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Has commercialism ruined Christmas?

Have the ruined Christmas?

  • Yes the spirt of the holiday has been lost

    Votes: 19 45.2%

  • No I like the materialistic side of xmas and its good for the economy

    Votes: 10 23.8%

  • Not really bothered either way its just another day off for me

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • Total voters
    42
RT, does that mean you won't be shopping on "small businesses Saturday", after manic Friday??
I realize that may dent your pigskin college football on the last big weekend before title weekend..
Try to get out between games and shop local and made in the U.S.A.

Risky Thicket said:
Commercialism has damn near ruined everything including Christmas.
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disneydude said:
How? By Starting the black friday sales all day on Thanksgiving....which means that workers, who would normally be able to spend the holiday with their families, now have to work. Its not enough to have black Friday? Now they have to have Black Thanksgiving?
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There is no reason they could not do it on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This is just part of the tradition. A "remember the reason for the season" type buddy of mine from college who has become a tech hexadillionaire tells all his family and friends that he will give them the price difference between the black friday/turkey day prices and what they pay if they just do not participate in the insanity and wait until later in December to do their shopping because he is opposed to it all.
 
All business lost that fourth weekend between Thanks--giving and Christ--mas this year so they're worried..
We'll hopefully see more discussion on TV about "small business Saturday" and "cyber-Monday"..
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah will not be on the same day again for 70,000 years .
disneydude said:
The reality is.....given the choice, most people who most likely prefer to shop on Friday, rather than Thanksgiving....but they WILL shop on Thanksgiving because the corporate world has moved the sales from Black Friday to Thanksgiving. Given the choice....most workers would prefer not to have to work on Thanksgiving, but if they want their job, they now have to. Sorry....whether you like it or not....it IS corporate greed that is driving this.
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There is nothing wrong with gifts. How people behave shopping for them might indicate an issue with society however. I do feel that the most important part of Christmas was getting together with the whole family (Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins, ect.) that we don't see and meet with if ever without it. I have found that as time has gone on we don't meet up with everyone and have lost touch with many of the relatives as a result. In WI we can shift a lot of blame to the government and the laws.
 
NIMBY said:
RT, does that mean you won't be shopping on "small businesses Saturday", after manic Friday??
I realize that may dent your pigskin college football on the last big weekend before title weekend..
Try to get out between games and shop local and made in the U.S.A.
Click to expand...

On Saturday? Oh, hell no! Won't do it on Friday either.
 
Higgins86 said:
Was in Wal*mart today and was shocked to see xmas tree's up, xmas music playing and the staff wearing xmas hats! Xmas has been very commercial for a long time as we all know but is it getting too much? Its only Nov 15th and it is already being shoved down our throats, I mean what about thanksgiving? This will be my 3rd thanksgiving and you hardly even hear about it!
Growing up I used to get excited on Dec 1st seeing all the decorations being put up and hyas it got closer you used to get that nice warm feeling inside knowing xmas was just around the cornor. Nowdays they start so early that by the time xmas actually comes I just want it to be over with and all the good spirt and magic of xmas is lost. I was brought up a catholic and I have to say its very odd for me that there is not even a sign in the stores that it is a relgious holiday just full of tacky snowmen and cheap toys.
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Yes, Christmas is supposed to be about baby Jesus, not a fat man handing out presents and eating my cookies.
 
seems my wise words echo through the ages :2razz:
 
X Factor said:
The funny thing is that I was going to reply to it again totally forgetting that I already had. For the record, I agree with what I said 2 years ago.
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i'm over for thanksgiving with my wife's family and was very sad to hear her sister planning her Walmart black Friday trip which actually starts at 6pm on tomorrow. Her sister is over from the UK to eat dinner with her and all she can think about is the sales, world has gone mad.
 
Higgins86 said:
Was in Wal*mart today and was shocked to see xmas tree's up, xmas music playing and the staff wearing xmas hats! Xmas has been very commercial for a long time as we all know but is it getting too much? Its only Nov 15th and it is already being shoved down our throats, I mean what about thanksgiving? This will be my 3rd thanksgiving and you hardly even hear about it!
Growing up I used to get excited on Dec 1st seeing all the decorations being put up and hyas it got closer you used to get that nice warm feeling inside knowing xmas was just around the cornor. Nowdays they start so early that by the time xmas actually comes I just want it to be over with and all the good spirt and magic of xmas is lost. I was brought up a catholic and I have to say its very odd for me that there is not even a sign in the stores that it is a relgious holiday just full of tacky snowmen and cheap toys.
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Gifts, family, friends, giving and decorations have always been the biggest part of Christmas for me. It's not a holiday I ever tired of or felt it was spoiled by anything though most will agree it's become very commercialized. Which shouldn't be such a big surprise for a society based on materialism and money?

