BS: Merry Christmas!!

19 Nov 12 - 02:14 PM (#3438777)
Subject: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Bonzo3legs

I thought I'd get that in before all the hideous happy "holidays" nonsense starts!!

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19 Nov 12 - 02:27 PM (#3438782)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: DMcG

Before???

I assume you live in the US and such things are held up until Thanksgiving is over. Here in the UK the shops have been stuffed for weeks

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19 Nov 12 - 03:55 PM (#3438823)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Bonzo3legs

No I live in Surrey!

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19 Nov 12 - 04:02 PM (#3438829)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

Shhhh... maybe everyone will forget.

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19 Nov 12 - 04:07 PM (#3438831)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: John MacKenzie

Surrey is hard to forget g.

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19 Nov 12 - 04:12 PM (#3438836)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Elmore

Let me be the first to wish y'all a sincere bah, humbug.

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19 Nov 12 - 04:45 PM (#3438852)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: MMario

Stores started Christmas stuff here (upstate NY) about two weeks before Halloween.

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19 Nov 12 - 04:55 PM (#3438860)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Sandra in Sydney

we had both chrissy & halloween stuff in our shops weeks ago!

one of our cartoonists created a masterpiece - Santa in a halloween mask (or was that a monster in a Santa suit?) & kids crying while man in suit says something like "... it seemed a good idea at the time ..."

prediction - Easter eggs will arrive soon after Christmas - they did last year & hot cross buns are an almost year round snack!

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20 Nov 12 - 02:19 AM (#3439058)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,Eliza

Merry Christmas to you too, Bonzo. 'Happy Holidays' indeed! Total c...!

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20 Nov 12 - 06:06 AM (#3439121)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

Merry Christmas! and Bah Humbugm! as the case may be.

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20 Nov 12 - 06:21 AM (#3439127)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Henry Krinkle

A cheerful holiday wish and a hope for many more and a blessing to you and your families from yours truly.
=(:-( D)

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20 Nov 12 - 08:38 AM (#3439196)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Becca72

Here in northern New England the stores started playing Christmas music last week.

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20 Nov 12 - 05:44 PM (#3439490)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link

i expect some loony left council will ban the word CHRIST MAS and prohibit school nativities so as not to offend ahteists and other faiths.
blessings to you all this christmas.

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21 Nov 12 - 04:18 PM (#3440019)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Richard Bridge

I'd rather we did not have all the god stuff, but I like "Merry" with its implication of alcohol, and the idea that we cannot call it Christmas (although, tbh, I prefer "Xmas") for fear of offending some faiths frankly offends me.

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21 Nov 12 - 04:35 PM (#3440032)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,CS

Wot, no "Winterval" RB?

It is all a little nonsensical of course. After all, by such equivalent thinking Chinese New Year festivities in Manchester would be officially rebranded as a safe culturally bland and indeterminate "Afterwinterval".

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21 Nov 12 - 05:04 PM (#3440036)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,mg

I personally don't mind Christmas decorations etc. anytime after Halloween..and I think the problem is our timing of Thanksgiving..it is too close to Christmas, the weather has started to turn pretty bad in places..I would love it the last weekend in October, although it would overlap with Halloween every few years or first week of Nov. It is a very sacred time of the year in many cultures..Samhain etc...and there is no particular date special about our current Thanksgiving..no 4th of July where it has to be on a particular day. It cramps stuff up too much into one month and I think hurts shopkeepers from not having a longer season...

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21 Nov 12 - 05:22 PM (#3440047)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

Becca... "the stores started playing Christmas music last week"

Marketing department wars between competing corporations know no bounds. If the Consumerists have a better marketing department than the Christians then they will stop at no ends to promote their company line. Just as the Christians did to those who celebrated the soltice hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The marketing department of the Pagans who celebrated the solstice many moons ago lost out to the Christian marketing department. Now... well, ya just gotta listen to that incessant shit for far too long. I mean, I'll admit the Christians had some good jingles. Old King Whasshisname comes to mind immediately. Snappy tune, that one. But, ya gotta have game, eh?

