Christmas is a DAY. The Holidays are a SEASON

[Protagoras]

You say Happy NEW YEARS on JANUARY 1. If you say it on December 15th or January 3rd people look at you funny.

You say IT'S INDEPENDENCE DAY on July 4th. Not July 1...though you do begin to light fireworks before that day as a leadup (and to keep the kids busy).

You say Happy Thanksgiving on Whatever thursday that is...not a day before or after.

And when it's a week before your birthday and someone says HAPPY BIRTHDAY you usually say "Well it's not till next Friday actually" or whatever.

Christmas isn't 2 months long. It is one day long. There are MULTIPLE holidays that are celebrated during the fall and early winter and we create an entire seasonal shopping and consumption orgy to celebrate THEM. I know because I see the Boxmarts start pushing flashing light strings in mid OCTOBER.

I'm dumbfounded that I haven't heard this stated by a single strawman talking idiot calling themselves democratic strategists *cough* (fake plants and shills, in other words) on TV. But when someone says SEASON"S GREETINGS It does not ONLY REFER TO CHRISTMAS. Not now, not any time to my knowledge in the history of mankind. In fact I am reminded of a number of things from Turkey at Thanksgiving to getting drunk on New Years and watching BOWL GAMES on TV...It's three months just chalk full of excess.

This is what we need to be reminding people of in clear and direct terms.

Christmas is a DAY
Happy Holidays is a Season! (and for those with brain damage that means about 3 months).

Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays Everyone.

Now officially sick of Christmas and proud of it.

[smirkymonkey]

1. Thank YOU!

:applause:

[babylonsister]

2. Thank you for your logic! And I'm officially sick of X-mas, too. nt

[eyesroll]

3. GMTA

http://wit.com/dairyconspiracy/2005/12/07/why_people_who_bitch_when_stores_don_t_s

[melody]

4. Christmas Babies should fight back

Jesus wasn't born on the frickin' day in the first place. Christians want to get pushy? Fine,
I'll push them back. I want my birthday back.

[bbinacan]

5. Good point. n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. No, sorry

you are making sense. Go to the back of the line.

[BuyingThyme]

7. Are you saying that people don't say "happy birthday" to you

for an entire season?

[Protagoras]

10. I'm getting to the point where I ask them not to

mention my birthday at all...

I'd probably slap someone the second time they said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to me a month early.

[dalloway]

8. thank you for posting this. When I was a kid in the NYC area,

I always took "Happy Holidays" to mean exactly what you just said--the season of holidays, including New Years. I am offended that so many people find Happy Holidays offensive.

[JerseygirlCT]

9. Well...

technically, there is a Christmas season. Speaking of the liturgical year, for those who do.

[Protagoras]

11. Do you refer to Advent?

which is only celebrated by the Catholics and a minority of other Christian sects? And among the catholics I know it's referred to as Advent because it is the "preparation" for Christmas...involves little calandars with chocolate pieces and avoiding mass in most cases. Advent technically ends before Christmas.

On the other hand there is Christmastide which goes from the night of Dec 24th for about a week afterwards. Again, not quite Christmas QUARTER as the Bill O'Rielly's are trying to define it. If we want to use the liturgically accurate time period for the Christmas Season (using the liturgical calander) then we need to do so during that "season" which is Christmastide (MERRY CHRISTMASTIDE won't bother me) which runs from the evening mass (Vigil Mass?) on Dec 24th...and which extends through the first sunday after January 6th...if I got that right.

Although Happy New Years still falls in this period, as does Kwanza, Hanukkah, and the BCS Bowl Championship, making this a plural holiday season regardless if you recognize that people other than Christians also have holidays.

[MissMarple]

12. The Twelve Day of Christmas start Christmas Eve and go to Epiphany.

Advent is the four weeks before Christmas, and there are Advent wreaths, as well. They have candles, so they are usually laid flat, not hung.

And today, I believe, is St. Lucia's Day. In Sweden, the oldest daughter of the house wears an evergreen wreath lighted with candles on her head and takes Christmas buns to family members still in their beds. Or something like that. :)

December 6th was St. Nicholas' Day.

[kineneb]

13. the "graphic" version

Advent=4 Sundays before Christmas
St. Nicholas= 6 December
Christmas= 25 December
Epiphany= 6 January

The traditional "Christmas Season" as celebrated in Old (pre-20th cent.) Europe lasts from the beginning of Advent to Epiphany. There were often church services on both Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning. 12th Night was an day of family celebration and often the actual day gifts were exchanged, to remember the gifts of the Three Kings. In Germany it is actually called "Three Kings Night" (Dreikoenigsnacht).

[JerseygirlCT]

18. Right. In those churches following a liturgical calendar

Christmas begins with Christmas day and lasts until the feast of the Epiphany. There IS a Christmas season.

It is not Advent, which is the season of preparation for Christmas.

[bosspepper1]

20. Correct n/t needed

[misanthrope]

14. Here on the Creole Coast...

...we've got the nation's best holiday season.

Things start up around Thanksgiving, continue through Advent and Christmas, New Year's, Twelfth Night and Epiphany, the pre-Lenten season, and Mardi Gras.

It's all kind of connected in a string of events that are a lot more than one of its components.

Down here, it's all tied to the recent past as an agriculturally-based society. Once the crops were in, cotton most of all, there was little else to do in the winter.

The folks with means all migrated to Mobile and Biloxi and New Orleans and cranked up the social season. The local economies would be stimulated a bit as the visitors were spending money made from selling to the brokers, who in turn made money from selling to textile industries. Combined with the mild winters on the coast -- daily highs in the 50s -- it made for quite the holiday season indeed.

That gestalt has continued through the culture to this day. Things get really social this time of year, the only season when it feels comfortable to pack a room with a lot of warm bodies.

Too bad this year's not going to be the same for the folks west of us in Mississippi and Louisiana.

So, yeah, your point of observation about the holiday season bears even more relevance in some places.

[dwahzon]

15. I agree with you...

I am so sick of all the phonyism being perpetuated around a day that celebrates an event of great significance to those who believe in Jesus and that includes most of the "Christian right" gobbledy-gook. I swear Jesus himself would be sickened by it all.


In any case, here's a piece at Democracy Cell Project that I think you all would appreciate. It's definitely about staying sane in this crazy holiday time.


Happy Saturday to you all!

[stevedeshazer]

16. Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays to you!

You just nailed it. Nice job. That's exactly how I feel.

[yorkiemommie1]

17. that's why i started saying it long ago

i got tired of saying so many words!

[Blue_In_AK]

19. That just makes way too much sense....

Go to your room! :spank: