Today, after the most nerve-wracking, mind numbing day possible, I headed home for some much needed rest and relaxation. Cruising through Memphis, windows open, cool breeze blowing, a great song on the radio and my day is fading behind me when I see it. A monstrosity of a billboard in red and green. CHRISTMAS advertising. In October! The BEGINNING of October! What happened to Thanksgiving? What is wrong with people? Ok, before I get off on a serious rant, let's focus for a minute.Whether you're a Christian or not; whether you celebrate Winter Soltice, Kwanzaa or Festivus, Christmas was originally meant to celebrate the birth of Jesus. How in the world did we get to the point where we receive gifts on another person's birthday in the first place? Thank God that in the last few years, I've been saved from ultimate Scrooge-dom by the association of Christmas with my annual trip to Michigan to visit the family.
With the absurdity of gift giving aside, don't you feel taken advantage of when you start hearing the commercials and seeing the holiday merchandise in the stores so early? You know you're going to buy gifts for your family and friends and you may even decorate your home, so why do we need it shoved in our faces when Fall has barely even begun? As my dad is fond of quoting, "Love of money is the root of all evil." Advertisers want to take every opportunity they can to panic us in to a shopping frenzy. 84 days til Christmas?! Whatever shall I do???
This year, make an effort to give your hard-earned bucks to retailers who show a little restraint and wait til we've digested our Thanksgiving turkeys before breaking out the Tickle Me Elmos. Take a cue from Suldog and blog about it, or even write letters to your local paper telling them how you feel. It's a small thing, but one that could possibly save us all a little stress.
4 comments:
Yay! Thank you!
I'll be collecting all of the blog postings and linking to them come next Friday. You'll be right up there near the top!
We walked into a store in mid-September and there it was--the display of Christmas trees and anamatronic carolers--with the outside temp a mere 95 degrees....
Glad my quality hairdressing skills gave you a giggle!
Blessings!
It gets worse-- I was told by someone just this week, that the store she works in puts up their Easter stuff on Christmas eve.
Our stores had the stuff out on September 30. Possibly before, but that was the day I was there. I need to post about this, or at least put the pretty picture on my blog. I'm going to invoke my favorite quote, though I do not know its origin. "God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind I shall never die." Of course, God may not have considered blogging . . .
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