Now, ya can't cite the Consumerists for using it in their marketing campaigns. And Christians shouldn't cry foul about it after what their marketing department did to the Pagans even tho it was so long ago.

I hope you all have a peace with you this... whatever you want it to be. Me? I celebrate that it means the ensuing days will get longer and warmer eventually and there will be a renewal of life with spring. I look forward all the way to next harvest. Especially the fresh veggies and cooking thinks like a boiled ham dinner. The dark and cold days in between will be used for reflection and pennance for my gluttony during last harvest. I shall atone by observing lent, or whatever you may call it, even tho, these days, it is not imposed upon me by Mother Earth, and merely be a human, thankful and tolerant in the knowledge that it's all a cycle. I accept it. I accept the natural cycle.

And, I accept the necessity of my fellow human beings in their attemts to understand it all for peace of mind and to deal with that endeavour in any way, religious... spiritual.. or otherwise.

But, yeah. That fuckin shit they play incessantly at the stores really pisses me off.

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22 Nov 12 - 03:30 PM (#3440603)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Dorothy Parshall

Guess I have joined the masses. I am appalled by the early Christmas stuff and was holding out until after Thanksgiving but I finally gave up and shared, on FB, my friend's song, "I wish Every Day Were Christmas". It has been used in a "cute" movie so I am sure "cute" people will be interested. Support your local musicians!

So, I am thinking of finding the one string of lights and the few decorations and perking the place up a bit in a Christmas sort of way.

Interesting, though, is it not, that there seem to be important events/celebrations/ holy days for a number of religions/ethnic groups at this time of year. Someone once suggested that the pagans already celebrated the solstice so the early "Christians" decided to put their special day at a time that would encourage those pagans to become a part of it.

And Easter at the time of the celebration of Spring.... As in let's go with the flow and hope the flow will be us.

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23 Nov 12 - 03:27 PM (#3441109)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

freeresh

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24 Nov 12 - 12:37 PM (#3441573)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Ron Davies

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings both.      And thank God for all the "God stuff".    Among other things, it has provided us with a seemingly neverending wealth of sublime music.   Just get out of the malls and you may hear some--and you can even make your own.






Admittedly it is certainly better if you yourself can sing.   Perhaps some of the more sour comments on the topic are by non-singers.   For the rest of us, it is indeed the most marvelous time of the year.

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24 Nov 12 - 01:14 PM (#3441591)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,Eliza

My poor sister lost her young husband to an aneurism in the brain at the end of November several years ago. For a year or two, she found the Christmas music in shops very hard to bear. The sad, bereaved, lonely or terribly worried must find shopping at this time a bit poignant to say the least. I don't mean the rest of us should creep about in sackcloth and ashes, but the Christmas Thing has taken on mammoth proportions and is really 'in your face'. It's inescapable wherever you go. Nice for the children and the Happy Ones, but not everyone falls into those categories.

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24 Nov 12 - 01:20 PM (#3441598)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Dave the Gnome

No, no, no and a thousand times no! Just look at the Thanksgiving debate thread to see why No-one should celebrate Christmas. If we were to apologise to all the people who were killed, mistreated, jailed and otherwise done badly by in the name of Christianity then it would be OK.

If you don't comply with this request a thousand screaming harpies will land on your facebook page, eat your brains and make sure you never poo again...

:D (tG)

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24 Nov 12 - 05:14 PM (#3441695)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Ron Davies

More gentle wisdom from Mudcat gentle people.    Nice to know you can depend on some things.

Live and let live appears to be too tall an order this time of year for our more delightful non-believers.

They must feel constantly under siege.   Methinks some of it may be self-inflicted. Just crank up your Zappa records a little higher. We'll tell you when it's safe to come out in the open again.

