A ‘Progressive’ Christmas: More Financially Trying, Less Visible
The BLS currently estimates that almost 1.2 million net new birth/death jobs sprang up between February and November. Fortunately, the bureau eventually circles back and revises its results when better information becomes available. As a result, as the New York Post’s John Crudele notes, a downward adjustment in the neighborhood of a preliminarily estimated 824,000 jobs will become official early next year. Bah humbug indeed.
Of course, Christmas isn’t primarily about commerce. It is, or should be, about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and the uplift to the human spirit that accompanies that celebration. It’s a spirit that is more than generous enough to welcome others who don’t share a belief in Christ, or even in God, to nevertheless participate in the celebratory feeling. That commercial activity related to gift-giving has historically mostly risen during the Christmas season is not an automatic indictment of obsessive materialism. Rather, it is more often than not tangible evidence that most people in this country don’t think that their life is all about them.
That many others who don’t share similar religious beliefs are too often unwilling to respond to the spirit of the season is by now a pretty much proven point; why that attitude is seen as “progressive” remains one of life’s great mysteries.
All one needs to do to show that journalists in recent years have become increasingly reluctant to recognize Christmas in commerce is to compare the combined results of three pairs of Google News searches in November and December 2009 (a couple of days before Thanksgiving, December 8, and December 21) to analogous searches done four years earlier:
2005
“Christmas shopping season” — 2,969
“Holiday shopping season” — 21,450
“Christmas” as percentage of the total — 12.2%
2009
“Christmas shopping season” — 2,529
“Holiday shopping season” — 25,352
“Christmas” as percentage of the total — 9.1%
The percentage of “Christmas” references, already quite skimpy four years ago, is down by almost one-fourth since then. At that rate of decline, the term “Christmas shopping season” will disappear in about a dozen years.
Thankfully, despite the media’s and society’s best efforts, the historical record of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection won’t ever do that.
Let’s put it straight for left/liberals: “It’s Christmas, stupid!”
Oh, poor widdle wingnut gets his feelings all hurt if we don’t celebrate Christmas the way he wants us to. There’s only one thing to say to that: Happy Holidays!
We spent probably 75% less this year than last (I was laid off 3 months ago), and made Christmas much more about family than gifts. The gifts we did give were mostly for the granddaughter. I’ve instituted a new shopping rule: I do not do any Christmas shopping in stores with overtly anti-Christian/Christmas policies and try to spend the most where the Christmas spirit is alive and lively in the staff and decorations/messages. I’ve also tried to give a little to every Salvation Army “elf” that I’ve seen outside the stores and in the malls, as well as partipating in cards-for-soldiers programs.
So-called progressives are anything but; their policies would drag us back to the dark ages. They appear to be very uncharitable and ungiving people. We won’t stand for it. That said, more awareness of the true meaning of Christmas is not unwelcome and lefies show a pretty amazing incomprehension of the meaning of gift-giving at this time, as well as the benefits of giving. Their loss.
From this day forth, I promise to patronise only the stores and radio stations which begin playing Christmas music (and it must also be holy, not secular) immediately after the Fourth of July. Selah.
Why blame “progressives” about the de-Christmatization of Christmas when the owners and managers of most stores are CONSERVATIVES and Republican businessmen?
To insure Dwight has no impact I will not patronize any stores which play only holy music. Not because I feel that they shouldn’t but because stores should have the right to cater to a larger audience than narrow-minded religious nuts.
camazotz, You sir, are going to hell! (Not passing go, but directly to hell.)
I patronize stores that sell the products I want at the lowest fair price and the highest quality.
They can play any music they want, as long as it is not loud.
The stores I detest are the ones that have Christmas motives BEFORE Thanksgiving. Now they will start advertising St. Valentine’s Day. For me, they could wait until February 1st. This early display of motives is just plain irritant.