Monday, November 17, 2008

Happy Happy Merry Merry




I think the guy in the video makes a good point. Many retailers are afraid of the word Christmas, though they want us to spend spend spend to celebrate it. Tossing the catalogs that say Holiday and not Christmas? I never thought of that, but it makes more sense than picking on the salesperson who says "Happy Holidays!". I have seen people chew out salesclerks who do this which makes me think "Yeah, they are so in the Christmas spirit now! Thanks for representing Christianity for me. Jesus and I thank you for that! It is not like we wanted this person to be happy, or think well of Christmas or anything. Thanks for helping!"
When I worked at McDonald's as a teenager, I was told by the managers to say "Happy Holidays!" so as to not offend anyone. I was to naive to question why a Jewish person who doesn't keep kosher anyway (hence eating at McDonalds') would be offended by Merry Christmas. Same with Muslims. If they eat at McDonald's, it is not like they are respecting their own beliefs, so why should I (go ahead Katdish, say "Oh no she didn't!")? And as for atheists, why should I care about offending them? It is apparent that they don't care about offending me. Anyways, I got yelled at by more than one customer "It's Christmas Da** it! Say Merry Christmas!" That would have me near tears and I had to keep from saying "Fine! Have a lousy holiday if you want. Seee if I care! Boo hoo hoo!" . At least Merry Tossmas sticks it to the company, not the clerk who is following company protocol.
BTW, when I go shopping around Christmas, and a clerk says "Happy Holidays!", I give them a great big smile and say "Merry Christmas to you, too!" as if I thought that was what they said. Then they usually smile back and say "Yeah, Merry Christmas!" After the 26th, when they are saying "Happy New Year!" I usually say "You can still wish me a Merry Christmas! I am Catholic, and we celebrate for twelve days! Wanna come to my Church?"
Creative Minority Report had a much cuter video with the same guy, but funnier. Click on the title of this post to see it!

9 comments:

Sherri Murphy said...

great vidie.
Smart man.

I will say thi so folks will know...

I worked at Dillard's Dept. Store a couple of years back when this "trend" started. Thay told us to go ahead and say MERRY CHRISTAMS! as loud as we wanted.

They also hast a very special VIP exclusive shopping night ( catering to their highest spending customers). We ll wore formal attire, food was catered for our guests. They lso had LIVE music in very departmant ( pianist, violin, sinders, etc.)
I am a gospel singer so they asked me if I would be interested in singing. I told them although I love all the cute little Christmas songs, I mainly had only CHristian ones, and didn't know how they would feel about me singing , "Mary did you know, O holy Night, Etc.
Surprisingly they said "Bring it on!"

So, there I was standing in the most prominent position in DIllards, next to their largest diplay tree, belting out THE most holy of Christmas songsto the walthiest of shoppers in SO. Illinois.
Get this, they actually asked me to come back! I've done it3 years in a row.

SHOP DILLARDS!
They Love HOLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

Sherri Murphy said...

I think I counted 7 typos in that comment. Sorry, next time I'll try to read through it first.

katdish said...

Feliz navi toss! That's awesome. I do the same thing when people say "Happy Holidays" to me, or the longer version, "Happy Birthday to Sweet Baby Jesus who died on the cross so you wouldn't have to burn in hell for eternity". That seems to get everyone in the "holiday" spirit!

Stacy from Louisville said...

Hi Helen,

Thanks for the note!

I never thought Sherri was accusing me of anything. I'm good with it, but especially good with the sarcasm. But I didn't need to tell you that now did I???

I'm not an uptight blogger. There are some of those out there but I'd rather good off any day.

Stacy

Anonymous said...

Helen, Thanks fo explaining me to a stranger. Nothing like starting off the day off by making a stupid remark that could offend someone. And then a friend having my back and already clearing the air for me so someone wouldn't misunderstand my stupid remark.

I love you Helen.

Mary Ann said...

Sometimes showing up after everyone else has commented on a blog is even more fun to read then the blog itself (though the blog was a great read)! It's so fun; Dillards, typos, Sweet baby jesus who saved me from burning in Hell, someone is not offended over ambiguous remark ended nicely by some good Sherri sarcasm. Wow, I love you gals.

Beth said...

Hmm. I've never really thought much about this before...I guess a naive part of me thought "Happy Holidays" was a way to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the same time! Xmas certainly gets more of a reaction from me than "holidays," but I suppose it is an effective marketing gimmick AND takes Christ out of Christmas pretty effectively, too. Now I get to see how many holiday catalogues I get to say "Feliz navi-toss!" to. But I pretty much toss all my catalogues anyway.

Life Is Beautiful said...

We don't have this problem in Ireland (yet?) thank God. Christmas, cribs and Church bells are everywhere. You are right that bawling out a shop assistant is not very good. I love the way you put it...your delightful sarcasm was almost Irish :)

In my opinion, the only people 'offended' by Christmas are people who don't want to be reminded of their own inner darkness. Christmas and Jesus ... well, the Light hurts their souls. It's nothing to do with political correctness... political correctness acknowledges secularism only. Yet this causes offence to the majority that acknowledge religion so pc in reality, as a vehicle to prevent offence, should define itself out of existence.

Helen said...

Sherri,
I tried to leave this comment at your blog, but it won;t let me, so I am leaving it on mine. I hope that is okay.Dear Sherri,
I am sure that if you are not like her already, you are becoming like her. She did not become who she is overnight. She developed into the person she is. I bet she is still developing every day even now.
My mom is a forgiving person. I wish I was like that. I am like my dad. My dad used to say "Be careful when you turn the other cheek. Be prepared to duck, because it is very likely they will hit you again!". As a man, he took protecting his family very seriously.
My mom says "Jesus said what He meant and meant what He said. Just turn the other cheek!". And she does. I can forgive if someone slighted me, but if they slighted someone I love, I am dad ten thousand times over. But I am growing. I am at least learning to forgive once they do. And it seems both my mom and my husband are very good at forgiving. Good thing for me!
Anyway, I think that as we grow in our love and admiration of them, some of their qualities rub off on us. Others we emulate. They probably had to at least start out by working at becoming the wonderful people they are. Your mom is a beautiful woman. But you don't need me to tell you that. God bless you both!