The War on Christmas: 2012 Edition

[Boogalou]

I went to Shoppers today actually, not on purpose though! I am happy to report that they were not playing any Christmas music, they were playing the Friends theme song when I walked in :D (I know that it's a real song, but I can't remember the name). They were setting up a lot of their Christmas stuff though... and I bought some :oops: To be fair, I always do Christmas shopping in early to mid-November because everything is pretty much out, there is a lot of selection, and places aren't busy yet. Then the end of November and the beginning to middle of December is exam and essay season so I don't have a tone free time. Once exams are done everything is SUPER crowded and I hate crowds so I can't do things then either. Honestly, I like that things are out this early, but I think I am in the minority on that.

[Sydney Fox]

I hate those frigging signs. I hate the stupid "war on Christmas" crap, actually. To quote Jon Stewart, walk a mile in Hanukkah shoes, buddy. Granted, Hanukkah is not as major a day on the Jewish calendar as Christmas is on the Christian one, but it makes me teeth-grindingly annoyed to hear people bitching about a "war on Christmas" when I can't go thirty feet without seeing Christmas shit or hearing Christmas carols and my whole mall looks like Rudolph barfed tinsel everywhere. For crying out loud, even here in China my town has a Christmas market! Atheist, Communist China. There is no war on Christmas. There has never been a war on Christmas. Christmas is the single most ubiquitous holiday in the world. Shut the hell up about poor, defenseless Christmas already.

If you really want to get behind a holiday-related cause, I suggest the following:

My daughter wants to put this on our car. I had such a crush on Han Solo, I'm almost considering it. :lol:

[crazyforkate]

A lot of schools just don't do "O Canada", not out of any attempt to be politically correct, but just because it's not considered particularly important. As a country, we're generally not as big on national symbols (flag, anthem, etc) as the US...I attended 9 different schools, and only one ever put the national anthem as part of their routine, and then only on Mondays. Otherwise, special occasions only. It might be a regional thing too, I grew up in a part of BC where we're just not as interested in outward patriotism in general.

[O Latin]

I love and adore everything about Christmas, winter, fall, holidays, etc. (Peppermint mochas! Pumpkin everything! Scarves! Sweaters! Sweet potatoes! Football! I love this time of year!) Especially Christmas music. We have a radio station that plays Christmas stuff non-stop from about November 15, and, with the exception of that God awful Christmas shoes song, I never get tired of it. I can listen to it for eight hours a day for six weeks and I'm still sad when I get in the car on December 26 and it's not there anymore. As usual, I've been excited for Christmas since about September and as far as I'm concerned, the Christmas mania can start anytime. I understand that not everyone feels that way, though, and a store not playing the music in November hardly says "War on Christmas."

[Witsec7]

I love and adore everything about Christmas, winter, fall, holidays, etc. (Peppermint mochas! Pumpkin everything! Scarves! Sweaters! Sweet potatoes! Football! I love this time of year!) Especially Christmas music. We have a radio station that plays Christmas stuff non-stop from about November 15, and, with the exception of that God awful Christmas shoes song, I never get tired of it. I can listen to it for eight hours a day for six weeks and I'm still sad when I get in the car on December 26 and it's not there anymore. As usual, I've been excited for Christmas since about September and as far as I'm concerned, the Christmas mania can start anytime. I understand that not everyone feels that way, though, and a store not playing the music in November hardly says "War on Christmas."

!!!Eleventy!!!>sarcasm.

[marmalade]

!!!Eleventy!!!>sarcasm.

Well, we know Smuggar was on top it for fundies everywhere when he spoke on behalf of Salvation Army bell-ringers everywhere on 11/1. Apparently, the only person who cared was Anna, who likely took the picture of him speaking to an empty mall.

You go, Smugs. :roll:

[xDreamerx]

I just wanted to weigh on the Canada issue/topic.

When I was in public school (I mean elementary school, people in my region tend to call the K-8 schools public school. I don't know why. Though the one I went to was also public as in state run), we sung the national anthem every single morning. It was the first thing that happened, before anything could proceed. It was taken pretty seriously too. You weren't expected to sing, but you were expected to stand with your hands at your side and be still and quiet. The same thing was true in high school. Even if you were late for 1st period, if a staff member saw you in the hall you were expected to stop, put down your things and stand until it was over and then keep moving. But there was one kid who was JW and went into the hall every day so as to opt out.

We did have Christmas plays and carols. There were some religious songs and some secular ones. Even at Remembrance Day assemblies there was always a prayer said. I remember they played Onward Christian Soldiers. Heck, even at my University Graduation last year there was prayer said. It was vague and nondescript though.

My point though is that it's regional as well. Southwestern Ontario, in my experience, is more traditional than other places. My Prof and I were discussing this the other day. She's from the Prairies and she was shocked that prayer was so common and that the use of it in Queen's Park was still debated, when as she put it "the rest of the country was dealing with this in the1970s". I wondered if it was because we tend to be more loyalist (at least historically speaking) or more British in terms of heritage or what. I know of a couple folks who still fly Jacks, but I think they're older.

