# Pitting Christmas **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 25, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230 "2003-11-25T18:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LVgeogeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b19c9b/32.png) [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/61 "2003-12-02T20:26:08Z")
I despise trying to regular shopping during this time of year. The saturday after Thanksgiving I had to go to the store to buy really important stuff- ya know tp & cat food etc- no Christmas crap or gifts- just stuff I needed. I had one woman run her cart into me in her big hurry to get to whatever super sale item she would just die if she didnt get. All I got out of that incident : not even any recognition that the plowed into me but I have a nice bruise from it. related story of crazed shoppers: woman trampled at Wal-Mart [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031201/lo\_wkmg/1897686](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031201/lo_wkmg/1897686) ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/62 "2003-12-03T06:33:38Z")
Retailers in our town finally had the decency to at least wait until AFTER thanksgiving. In previous years it started before Halloween (which has always been my favorite holiday). I still hate that we’re inundated with the whole overkill commercialization for the nearly 6 weeks leading up to Christmas day. HATE it. Yup, I’m a humbug. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/63 "2003-12-03T10:53:41Z")
Those of you who hate the commercialization must have enjoyed last night’s Charlie Brown Christmas. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/64 "2003-12-03T11:58:12Z")
…and science fiction comes through with the prescience again! To wit, you might want to check out the story “Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus” by Fred Pohl. > [@](#): > > 'Tis the season of Christmas, and all through the house > St. Nick and his helpers begin their carouse. > The closets are stuffed and the drawers overflowing > With gift-wrapped remembrances, coming and going. > What a joyous abandon of Christmastime glow! > What a making of lists! What a spending of dough! > So much for the bedroom, so much for the bath, > So much for the kitchen – too little by half! > Come Westinghouse, Philco! Come Hotpoint, G.E.! > Come Sunbeam! Come Mixmaster! Come to the Tree! > So much for the wardrobe – how shine Daddy’s eyes > As he reaps his Yule harvest of slippers and ties. > So much for the family, so much for the friends, > So much for the neighbors – the list never ends. > A contingency fund for the givers belated > Whose gifts must be hastily reciprocated. > And out of the shops, how they spring with a clatter, > The gifts and appliances words cannot flatter! > The robot dishwasher, the new Frigidaire, > The doll with the didy and curlable hair! > The electrified hairbrush, the black lingerie, > The full-color stereoscopic TV! > Come, Credit Department! Come, Personal Loan! > Come, Mortgage, Come Christmas Club, Come — ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/65 "2003-12-03T12:21:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Audrey Levins \* > That, and freaky people like my best friend, who keep their tree up til New Year’s. I come from a Finnish/German background. In our family traditions, the tree and other decorations get put up on December 24th and taken down around January 6th. We also use real candles on the tree. The “other decorations” include fresh evergreen branches strewn on the doorstep to wipe your feet on, a sheaf of wheat tied to a tree for the birds, and little figures of goats formed out of straw. (Holdover pagan traditions, anyone?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230/66 "2003-12-03T12:35:28Z")
Christmas is the biggest example but by far not the only one. So here I am sputtering along waiting to die and have the suckfest which is life end. Well, can’t I be left alone for a day or two? Is it not possible to watch TV or listen to the radio for one goddamn day without being reminded that some holiday is coming up? Christmas is less than 30 days away and the damn stores are packed with idiots out buying useless crap which the person they give it to will forget about in 3 days. Is that enough? No, not nearly, not even close. Soon it will be Valentine’s day. A great, please, stick the red-hot poker up my ass instead. This day always ends in disaster. Oh, I’m sorry, I got you a gift but no flowers, well fuck! What, the spree of holiday’s has not ended? What the fuck do you mean about having to buy people more gifts for Easter? Have I not given them enough useless shit already? Goddamn, Mother’s day? Well, Moms been real nice so I figure she deserves a day. Father’s day too? Well, fuck that alcoholic bastard. I hope he dies and rots in hell! Let it end, let there be some end in sight. The 4th of July passes will relatively little pressure to buy anyone anything but then WHAM, Halloween! Yes yes, I know, if the kids don’t have some ultra deluxe stupid shit costume their parents will look like shit. The Christians get pissed off about everyone worshiping Satan and demons while the parent groups get pissed off about the beer advertisements. Oh dear deity, there is some day coming up having to do with Turkeys but that means the cycle is about to repeat. Can’t every holiday be like Arbor Day? Nothing special, just go plant a fucking tree. Stop buying useless shit no one will use and go plant a fucking tree. Every holiday, go plant a goddamn tree. If Jesus were here, he would probably say the same thing, “go plant some trees you sad bastards!” Oh shit, it’s your goddamn birthday too. Well hell, let me go get my $3.50 I have left out the bank and buy you some garbage. What’s that? Diamonds are forever and show the person that you love them? Well, if someone equates diamonds to love, I hope a monkey ass rapes them. I’m proud I drive an SUV. While everyone is rambling on about saving the planet, I am doing everything I can to drive this motherfucker into the ground. The sooner it happens, the sooner the human race will stop producing things like an automatic cheese grater. It’s a goddamn automatic cheese grater. Are you too goddamn lazy to grate your own cheese? I guess people are going to expect this shit for Christmas. Well, they can go fuck themselves. Go grate your own cheese you lazy bastards! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-christmas/215230.md?page=3)