Though like a house doesn't make a home nobody else can ever change what this holiday will historically always mean to me.
 
Nope!

Seriously people, you ultimately decide to let the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season be ruined for you by commercialism. That's on you.

Personally, I love this time of year.
 
Higgins86 said:
Was in Wal*mart today and was shocked to see xmas tree's up, xmas music playing and the staff wearing xmas hats! Xmas has been very commercial for a long time as we all know but is it getting too much?
Click to expand...
Its only Nov 15th and it is already being shoved down our throats, I mean what about thanksgiving? This will be my 3rd thanksgiving and you hardly even hear about it!
Growing up I used to get excited on Dec 1st seeing all the decorations being put up and hyas it got closer you used to get that nice warm feeling inside knowing xmas was just around the cornor. Nowdays they start so early that by the time xmas actually comes I just want it to be over with and all the good spirt and magic of xmas is lost. I was brought up a catholic and I have to say its very odd for me that there is not even a sign in the stores that it is a relgious holiday just full of tacky snowmen and cheap toys.
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This started quite a while ago. I remember being surprised when the store ads and displays started shoving their 'Xmas' specials down our throats in August years ago.

I just ignore it all, try to keep a smile on my face and let it go.

It the kids enjoy it, it's OK with me.

Not worth worrying about, it is what it is and it will never go back to what it once was, so we just have to deal with it, whether we like it or not.
 
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Van Basten said:
Nope!

Seriously people, you ultimately decide to let the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season be ruined for you by commercialism. That's on you.

Personally, I love this time of year.
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I liked your comment. You can't blame people who own or work in stores for trying to make a living.

No one forces anyone to read or watch the ads or buy a single thing.
 
Your Star said:
The birth of Jesus was in the summer. The early church just co-opted a pagan festival to make their holiday more popular.
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I think you just put your finger on the answer. Let's have a religious holiday in the summer, to commemorate the birth of Jesus, then just let Christmas be a commercial festival of sales, sales, sales, and just maybe call it the black holiday, instead of Christmas. That's what it has become, after all.
 
Dittohead not! said:
I think you just put your finger on the answer. Let's have a religious holiday in the summer, to commemorate the birth of Jesus, then just let Christmas be a commercial festival of sales, sales, sales, and just maybe call it the black holiday, instead of Christmas. That's what it has become, after all
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.
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This is actually a pretty good idea, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

every holiday in the USA has changed (And not for the better, in my opinion.) since I became an adult many years ago.

I don't let it bother me, I just accept reality.
 
Higgins86 said:
Was in Wal*mart today and was shocked to see xmas tree's up, xmas music playing and the staff wearing xmas hats! Xmas has been very commercial for a long time as we all know but is it getting too much? Its only Nov 15th and it is already being shoved down our throats, I mean what about thanksgiving? This will be my 3rd thanksgiving and you hardly even hear about it!
Growing up I used to get excited on Dec 1st seeing all the decorations being put up and hyas it got closer you used to get that nice warm feeling inside knowing xmas was just around the cornor. Nowdays they start so early that by the time xmas actually comes I just want it to be over with and all the good spirt and magic of xmas is lost. I was brought up a catholic and I have to say its very odd for me that there is not even a sign in the stores that it is a relgious holiday just full of tacky snowmen and cheap toys.
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I don't know.
Christmas is the same thing that it was when I was little. I just don't drag my kids to church.
 
Dittohead not! said:
I think you just put your finger on the answer. Let's have a religious holiday in the summer, to commemorate the birth of Jesus, then just let Christmas be a commercial festival of sales, sales, sales, and just maybe call it the black holiday, instead of Christmas. That's what it has become, after all.
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That's Racist!!!!

:lamo
 
Your Star said:
The birth of Jesus was in the summer. The early church just co-opted a pagan festival to make their holiday more popular.
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Correct.