[rock_girl]

I don't celebrate Christmas but that hasn't stopped me buying tickets to a baroque Christmas spectacular! Ok, I made that up, but it's one of my favourite orchestras going a little further into the whole Christmas music thing than the usual carol suspects.

But god help me, it's the 15th of December. A reasonable time to listen to Christmas music. There were decorations in the stores back in October, wtf? If I had to listen to cheezy carols sung by washed up pop stars every time I went to the shops I'd be complaining too.

[redcurls]

I love and adore everything about Christmas, winter, fall, holidays, etc. (Peppermint mochas! Pumpkin everything! Scarves! Sweaters! Sweet potatoes! Football! I love this time of year!) Especially Christmas music. We have a radio station that plays Christmas stuff non-stop from about November 15, and, with the exception of that God awful Christmas shoes song, I never get tired of it. I can listen to it for eight hours a day for six weeks and I'm still sad when I get in the car on December 26 and it's not there anymore. As usual, I've been excited for Christmas since about September and as far as I'm concerned, the Christmas mania can start anytime. I understand that not everyone feels that way, though, and a store not playing the music in November hardly says "War on Christmas."

[Sydney Fox]

I just wanted to weigh on the Canada issue/topic.

When I was in public school (I mean elementary school, people in my region tend to call the K-8 schools public school. I don't know why. Though the one I went to was also public as in state run), we sung the national anthem every single morning. It was the first thing that happened, before anything could proceed. It was taken pretty seriously too. You weren't expected to sing, but you were expected to stand with your hands at your side and be still and quiet. The same thing was true in high school. Even if you were late for 1st period, if a staff member saw you in the hall you were expected to stop, put down your things and stand until it was over and then keep moving. But there was one kid who was JW and went into the hall every day so as to opt out.

We did have Christmas plays and carols. There were some religious songs and some secular ones. Even at Remembrance Day assemblies there was always a prayer said. I remember they played Onward Christian Soldiers. Heck, even at my University Graduation last year there was prayer said. It was vague and nondescript though.

My point though is that it's regional as well. Southwestern Ontario, in my experience, is more traditional than other places. My Prof and I were discussing this the other day. She's from the Prairies and she was shocked that prayer was so common and that the use of it in Queen's Park was still debated, when as she put it "the rest of the country was dealing with this in the1970s". I wondered if it was because we tend to be more loyalist (at least historically speaking) or more British in terms of heritage or what. I know of a couple folks who still fly Jacks, but I think they're older.

I grew up in BC and we sang the anthem, God Save the Queen and the Lord's Prayer at every assembly in elementary school. This was in the 70's, so I doubt this is done now.

[FaustianSlip]

My daughter wants to put this on our car. I had such a crush on Han Solo, I'm almost considering it. :lol:

I put it up in my cubicle at work last year- it got a lot of laughs. It looks like someone actually made a similar t-shirt last year, which I would totally buy if it was on sale again this year.

[Markie]

I just wanted to weigh on the Canada issue/topic.

When I was in public school (I mean elementary school, people in my region tend to call the K-8 schools public school. I don't know why. Though the one I went to was also public as in state run), we sung the national anthem every single morning. It was the first thing that happened, before anything could proceed. It was taken pretty seriously too. You weren't expected to sing, but you were expected to stand with your hands at your side and be still and quiet. The same thing was true in high school. Even if you were late for 1st period, if a staff member saw you in the hall you were expected to stop, put down your things and stand until it was over and then keep moving. But there was one kid who was JW and went into the hall every day so as to opt out.

We did have Christmas plays and carols. There were some religious songs and some secular ones. Even at Remembrance Day assemblies there was always a prayer said. I remember they played Onward Christian Soldiers. Heck, even at my University Graduation last year there was prayer said. It was vague and nondescript though.

My point though is that it's regional as well. Southwestern Ontario, in my experience, is more traditional than other places. My Prof and I were discussing this the other day. She's from the Prairies and she was shocked that prayer was so common and that the use of it in Queen's Park was still debated, when as she put it "the rest of the country was dealing with this in the1970s". I wondered if it was because we tend to be more loyalist (at least historically speaking) or more British in terms of heritage or what. I know of a couple folks who still fly Jacks, but I think they're older.

This could be. I grew up in southwestern Ontario. Assemblies began with the singing of "O Canada" and fisinshing with the singing of "God Save the Queen." That was in the 70's and early 80's. They no longer sing "God Save the Queen."

I remember the protest when Ontario brought in Sunday shopping. It was in the early 90's. I was living in Alberta, at the time, and they were very surprised that Canada's most populous province could not shop on Sundays. They also thought it was strange that I called our May holiday "Victoria Day" not "May Long Weekend."

Perhaps southwestern Ontario is a bit like the US south, minus the huge numbers of fundie churches. I think there are more of them in the Canadian prairies than in sw Ont.

[MonkeyMomma]

If you really want to get behind a holiday-related cause, I suggest the following:

In the general spirit of alternate holiday signs, I offer you this:

[brashchick]

That was my first thought the moment I started reading this thread! I don't know whether having Thanksgiving in late November helps to shorten the torture for American retail workers, but in my non-TG-celebrating country it's right into motherfucking Christmas carols (and Christmas singing toys if you're really unlucky) the moment Halloween is over. I don't even know who Parson Brown is, but I have wanted to shove his head into a pile of snow and a carrot up his ass ever since the year I had to spend two months listening to a playlist with multiple versions of that song on it.

I really want to make "stick his head in a pile of snow and shove a carrot up his ass" part of my facebook status. Love it. I love Christmas. I love Christmas music, but please, not before Thanksgiving.

[jaynie]

This could be. I grew up in southwestern Ontario. Assemblies began with the singing of "O Canada" and fisinshing with the singing of "God Save the Queen." That was in the 70's and early 80's. They no longer sing "God Save the Queen."

I remember the protest when Ontario brought in Sunday shopping. It was in the early 90's. I was living in Alberta, at the time, and they were very surprised that Canada's most populous province could not shop on Sundays. They also thought it was strange that I called our May holiday "Victoria Day" not "May Long Weekend."

Perhaps southwestern Ontario is a bit like the US south, minus the huge numbers of fundie churches. I think there are more of them in the Canadian prairies than in sw Ont.

I've been sitting here honestly baffled that so many Canadians did this sort of thing in school, because it wasn't my experience at all. I guess the provincial divide explains it. It's funny, though -- if any province was going to do the lord's prayer and christmas pageants in public school, I would have guessed it would be Alberta. Maybe we didn't do the anthem singing because there is still an element of self-centred separatism? Or maybe I just went to a weird school, lol.

[loveandwar]

I'm a Christian. I celebrate Christmas. I loooove Christmas music - but only after December 15 or so. When I worked in retail, the store would start integrating the cheesy pop Christmas music on November 1 and it drove us all crazy! Based on that, I agree with whoever said that the employees probably complained.

[DarkAnts]

Why cant these people see the value in moderation. If you see yourself over celebrating the secular part of christmas, then work on that. Dont spoil the family fun. Create rules like how much you will spend on presents and how much you will decorate the house. Volunteer at the homeless shelter, go to christmas service, read bible passages exc. Its not hard to make rules for your daily living.

[Sumeri]

I grew up in BC and we sang the anthem, God Save the Queen and the Lord's Prayer at every assembly in elementary school. This was in the 70's, so I doubt this is done now.

When you say you sang the Lord's Prayer, do you mean the Sister Janet Meade version?

:D

[Sobeknofret]

There are a lot of CHRISTIANS who loath Christmas music this early because of the Christmas = meaningful religious holiday thing.

I'm a Christian and I personally loathe everything about the Christmas season. I'd way rather celebrate Thanksgiving than Christmas.

[snarktastic]

While we're at it - love this one that was doing the rounds last year.

http://nearemmaus.files.wordpress.com/2 ... 7035_n.jpg

[DarkAnts]

I'm a Christian and I personally loathe everything about the Christmas season. I'd way rather celebrate Thanksgiving than Christmas.

Me too, I think it brings the worst out in many people. I see more rude people at the grocery store the closer we get to christmas. I understand that people are stressed. But, I think they put that stress on themselves. You can have a perfectly nice family christmas without going all out, and without getting super stressed. Just keep it low key. There is no law that says that you have to spend thousands of dollars on presents, decorations and food. But once again, people in America seem to have a problem with doing things in moderation. It seems to be all or nothing here.

[E Street Fan]

People around here are already posting pictures of their Christmas trees on FB.

I like to piss people off by saying Happy Holidays when they say Merry Christmas. :evil: If they say something, I start singing "Happy Holidays", a song written way back in 1942. Who knew Irving Berlin started the War on Christmas? He was Jewish, after all. :whistle:

(I have a soft spot for Irving Berlin & his music. My dad was named after him.)

I like to piss people off by saying Happy Hanukkah when they say Merry Christmas. :twisted: And I'm an atheist. The sooner people realize their way isn't the only way, the better. I've never gotten anything other than a sheepish look.

I'll agree that people were complaining about the timing of the Xmas music, rather than the music itself. But that's probably too logical for anybody who really thinks there's a "war on Christmas."

[Lola]

I grew up in BC and we sang the anthem, God Save the Queen and the Lord's Prayer at every assembly in elementary school. This was in the 70's, so I doubt this is done now.

I grew up in the Maritimes and in grade 10 which was 2002, it was being done then.

[Lola]

I celebrate winter festival. Don't really care for the Holidays tho. I find the worst shows up in people around Xmas.

[Freyacat]

In the general spirit of alternate holiday signs, I offer you this:

AWESOME. That is so getting taped to my desk.