Gotta be some places open for those who don’t celebrate Christmas. Every place being closed regardless of the religion of the customer base, workers, and owners would be like merging church with state.
Not really.
I mean we were together as a family because we lived together and other people were busy, but it’s not like anyone in my family made any effort to be together because it was Christmas. It really was just another day. We didn’t even do the Chinese food thing growing up. And that’s ok. I had no desire to mark Christmas and never felt left out. It was just a day my non-Jewish friends were busy.
One if my sisters grew up to lived in a town with a moderate Jewish population and they used to do a party that day for their friends. But it was hardly a magical, solemn day for being with family. Just a day when most people were free.
Sometimes I get the vibe that Christians think we’re all wishing we could find a way to justify Christmas in our lives. Can’t speak for everyone, but most Jews I know are ok with it not being our holiday.
Christmas for me has always been just another day. I’d say that Thanksgiving is a far more universal holiday for Americans than Christmas.
I’ve worked many a holiday. And been out of town and dependent on other people working the holiday (whichever one) to feed & house me. FTR, I’m solid atheist.
Having said that, I consider it my duty to avoid forcing others to work holidays insofar as possible. Christmas is just one of many such holidays.
Imagine all the retail stores had their big Thanksgiving evening Black Thursday sales. And damn near nobody showed up in solidarity with the many workers who were Shanghai-ed into destroying their holiday on the latar of increased corporate sales.
Wouldn’t that be awesome! And next year far fewer retailers would try that abuse of our traditions and of our people.
There is more to life than corporate income. Act like it. This post rates my seldom-seen sig line.
I’m curious- do you feel bad about patronizing stores during Ramadan or Yom Kippur, knowing some folks have to work or go to school on their Holidays?
Thanksgiving was in November.
Many workers are glad for the extra shift. I sure as hell know that I was when I was an hourly worker. Many of those workers in retail are immigrants that don’t celebrate “our” holiday or live away from their family and have nothing better to do and need the money.
Why are people finding it so difficult to understand that a sizable minority don’t value that same things as themselves?
Maybe I’m just lucky, but with all the non-Jews around, I’ve never had to work on Yom Kippur. There’s always been someone else willing to cover.
Christmas worker here. I cashier in a store owned by Chassidic Jews, in Bergen County, NJ which still has blue laws. The laws in NJ state that nobody can make you work on Christmas. The week before, a sign up list is posted asking if you will volunteer to work Christmas Eve or Day. Working on the 25th means double pay.
This is the third Christmas I have worked. I do not mind it at all, and I always have my “Xmas dinner” at the IHOP across the street, which is also open December 25th.
Not everybody is a Christian and/or celebrates on he 25th.
ETA: We are closed on Shabbos and all major Jewish holidays, so we are not covered by the blue laws. Meaning we can be open (and do major business) on Sunday and Christmas.
Back working in a convenience store in West Texas, we got paid double time for working Thanksgiving and I think triple time for Christmas. I always loved working the holidays.
They get triple pay in Union supermarkets in California. So many people want to work that nearly everyone gets one four hour shift. (Or at least that used to be the case. I’m not 100% positive that it’s still true.)
Unfortunately my college doesn’t have the High Holidays off. When the holidays fall so they both hit my same class, I just can’t justify cancelling twice in an already short semester. If students take off I don’t hold it against them, but there’s no way I can cancel essentially a week of classes. I usually leave early, but it’s a hassle and I can almost never travel to my family for the holiday. It’s frustrating because, of course, Easter and Christmas as factored into the schedule, so those holidays are much easier for folks to observe.
Passover I generally have to reschedule so I can do the Seder on a weekend, or it would be impossible to observe.
If a place is open and I need whatever they are serving I go and attempt to be the best customer they’ve had all day, in the spirit of the holiday.
Interesting article. The Jewish-Chinese connection goes back over 120 years to NYC. Chinese restaurants, on the whole, were unique at the time as being places where Jews could go and get different food from their own and not have to worry about discrimination.
That is simply not true. When I was a kid, we got together with family on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve, after work. We never did Christmas Day, because although the family had stopped being Catholic in the 60s, we kept the 24th as the social / family day.
Some years we went to fireworks displays on the 4th, but most years we didn’t. I can’t recall ever marking Memorial Day in any way, shape, or form, except as a day off.
I’d be happy to work on Christmas. Without kids, it’s fairly easy to move the celebration to the 26th or 27th. We’ve done Christmas in January before when that was the best for the family’s schedules.
It’s known in St. Louis, too, although not to the same extent as in NY. At least, my St. Louis Jewish relatives would do the movie and Chinese food thing on Christmas.
I remember having to tell guys in my squad “If Charlie didn’t observe Tet, one of HIS holidays, what the hell makes you think he’s going to respect Christmas? Keep your fuckin’ eyes peeled!”
Not really - as noted, some of us really do want the holiday pay. I made as much money in 2 days from the Thanksgiving/Black Friday gig as I normally do in 6 days. As I said, please do not pity me in a manner that deprives me of needed income.
Blatant hijack: do the Chinese Americans reciprocate?
I’m not sure what you mean by that. Eat at delis?
I used to do a lot of business travel in Asia. More than a few times I have had Chinese people tell me “we are brothers” when they found out I was Jewish. There are a lot of similarities in the cultures.