And it worked pretty good, didn't it?

Helped a lot of people (Including church people.) make a lot of money.
 
grip said:
Gifts, family, friends, giving and decorations have always been the biggest part of Christmas for me. It's not a holiday I ever tired of or felt it was spoiled by anything though most will agree it's become very commercialized. Which shouldn't be such a big surprise for a society based on materialism and money?

Though like a house doesn't make a home nobody else can ever change what this holiday will historically always mean to me.
Click to expand...

One of things that's been prevelant in our local news and has generated a good deal of excitement is a new series of shops (not exactly a mall, it's outdoors, but I don't what to call it). I went driving through it the other day and it's nice but it struck me how so much of what we consider entertainment is buying things. I'm as capitalist and pro business/profit as anyone but I have been thinking, lately, that there has to be other maybe even better ways to enjoy yourself than accumulating stuff.

Sorry, that's not really on topic. I've just been kind of contemplative lately.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
I don't know.
Christmas is the same thing that it was when I was little. I just don't drag my kids to church.
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Even still from what I gather from your posts your not the kind of Mother who would allow your kids to hold you at ransom over gifts. I hear a lot of I want and I need where as for me it was thank you and surprise.
 
NIMBY said:
All business lost that fourth weekend between Thanks--giving and Christ--mas this year so they're worried..
We'll hopefully see more discussion on TV about "small business Saturday" and "cyber-Monday"..
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah will not be on the same day again for 70,000 years .
Click to expand...

Personally....I'm just tired of it all....and I'm no Grinch. I LOVE gettting up early on Black Friday and going out....even if I don't buy that much....I just love the Holiday Season. But when you start it on Thanksgiving.....it forces people to give up their Thanksgiving to work, even though most of them would rather be with their families. It diminishes Thanksgiving......all so that the corporate entities can pad their pocketbooks more. So...at least for me.....this year, my business will go only to those who are closed on Thanksgiving. I normally shop Macy's, Toys R Us, KMart, Target.....but not this year. I will shop Nordstrom, Costco...and any other stores that I find were closed on Thanksgiving. Enough is enough.
 
X Factor said:
One of things that's been prevelant in our local news and has generated a good deal of excitement is a new series of shops (not exactly a mall, it's outdoors, but I don't what to call it). I went driving through it the other day and it's nice but it struck me how so much of what we consider entertainment is buying things. I'm as capitalist and pro business/profit as anyone but I have been thinking, lately, that there has to be other maybe even better ways to enjoy yourself than accumulating stuff.

Sorry, that's not really on topic. I've just been kind of contemplative lately.
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No, you're right on point. Our culture thrives on materialism because it has created a more comfortable and prosperous existence overall but like anything good it comes with a negative side. When I was younger we put more emphasis on endeavors of quality, depth and class. Our society is becoming lost in the pop culture of shallow achievements and wealth as an ends to a means.

Christmas was like a Norman Rockwell painting full of magic when I was a kid but so were a lot of things. I try to roll with the changes and adapt. Put as much as a positive spin as I can on things, especially since we can't change it.

Like smart phones. I hate them because they seem like faddish, immature, over costly nuisances of distraction. But I can possibly see them becoming more useful tools of technology in the near future with me eventually succumbing. You got to take the good with the bad.
 
disneydude said:
Personally....I'm just tired of it all....and I'm no Grinch. I LOVE gettting up early on Black Friday and going out....even if I don't buy that much....I just love the Holiday Season. But when you start it on Thanksgiving.....it forces people to give up their Thanksgiving to work, even though most of them would rather be with their families. It diminishes Thanksgiving......all so that the corporate entities can pad their pocketbooks more. So...at least for me.....this year, my business will go only to those who are closed on Thanksgiving. I normally shop Macy's, Toys R Us, KMart, Target.....but not this year. I will shop Nordstrom, Costco...and any other stores that I find were closed on Thanksgiving. Enough is enough.
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Is Disneyland/Disneyworld open on Thanksgiving?
 
X Factor said:
Is Disneyland/Disneyworld open on Thanksgiving?
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Actually it is......and I wish it weren't as well. I've never gone to Disneyland on Thanksgiving or Christmas. There should be at least a day or two a year that people can accept that things are closed.
 
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