Christmas and commerce?

[Torsten]

Here is the question: What do Christmas, commerce and credit cards have in common? You are right, they all start with the letter 'c'. Joke aside, what do you think of Christmas -- is it too commercial nowadays? How many Christmas gifts have you bought/will you be buying this year? Alan's Christmas Newsletter really made me think about the true meaning of Christmas...

Happy shopping,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: Getting a pedicure

[Prezbucky]

I've sort of always treated Christmas as two separate things:

Santa Claus/pagan holiday/giving presents

and

celebrating Christ's birth/Nativity scene (Christian holiday)

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christmas gifts I've bought:

Mom - necklace/earrings/bracelet
Dad - Jack Ryan DVD set (Tom Clancy-based movies)
Sister & husband - wooden mantel clock with chimes & pendulum
Dad's parents - 6 filet mignon steaks
Mom's dad - Lawrence Welk VHS tape
Ex-girlfriend - Four 11 oz NY strip steaks (you'd better believe I'm eating one)

What do I expect to receive?

- PS2 game, maybe FIFA World Cup or some war game
- Clothes
- Book or two
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jamie (K)]

There are quite a few Americans now who advocate completely eliminating gifts from Christmas and simply celebrating it as a religious or family holiday. People who have done it say that it completely changes the nature of the day, and makes it much more pleasant to celebrate. It takes some work, though. The people announce ahead of time that they will neither give nor receive Christmas presents anymore. People don't pay any attention to it, and they try to give them presents anyway. Then you have to politely refuse the presents, or else it won't work. Once all the friends and relatives have been retrained, the holiday is nicer, they claim.

Personally, I have never really liked getting or giving Christmas presents, although I frequently give people presents during the year when I get good ideas. I just hate thinking of good presents by a deadline.

Now I give presents only to my niece and nephew, who are already adults. I still don't know what I'll give them, but they'll probably give me DVDs of some cartoons from the 1940s or so, probably strange ones that were never on TV.

[Prezbucky]

it's certainly a cost-saving concept. ;)
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.