Don't know what happened, but the above was sent before I finished it.

As I was saying, my intention for the thread was to create a space on the forum for those of us who do not celebrate Christmas/"the Holidays" secular or Christmas/"the Holidays" religious, or in any other guise. Because of the onslaught of "the season" I thought it would be good to have a place where we can go and share some solidarity with others who are like us, ie don't celebrate ANYTHING about "the Holidays"/"the season"/Christmas, and who are looking for some like company to get us through all the bloody Mudcat "holiday" cheer.

Like I said, there are currently many threads people who want to share all their joy, goodwill, peace on earth, and shopping secrets and tips with one another. But there are no threads for those of us looking to cope with the dominant culture's obsession with this holiday.

PoppaGator, please don't take this personally, but if you wish to support the capitalists this and each and every season, maybe you could just start a thread of your own, requesting that people shop til they drop in support of the capitalist retailers you want to see supported, instead. Would that be all right?

And yes, thank you all, I know I can't dictate who does and doesn't post here, or what they will post here, but it would be nice if we could have a thread for those of us who don't celebrate, to help us cope with all those of you who do.

Our local St Paul paper ran an interesting article yesterday on the passive aggressive "traditions" of Christmas/holiday celebrants. It certainly would apply here.