Offended by Christmas???

[Locutus of Bored]

"Not often" doesn't mean "never." It means there are exceptions.

Yes, I know, and I both implied and flat-out said that I think it's something you do often.

But it's telling that that's the one thing out of my post you responded to. Yet somehow I suspect you'll continue rolling right along with the erroneous idea that Christmas is on the decline.

 

[Canadave]

"Not often" doesn't mean "never." It means there are exceptions.

Yes, I know, and I both implied and flat-out said that I think it's something you do often.

But it's telling that that's the one thing out of my post you responded to. Yet somehow I suspect you'll continue rolling right along with the erroneous idea that Christmas is on the decline.

My own anecdotal evidence is that the Bay in Ottawa has been edging closer to Halloween every year for the past five years for when it puts up its Christmas decorations. Hardly on the decline, I think, and also way too early.

As for not working Boxing Day, if it's that important to you, then get a new job. Being part of the service industry means working when people want service. And clearly the 26th of December is one of those times—if it wasn't, then the stores wouldn't be packed, would they? And if you really want extra time off to spend with your family, then why not take an extra day off around New Years? It's not that difficult a concept, really.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I don't get upset at stores being open on Boxing Day but I would protest if there was a move to open large stores on Anzac Day morning. One of my friends works in shopping center and she was telling me how people were banging angrily on the front doors on Anzac Day demanding that the shop opened up before noon. I wonder what their purchases were that these people felt were more important buying than commemorating those soldiers who fought for our country.

 

[sidious618]

I see it as part of the same thing. I grew up at a time when there was actually such a thing as a Christmas holiday for majority of people. And so for me it's bad enough that more and more people get ever less of a Christmas holiday but some yahoo or other wants to minimize its recognition even more in some form or other.

I'm not seeing how your moaning about working is at all connected to the OP.

 

[Canadave]

I don't get upset at stores being open on Boxing Day but I would protest if there was a move to open large stores on Anzac Day morning. One of my friends works in shopping center and she was telling me how people were banging angrily on the front doors on Anzac Day demanding that the shop opened up before noon. I wonder what their purchases were that these people felt were more important buying than commemorating those soldiers who fought for our country.

Remembrance Day in Ontario is sadly not a stat day. It should be, I think, and is in many other provinces in Canada.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Remembrance Day (11 Nov) isn't a public holiday in Australia either though it is observed here. Maybe it is a little odd that Australia and New Zealand have two days during the year for war commemoration but in both countries Anzac Day is by far the more important of the two.

 

[Garak]

I declare 2011 to be the Year of The War on White Whining, and hereby appoint Garak honorary chairperson of the program.

Overdue if you ask me.

Whitey needs to realize how good he's has it over the course of history. From mayonnaise to Mazda Miatas to awful Christmas sweaters whitey has dominated the scope of pleasure and privilege. It's time to take a step back and welcome other, sometimes way better, cultures and traditions. One day when we put whitey in a museum we can enjoy a whining free, no drama queens allowed society and maybe, just maybe, actually accomplish something.

 

[Warped9]

"Not often" doesn't mean "never." It means there are exceptions.

Yes, I know, and I both implied and flat-out said that I think it's something you do often.

But it's telling that that's the one thing out of my post you responded to. Yet somehow I suspect you'll continue rolling right along with the erroneous idea that Christmas is on the decline.

My own anecdotal evidence is that the Bay in Ottawa has been edging closer to Halloween every year for the past five years for when it puts up its Christmas decorations. Hardly on the decline, I think, and also way too early.

As for not working Boxing Day, if it's that important to you, then get a new job. Being part of the service industry means working when people want service. And clearly the 26th of December is one of those times—if it wasn't, then the stores wouldn't be packed, would they? And if you really want extra time off to spend with your family, then why not take an extra day off around New Years? It's not that difficult a concept, really.

In retail, such as where I am, you usually don't have any choice about your working days. Working Boxing Day is something that could be compromised. Why in hell is it necessary to be open at 6AM? It isn't. Just as it isn't necessary for places to be open until late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Often enough by about 3-3:30 stores can be near empty. Mind you store hours are not mandated by law but by company policy. Note that many business even shut down early in the afternoon to allow everyone a chance to get home early. Many years ago I used to work for such a place.

And, yes, I agree in seeing Christmas decorations being put out closer to Halloween. Indeed I've seen them put out even before Halloween. It's just absurd.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I declare 2011 to be the Year of The War on White Whining, and hereby appoint Garak honorary chairperson of the program.

Overdue if you ask me.

Whitey needs to realize how good he's has it over the course of history. From mayonnaise to Mazda Miatas to awful Christmas sweaters whitey has dominated the scope of pleasure and privilege. It's time to take a step back and welcome other, sometimes way better, cultures and traditions. One day when we put whitey in a museum we can enjoy a whining free, no drama queens allowed society and maybe, just maybe, actually accomplish something.

"...Some may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one..."

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I declare 2011 to be the Year of The War on White Whining, and hereby appoint Garak honorary chairperson of the program.

Overdue if you ask me.

Whitey needs to realize how good he's has it over the course of history. From mayonnaise to Mazda Miatas to awful Christmas sweaters whitey has dominated the scope of pleasure and privilege. It's time to take a step back and welcome other, sometimes way better, cultures and traditions. One day when we put whitey in a museum we can enjoy a whining free, no drama queens allowed society and maybe, just maybe, actually accomplish something.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNiAOSKFNR4[/yt]

 

[TorontoTrekker]

No, you said you do get Christmas off, but that you have to work on Boxing Day. Well, sorry to be blunt, but boo frickin' hoo. Welcome to having to work the same day as most of the working class people of the world. If you can't deal with not getting two days off at Christmas instead of one, I suggest you start hunting for a job that doesn't rely on retail sales or move to Ontario where they do get the day off apparently.

If memory serves, unless he's moved, Warped9 does live in Ontario.

I can kind of understand his point - I remember when Sunday shopping was introduced here, after several years of debate about it. It used to be that about the only thing you could do on Sundays was go to a movie, and maybe eat out (my parents rarely took me out to a restaurant, so I'm not 100% sure whether restaurants were all open back then, or just some). Holidays were the same - everything was closed. The joke here - and it may be the same elsewhere, I don't know - is that if you weren't celebrating Christmas for one reason or another, the thing to do was to go to a movie and then have Chinese food. A lot of my friends actually do that.

Now, Easter, Canada Day and Christmas Day are about the only days when everything is closed (and even then, a few things are open - which is good, because I would have been lost without my daily Starbucks trip ). I just have to be careful to remember to stock up on groceries, or I'll be stuck eating microwaved meals bought from the local pharmacy's frozen food aisle.

But the thing is, as I said above, there were several years of debate around the topic of retail sales on Sundays and holidays. There was a lot of demand. Yes, it sucks for people who work in retail and who are told that they have to work - I sympathize, as I worked for a year in the credit office of one of our major department stores, and shifts were assigned in the same way. But if you want a Monday-to-Friday, 9 to 5 job, then it's incumbent upon you to do what you can to get one - not to simply complain that the rest of society has demanded that retailers be open.

(And it could be worse - while I know the outlet stores have doorcrasher sales once a year that start at some ungodly hour in the morning - on New Year's, if memory serves - I've never heard of anything that's on a par with the American Black Friday shopping hell.)

 

[USS Triumphant]

In answer to the original question:

I have been around and been friends with Wiccans, other Pagans, Satanists, Jews, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Athiests, Agnostics, Hindus, and members of The Church of Brady Love. And I've been a few of those at various times, myself. And with the exception of a very few extremists who would like to see the Abrahamic religions eradicated entirely, I can tell you that the life of Jesus, His teachings (the things quoted directly out of His mouth, as opposed to His Dad's), and His birth are the LEAST offensive parts of Christianity to people of other religions. Honestly, the best argument I have ever heard anyone give for not wanting to celebrate Christmas came from an Apostolic Christian: He said that since they weren't told to celebrate it by the Bible, they didn't celebrate it at his church. And even he wasn't offended by those who did - it just wasn't for him.

