Why are Retailers Embarrassed About Christmas?

11.20.02 | mlmr

[mlmr]

The Christmas stock is out in the stores. There are scads of snowmen, Santas, reindeer and other items craving for your dollar. But interestingly enough, when one asks for religious Christmas items, at most stores, which serve a public that is conservatively estimated to be about 67% practicing Christian, there is nothing for sale.

No Christian based ornaments, hardly any Nativity scenes, and Christmas card... “Well Lady, I have robins, joke cards, Santas, dressed and nude, as well as lovely winter scenes and smart looking graphics.” Nativity scene? Magnificent reproductions of famous religious Nativities painted by the Masters? Ummm...no.

Some clerks make a weak smile and point out their extensive angel ornaments...others are belligerent and say firmly: "No we don't carry that sort of thing here." One owner said she did not carry religious Christmas items because people would be offended.

Guess what? I am offended. Every time I walk into a store decked out in its Christmas finest and cannot find any religious Christian items, I am offended. Every time I walk through huge displays of Christmas knickknacks and have to hunt to a bottom shelf of dark aisle to find a small nativity or Christian Advent calendar, I am offended. Every time a walk into a store with a brimming Menorah display, but no equally brimming nativity display, I am offended. (I have nothing against Hanukkah, I just want my religious tradition upheld with respect too. After all we are talking about 2% of the US population versus 67%.)

It is odd. When I talk to clerks about the availability of religious items in their stores, most also tell me that many people ask for them, but there just isn't anything available. Funny, that there is a need and no will to fill it.

I am equally offended by the Christians who are oblivious. Who no longer expect their tradition will be honored by having its items made available through retailers. Christian who don't want to rock the boat. Christians who don't want to seems too pushy or too religious.

I recommend that all thinking Christians go into retailers and ask where the Christian religious objects are located. If there are no religious objects available, perhaps it is time to tell the retailer how disappointed and offended that your religious tradition is being dismissed.

So I have decided to be offended...and to let people know...that true plurality honors even the faith of the majority and dominant culture. I encourage you to do the same...it confuses 'em when we use their words and phrases against 'em.

[Tall_Texan]

Perhaps I am jaded but I've already ceded Christmas to the secularists. I'd rather that Christians find a whole other day to celebrate and focus on the birth of Christ without all the misinformation and myth that now surrounds Christmas.

You're never going to get the holiday back from the merchants and the secularists. I find far more religious significance in Thanksgiving than I do Christmas, which has become a two-month commercialized orgy, not a religious observance.

Since December 25th is no more an accurate date of Jesus' birth as, say, October 12th, why not just find a new date for Christians to celebrate the date for what it represents without all the public clutter?

[oyez]

My company just announced the name change of the "Annual Christmas Party" to "Year-end
Holiday Party". I think they are trying to save money as the attendance will drop by half the usual croud. The idea was not to offend. Yeah, right!

[mlmr]

They actually mention CHRISTMAS, not the "Holidays"......

No! I don't have a TV. Tell me more. Out of all the major retailers, they did have a small nativity section and a religious Advent calendar. But no religious Christmas tree ornaments or religous cards. It seems to be a forward looking store, perhaps they sniff a change in the air?

[mlmr]

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours too!

[mlmr]

I live in the northeast, and so far there has been little to nothing that I have found at my local four Walmarts.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

No, I don't live in Utah, I live in Arizona and used to live in liberal Wisconsin where one could also find any kind of Christmas ornament or decoration one could wish for--secular or religious.

Ditto. Down the street here in the Minnesota suburbs, a family has Santa, Frosty, a full nativity, angels, reindeer, singers, and a whole lot of other religious and secular stuff mixed together stuck out in their lawn.

Yes, I know the reason for the season, but I'm not uptight either. You can have both.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

You are right. Here in 'Bama, Jesus is the reason for the season.

[lds23]

The Poles did not have the consumerism to push out Christmas

Worse, they had severe repression pushing Statism on them.

Truth be told, their stolid Catholicism gave them strength to eventually topple the juggernaut. Do we here in America have as much faith?

[mlmr]

I've already ceded Christmas to the secularists

I understand your point, but I am not ready to give up yet.

[Dog Gone]

You are easily offended.

[TLBSHOW]

Good thread!

[mlmr]

The idea was not to offend.

I am offended just reading about it. You must be really offended.

[Thinkin' Gal]

We have a chain up here called the Christmas Tree Shoppes and they looked at me as if I grew two feet when I asked where their Nativity scenes were.

Now that place really frosts me. Last year they had the bags of real Chanukah gelt, plus all sorts of chocolates, decorations, candles, and paper goods. So I trekked all the way over there a couple of weeks ago only to see some dinged up dreidel lollipops. Well, I did eventually locate the good menorah chocolates on the shelf with the Christmas candy. :-/

[mlmr]

Truth be told, their stolid Catholicism gave them strength to eventually topple the juggernaut. Do we here in America have as much faith?

I don't know. We can't even be a prominent part in the marketplace of ideas ...I don't know whether we will hold on to our faith in adversity...I pray we do...

[Rainbow Rising]

For many years I have refused to buy Christmas cards that do not have the word "Christmas" in them. I will not buy a card that says "Season's Greetings" or, even worse, "Happy Holidays." Those expressions offend me in the same way that the rampant commercialization of Christmas offends me. That they are used in the name of "sensitivity" aggravates me even more.

[mlmr]

You are easily offended.

Probably.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Freepers - your mission, if you chose to accept it - fan out, hit the stores...ask, politely, of course, where the religious items are for Christmas.

Um, just for starters, right here in my Marshall Field's catalog. Lots 'o nativity sets to choose from.

Where in the heck do you guys live? Is there some anti-Christian vortex eating cities that I don't live in or what?

[No Truce With Kings]

Best thing that ever happened to my family was when the nearest Orthodox church proved to be an old calendar church. That means they use the old Julian calendar for the church calendar. While it does not affect Easter, it does mean that Christmas is on a different day than the Western Christmas. Dec 25 (Old Style) is Jan 6 (Gregorian).

At first we were dismayed. But you know what -- it separates the religious from the secular aspects quite nicely. And by doing so it forced us to concentrate on the religious aspects of the holiday.

Next we began following the custom of partying *after* Christmas (the twelve days) rather than before. (This actually makes sense if you think about it. When expecting a child do you have the big celebrations before or after the child is born? After, of course. And what is Christmas but the birth of Christ.)

It is so much nicer. Divorced from the secular celebration we have ditched the Saturnalia aspects of the American Christmas. And gift giving now fits within our budget, because the gifts are no longer the focus of the holiday. Further, by fasting (abstaining from meat and dairy) and praying before Christmas we enjoy the post-Christmas celebrations so much more. As American Christmas has become one big food fest from Thanksgiving to Christmas, this means I actually lose a few pounds before Christmas now, and do not gain it back in the partying afterwards, because that goes on only twelve days.

My bet is that most of you will think we are crazy, but as I say, we enjoy this so much more. And I don't get the holiday blues anymore.

[mlmr]

I have refused to buy Christmas cards that do not have the word "Christmas" in them. I will not buy a card that says "Season's Greetings" or, even worse, "Happy Holidays."

Me too. Or I get blank cards and copy a verse and write a short note.

[mlmr]

What is Marshall Fields?