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24 Nov 12 - 05:21 PM (#3441697)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

I believe in Christmas, Ron but not in the selling of plastic.

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24 Nov 12 - 05:28 PM (#3441702)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,CS

I find the exploitative consumer-fest that Xmas has become rather vile.
We no longer have special gifts, a tree, a turkey or indeed oodles of family either.
Our Xmas is as sparse and spare as imaginable. The only things that truly feature are candles and evergreen..

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24 Nov 12 - 05:30 PM (#3441704)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Raedwulf

Hypocrite isn't quite the right word. But posting something like this more than a month before it happens for the given reason is in the same territory. It's Yule, anyway. Screw your christmas as much as you hate happy holidays. At least "they" don't start 30+ days in advance, even if the supermarkets do.

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24 Nov 12 - 07:20 PM (#3441754)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,Patsy

What I have noticed now is how short the time seems now between Christmases. My particular gripe is the last minute shopping frenzy, people, sometimes whole families clogging up the aisles buying like there is no tomorrow only to find the prices greatly reduced after Boxing Day in the local supermarkets. Ok there may be less choice but it seems madness to stress out for something that is over in a blink, it's not as if where I live is a remote location. To me Christmases past were the best ones and will never be the same again, I was young and all of my family were still here which makes a difference.

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24 Nov 12 - 07:43 PM (#3441761)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

Indeed, Patsy. It's about family. It's about celebrating the harvest and the coming renewal. I take absolute joy in "giving" a spirit of hapiness and wonder to children in the form of "gifts" and have always tried to keep such gifts simple but surprising. But I absolutely abhor getting gifts from other adults or giving other adults gifts. The true gift is simply being together... and taking joy in watching the kiddies enjoy it, even tho that isn't what it's really about but that's a "fun" that I wouldn't trade.

If I get another set of sheets or towels or another sweater or... or... anything else I end up giving to the Red Cross again this year, that's it. I shall say thank you and wait a month or so and inform everyone that, next year, they ain't gettin anything from me. The kids, yeah... I'll spend all of the money I can spare on them but if yer over 18, don't get anything for me except a donation in my name to the local Children's Hospital.

Is that BAH, Humbug?

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25 Nov 12 - 07:46 AM (#3441900)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: GUEST,Patsy

You are right Gnu it should be the time to treasure what you have. There is nothing like the wide eyed excitment, innocence and wonder on a tots face on Christmas Eve. It's nice to hold on to memories like that. But over 18's I agree different ball game!

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25 Nov 12 - 08:45 AM (#3441919)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: gnu

Oh... exceptions. Two of my nephews will get a small donation to their beer money will they are home from uni. And the autistic lad as well along with his mother, to whom I give a "private donation" each year. There are always exceptions, eh?

Merry HO HO to all.

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25 Nov 12 - 11:12 AM (#3441983)
Subject: RE: BS: Merry Christmas!!
From: Ron Davies

So don't buy plastic.    It should be possible to restrain yourself from doing that.

My point, on this music-oriented site, is that there is a huge wealth of wonderful music at this time of year which anybody can enjoy.    It is absurd to think you can't enjoy it without believing every word.    I'm in a big choral group, and I sing lots of hard-core Catholic and Orthodox music ( e.g. Mozart Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Rachmaninoff Vespers) in the Kennedy Center concert hall and similar venues. We sing in Latin, Russian, etc, but we know exactly what we're singing--we have to, in order to put the music across. If I had to believe every word I sang I could hardly sing anything .    Singing often requires acting.

It is glorious music, and that is attested to by our audiences--much of whom do not sing themselves.    I have admitted that those of us who sing probably enjoy this time of year much more than most people. But anybody has access to wonderful music if he or she has a computer--which it seems reasonable to believe that all Mudcatters do.

For anybody who appreciates music, this should not be a "Bah, humbug" time of year. And if you don't appreciate Christmas music, perhaps you could broaden your horizon a tiny bit.

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