 

[MANT!]

The War on Christmas is more a result of American Corporate greed than any outside influence, it's just that Fox News (The Official Corporate Station) can't bite the hand that feeds it..


I too remember a time when everything was closed on holidays..and most of them have been eroded to the point where they're just another business/shopping day.

I do lament the demise of Memorial Day as the day to remember our heroic dead..

Veteran's Day as the day to remember the sacrifices made by our Military,

MLK day to remember the struggle for equality (shit, that holiday never got a chance..it was killed as a holiday before it even was one..Martin Luther King Day SALE!!)

President's Day even when it was George Washington's Birthday, it got screwed out of the holiday..Yeppers President's Day Sale..

Even the Fourth of July (Independence Day) is simply a day now devoted to retail hooliganism...

Every few years, the suits at our retail giant's home offices try the "Thanksgiving Day Sale" or "The Christmas Day Sale" to kill off the final Holidays in favor of Corporate Greed...


Buy Buy BUY...



I'm glad that I have a position that allows me to work 9 to 5 even with the limited holidays I do receive.. And can't understand the whining about "Boxing Day" a day that only appears to be a holiday in some former members of the British Empire.

Come down south to the States and work in retail here...one is DAMN LUCKY not to work on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving....because people simply don't shop on those days... and there's no other holiday deemed sacred anymore...

 

[sidious618]

I don't know. At this point there's nothing more American than capitalism.

 

[MANT!]

American patriotism and religous freedom are dead to Corporate America unless it suits them... So I guess we only have unbridled Capitalism left...

we suck...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

No, you said you do get Christmas off, but that you have to work on Boxing Day. Well, sorry to be blunt, but boo frickin' hoo. Welcome to having to work the same day as most of the working class people of the world. If you can't deal with not getting two days off at Christmas instead of one, I suggest you start hunting for a job that doesn't rely on retail sales or move to Ontario where they do get the day off apparently.

If memory serves, unless he's moved, Warped9 does live in Ontario.

If he does, in Ontario it's a statutory holiday. Since Boxing Day fell on a Sunday this year, he should have gotten today off unless the company wants to pay a boatload of overtime. So I have to wonder what the difference is? Just do whatever he wanted to do for Boxing Day today or take the time and a half or double time plus holiday pay and have fun on your next day off. It's not like the day of the week it happens on actually matters.

I get that it would be better to have two days in a row off, but it's really such a minor complaint considering he does get Christmas off.

 

[Trilliam]

So now it's Boxing Day that's the problem, then? In that case, boo-hoo. Boxing Day is nothing special; it's merely the day after Christmas. There's no significance to it, there are no traditions besides sales; there's absolutely nothing about it that says it should or needs to be a day off.

Rubbish - It's very important - it's the first day of the Boxing Day Test Match and teh start of the Sydney-Hobart Blue Water Classic! OH, yeah, Boxing Day is usually a Public Holiday here.

 

[Pingfah]

My firm shut down on the 23rd and won't open again until the 4th. Suck on that people!

 

[Kestra]

My firm shut down on the 23rd and won't open again until the 4th. Suck on that people!

I've been on break since Thanksgiving since I'm a full-time student now.

 

[Warped9]

The War on Christmas is more a result of American Corporate greed than any outside influence, it's just that Fox News (The Official Corporate Station) can't bite the hand that feeds it..

American patriotism and religous freedom are dead to Corporate America unless it suits them... So I guess we only have unbridled Capitalism left...

we suck...

Definately.

I still live in Ontario. And, no, even though Boxing Day was on a sunday this year I still had to work it. And, no, getting a day off at some other time is not the same as having them back-to-back. And anyone who doesn't or rarely get a two day weekend likely understands what I'm saying.