I see it every year and every year it pisses me off. On November 1st, the Halloween crap hit’s the 50% off shelves and the Christmas crap is strewn as far as the eye can see.
Would it kill a certain Super-duper grocery store chain to let the lone veteran with his/her little tray of poppies to be the focal point and not put up all the glitz and glamour of Christmas until November 12th?
I don’t so much mind them selling Christmas stuff this time of year but let’s tone down the decorating until after Remembrance Day please.
—Lest We Forget
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2009.
I agree with you 100% OP. The disrespect shown by retailers by not waiting until after the 11th is rampant. Some stores trot their Christmas stuff out before the end of October. Way too early IMO. Christmas has become so commercialised it hardly resembles it’s original purpose – to celebrate the birth of Christ. I wonder how many people who Christmas-shop-til-they-drop actually attend church.
i am happy to close my store on the 11th and remember…but christmas has become poisoned
Stores wouldn’t be selling xmas stuff right now if people weren’t buying it.
I think those who care about the poppies will find them. I’m more curious if the people buying Christmas stuff the first week of November actually put it up then? I’d get bored of Christmas if I actually had everything ready more than a week before the 25th.
Tis’ the Season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la, la la!
? The Legion tables are usually front and center with the entrance in those stores, or right before the exit. That’s pretty damn focal for a retailer.
Oceanlady: The OP’s bitch is about respect. Please keep that in mind before you turn it into a religious debate.
OP: I totally agree with you. Xmas crap is hauled out waaaaaay too early now! I used to work as a security guard about 10 years ago and I can remember them always setting up the xmas garbage on Rememberance Day while the mall was closed.
Unfortunately many of these stores have head offices in provinces where November 11th isn’t a Stat…
Also, lots of people start looking for Christmas crap in September – a friend works at a rather large store, and is getting asked about trees and lights while people are back-to-school shopping… as demand rises and people call/write to giant retailers asking for things out earlier, retailers figure it will mean more dough, so they start putting it out ASAP.
I hate that commercial Xmas crap. And FYI Oceanlady – the date for Xmas was chosen to coincide with Yule when Christians were tryiing to convert the Pagans. It actually has nothing to do with the birth of Christ, as there aren’t any firm records of his date of birth… at least as far as I understand it. Any of you who want to bother looking into it, feel free to correct the resident Pagan on LTWWB.
fellow pagan here gidget…most provinces don’t pay much attention to remembrance day, when i lived in ontario you were lucky to get a minute of silence…i think because halifax has a lot of military history and personnel it is more important
Hey PG – you’re not my baby sister, are you? LOL.
Pagans unite! Let’s hijack this thread – it’s not about Christmas and retail, it’s about the lack of good places to buy magickal supplies more than a month before Samhain!
I know that the wars were real….I am not so sure about Jesus Christ.
little mysteries on barrington gidget…they have a nice greyhound, i am far too ancient to be your babysitter…guffaw
I believe its way to early.
I think it shows a lack of respect.
Which is why I cancelled Christmas 3 years ago…& I’m never going to celebrate it by buying or accepting gifts ever again.
You cannot believe how wonderful it is, knowing you don’t have to shop, you don’t have to wrap… I love it !
PG- no offense to Little Mysteries, great spot, just not ENOUGH places.
And I asked if you were my baby SIS-TER – I was reading some recent posts, and you *could* be but you’re in the wrong province. 🙂
sorry gidget read that wrong…i don’t have a sister and again i am too old…but i have lived in haligonia for 16 years…wtf is up with that “shudder, eye roll, gag, pffft” sorry kay couldn’t help meself
Gidget, I think you might be confusing Samhain with the Solstice. You have nearly a year to find magickal supplies for the next Samhain 🙂
me0w:
I wasn’t confusing Samhain with solstice, was just trying to say in general you can find Christian holiday stuff months ahead of time, but anything non-traditional or “non-Christian” is harder to find – sorry, obviously didn’t explain myself very well.
