers, radio, etc. are tremendous. You are bombarded from all sides all day long for months. Thanksgiving is just blown off as a necessary day to get to Black Friday. Everyone here spends WAY too much and is paying bills until at least March.

But amazingly enough, the word "Christmas" itself is taboo. Stores, businesses and schools switched about 10 years ago to "Holiday." We have a "holiday party" at work not a christmas party; schools have "winter concerts" not Christmas concerts. Stores and businesses wish you "Happy holidays". In fact one store in NJ told their employees if they said "Merry Christmas" they would be fired! The only public displays allowed are in front of churches. The reason is some people are offended by Christmas and don't want to see public displays.

How are things this time of year in OK? As insane as here or what?

[Synopsis]

Okies use "Merry Christmas" all the time. As for the advertising; it's been awhile for me since I've lived there but here in Texas they bring out the Christmas decorations right around Thanksgiving. Shopping here in Texas is ridiculous on Black Friday; the malls are full of people at 5 am and people have stood out all night in some cases. I doubt that it's that bad in Oklahoma because people tend to be a little more down to earth there and live within their means. People here in DFW charge, charge, charge, charge EVERYTHING and live way above their means.

[TheComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by colleeng47

Is Christmas as nutty in OK as in NJ? I'm wondering if the hysteria about one day every year is a USA thing or worse in some parts of the country.

In NJ Christmas decorations come out in the store before Halloween. The advertising in the newspapers, radio, etc. are tremendous. You are bombarded from all sides all day long for months. Thanksgiving is just blown off as a necessary day to get to Black Friday. Everyone here spends WAY too much and is paying bills until at least March.

But amazingly enough, the word "Christmas" itself is taboo. Stores, businesses and schools switched about 10 years ago to "Holiday." We have a "holiday party" at work not a christmas party; schools have "winter concerts" not Christmas concerts. Stores and businesses wish you "Happy holidays". In fact one store in NJ told their employees if they said "Merry Christmas" they would be fired! The only public displays allowed are in front of churches. The reason is some people are offended by Christmas and don't want to see public displays.

How are things this time of year in OK? As insane as here or what?

Sad, isn't it?

The stores LOVE to sell us Christmas stuff and depend on the income, but they
refuse to actually say "Christmas".

When WalMart employees or anywhere else for that matter say "Happy Holidays" to my wife, she invariably responds with a rousing "MERRY CHRISTMAS!".

It really sad that people are now afraid to say Merry Christmas...
Happy Holidays is pretty lame.

I have Jewish friends who never got offended at the Christmas stuff...
People are too easily offended today...
I guess some folks just have too much time on their hands...
I don't have time to take offense at every little thing that I disagree with...
To each his own.

I remember getting burnt out on the commercialism of Christmas, but getting rid of the TV solved that... It also solved all the election year burnout.

It is possible to have cable Internet without the television portion of it.
(TV lost by a 3 to 1 vote here... And the kids voted with me.)

I know a few people with kids who got rid of the TV...
You'd be surprised how many better ways kids (and adults) can spend their time when they're not being hypnotized by the idiot box.

Just my $.02...

M.

[jessaka]

Yes, there are always things to do without TV. When I was young with no TV I used to make mud pies. I remember my mom throwing out a box of raisins, so I put that around a mud cake I had made. I used to also built roads for toy cars and plant beans for a small crop in my miniature farm along side of my small roads. I used to take my dog to the river. I also would sit in the tall grass in the field next door and drink cola and read Little Lulu and Archie comic books.Oh, there is so much more to do without a TV.

[TheComputerGuy]

Originally Posted by jessaka

Yes, there are always things to do without TV. When I was young with no TV I used to make mud pies. I remember my mom throwing out a box of raisins, so I put that around a mud cake I had made. I used to also built roads for toy cars and plant beans for a small crop in my miniature farm along side of my small roads. I used to take my dog to the river. I also would sit in the tall grass in the field next door and drink cola and read Little Lulu and Archie comic books.Oh, there is so much more to do without a TV.

Little Lulu and Archie comics? I remember reading those at my grandmothers house. (They were my aunt's.)

Tall grass without ticks??? Those were the days!

My kids learned the value of books and reading instead of sitting in front of the Tube. As a fringe benefit, they both have vocabularies better than many adults and can actually spell and use punctuation better than their peers.

They're also more computer literate than most adults (Even in the professional world.)... I suppose growing up with me had a little to do with that.

M.

[peggydavis]

Last year we had a controversy in the news about stores saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. People said they would boycott stores that only said Happy Holidays.

People go about as crazy at Christmas time here as anywhere as far as buying presents. I give small gifts to all the kids, but that is about it for me.

[colleeng47]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

Last year we had a controversy in the news about stores saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. People said they would boycott stores that only said Happy Holidays.

People go about as crazy at Christmas time here as anywhere as far as buying presents. I give small gifts to all the kids, but that is about it for me.

It's so sad that the whole thing has gotten out of control. Gift buying, crowded malls, pushing, ill humor, overspending. And all for what? One day. One Christmas DH and I chucked the whole thing and spent the day at the soup kitchen. Another Christmas we hit the road and spent the day helping people who had various problems from stalled cars to needing rides to get prescriptions. Another Christmas we went to Williamsburg, VA and pretended it was 1770 and all people cared about at Christmas was food, friends and family. Wish we could get back to that.

[redbird4848]

I hate christmas commercialism, always have. But now, since my mother passed away, I don't even want to be with my family. Its just not the same.
Last year I bought for the little brats, but couldn't help but remember the magic of when I was a kid. The christmas season lasted forever.

Being in a christmas play at church and at school. I was a wise man at school one year when the curtain closed, I was left standing on the stage and everyone else was behind the curtain!

[jessaka]

This year at Christmas we are not having a big tree due to remodeling and two dogs that would frolik under it. Instead, today I am going to the Thompson House which is decorated for Christmas as well as a bazaar, then on the 7th I will help out at the library because Santa will be there for the kids, and I am helping out at CARE food program. I have also been going to church bazaars, which is the only way to get me into a church these days. I think these things will make Christmas more special, at least to me.

I like how you have spent your Christmas' coleen.

ComputerGuy, Yes, tall grasses in CA meant no ticks and no snakes in town. I didn't begin reading better books until I was 11 or 12 and found the library's section of non-fiction books as well as Nancy Drew mysteries and Gene Stratton-Porter's nature books. I collect both Nancy Drew and Porter books now.

[colleeng47]

I posted earlier on this thread that our area of the country (New Jersey) is very reluctant to use "Christmas" . They always refer to it as "the Holidays." Happy holiday; let's have a holiday party; where are you going for the holidays? Are you finished your holiday shopping?

Anyway I resent having Christmas become "the holidays". But now they've gone too far. I work for the NJ Division of Taxation and the last few years we did not have a "Christmas party" we had a "Holiday party." Today I got my invitation via e-mail to this year's (drum roll) "Winter Event"

I give up.