See, if I were kay, I’d’ve insulted you instead of explaining myself more clearly. I guess that’s the difference between being born and raised here, and coming from somewhere and bringing your attittude with you…
I hate this too… But I do love half off Halloween candy. Don’t forget: the poppy goes over your heart, not on your lapel.
shhhhh, don’t say christmas, remember that is a no no now. it’s holiday decorations, and holiday tree and the rest of the fucking holiday bullshit.fuck, that makes me want to puke razorblades. when did one become the other, because of some far from aways asshole religion says so. FUCK YOU ALL FROM WHERE EVER, TO ME IT’S STILL FUCKING CHRISTMAS. are you with me people?
I agree LIFE SUCKS, people get too worked up over that stupid shit… Get over it… pisses me off…
My new favorite christmas carol.
I should say, my favorite adult christmas carol
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BqfZUX5svCg
Sears Clearance Centre is really good in this regard. They had a table with veteran’s info by the door, Rememberance Day posters in the window and they are offering veterans a discount on Nov 10th, before they close on Nov 11th. It was nice to see!
‘
i enjoy spending christmas with my family and friends…i take from it what i want like everyone else does, i bake cookies and bring out the old wind-up toys…the hopping penis is the best…the life of brian, rudolph(luv ya burl ives), dennis leaey’s merry fucking christmas are my choice for movies
You know, I thought that what we were supposed to “remember” was that war is never the answer…especially when it comes to first world countries invading and conquering third world ones…
Since Canadians can’t seem to remember that fact, perhaps it’s time to cancel the whole 11th, after the death of the last ww2 vet, that’s what we do.
Because nobody over in Afghanistan is fighting, or dying, for “our freedom”, that’s bullshit and you know it.
After my family’s last veteran died, we began to use Remembrance Day as a day in which all of our dead are remembered and honored.
Business is business, punks. If you don’t like it, move to …. Israel. They’re Marxist and don’t celebrate Christmas.
hear hear baD mR fRosTy ! Possibly the coolest bitch on this site.
wow BMF and kay… So you’re saying that once all the veterans are dead we should stop remembering them? What insensitive bullshit. My great uncle was a veteran; he passed away years ago but I still take Nov. 11 to remember him. He may not be here but the ripple effect of his sacrifices and the men and women like him still exist. I’m honestly disgusted by the two of you…
So Frosty, if you think people in Afghanistan are dying needlessly, wouldn’t that make “remembering that war isn’t the answer” more important? Forgetting about the impact war can have on our civilian lives is what allows it to happen over and over. We should be promoting Remembrance day if you think Canadians are not getting the message, not eliminating it.
Also, it could be argued that the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are fighting for increased freedom for Afghan civilians. It’s not just OUR freedom that’s worth fighting for. Despite the other motivations that might have influenced full-scale invasion of Afghanistan, or soldiers and our government are in a position to do some good in that country. Those Canadians dying from roadside bombs are not the bad guys…they are just guys and gals trying to do their jobs and stay alive. That deserves at least a modicum of respect, even if you have none for the political decisions that send them there.
Hey, Frosty, we should send you over there and see what they live in over there. Sometimes people need help. We need to remember war, regardless of the conflict. Lest we forget the lessons of the past.
Gidget: The modern Christain church celebrates December 25th as Christ’s birthday. Doesn’t matter that he may have been born on another day. Doesn’t matter the original reason for selecting that day. That is when the modern church celebrates Christmas as being Christ’s birthday. ‘Tis the reason for the season as they say. Which is why I was mentioning this, Never Wrong, because I think the commercialism’s lack of respect for the observance of the day, be it November 11th or December 25th, is intolerable. I guess i should have clarified in my earlier post. I like More’s sense of freedom and rebellion.
You bitches sure hear what you want to hear and just discard all the rest should it cast positive light on your preferred view. What BMF said that I agreed with is “I thought that what we were supposed to ‘remember’ was that war is never the answer”.
Easy Goin’ Gal, you and your tiny little brain go back to being disgusted while we shake our heads at you.