Examples of a not so merry Christmas...

[LostMyMind]

It was either last Christmas or the one before that I got a lady calling me to ask if we had rooms available. We did. She then asked if I could rent her a room despite the fact that all she had was $11.

I would have given her directions to the public campgrounds. Some of them are $11, but you got to bring your own tent.

[kw524]

"and I really hate it when people shorten it to Xmas"

X is for the x's on the calender untill all the BS of this "holiday" are over.
At least I have memorys of when it was CHRISTmas.

[ChanceNCinny]

"and I really hate it when people shorten it to Xmas"

X is for the x's on the calender untill all the BS of this "holiday" are over.
At least I have memorys of when it was CHRISTmas.

Actually Xmas is a long held abbreviation of the holiday. We did an article about it in the community newspaper last year, the short of it is (quote from the article): "This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin. The word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name, "X" in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word. Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christ's name, later Christians who did not understand the Greek language mistook "Xmas" as a sign of disrespect."

[Jester]

Thank you for the education on that topic, Chance. As my junior high science teacher taught me oh so long ago, You Learn Something New Every Day.

Speaking of that, thought I would take this moment to make a public service announcement. My best friend's birthday is December 25th. You know...Christmas. (Xmas to the Greeks.) Which means most years most people forget about her. (I also once had a girlfriend whose birthday was December 21st.) I make a point of every year calling her or seeing her (depending on where I am living) and wishing her a happy birthday, never once mentioning the holiday. Once my family had her over for Christmas with us, and we had a birthday cake for her. She likes that kind of stuff.

So, if any of you have friends who have birthdays right near that big jolly holiday, please, try to remember them. They are so easily lost in the shuffle. Santa and Karma will reward you.

[JustAGirl]

Ugh I absolutely get annoyed when i see stores popping out with xmas decorations before HALLOWEEN AND THANKSGIVING.

Which is why my guy and I will refuse to buy anything like that (yeah like we are putting a dent in the sales of those decorations) until the day after Thanksgiving.

I've seen xmas decorations on houses. Not fall colors, but winter solstice colors! OY... ah well. Pretty soon stores will be putting them out around Valentine's Day.

[Kogarashi]

I knew someone was going to beat me to the explanation of "Xmas."

Speaking of that, thought I would take this moment to make a public service announcement. My best friend's birthday is December 25th. You know...Christmas. (Xmas to the Greeks.) Which means most years most people forget about her. ... So, if any of you have friends who have birthdays right near that big jolly holiday, please, try to remember them. They are so easily lost in the shuffle. Santa and Karma will reward you.

As it so happens, my baby's duedate is December 20th, and since she's a first baby she's likely to take her time and arrive a bit late (i.e. Christmas). We're considering a friend's idea of celebrating half birthdays (in June, in this case) as the major birthday instead.

[JustAGirl]

Yeah Kog I was getting ready to pop out what "Xmas" means. There is this one other board I'm on that totally rolls when I type "Xmas" saying how disrespectful it is.

My fiancee's brother's birthday is the day AFTER Xmas. Does he get twice the presents? NOPE (well from fiancee and I he does, one for bday one for Xmas).

[Lace Neil Singer]

For the record, I hate Xmas just cuz to me it just looks wrong. Like if you called New Year Nyear. I'm not christian and to me Christmas means lots of presents and getting drunk.

[Kogarashi]

I only use it as necessary, to be honest. I used it in the product description for something that wouldn't ring up the other day, but we only get so many characters on the register screens, and the keyboard is alphabetical and thus difficult to type quickly on (yay QWERTY training). When I'm typing on a regular keyboard, I write out the full "Christmas" because it's just as fast for me anyway (possibly even faster than typing Xmas, since X is in such an out-of-the-way location). It helps that I type a good 90 wpm on average.

[Misanthropical]

Thank you for the education on that topic, Chance. As my junior high science teacher taught me oh so long ago, You Learn Something New Every Day.

Speaking of that, thought I would take this moment to make a public service announcement. My best friend's birthday is December 25th. You know...Christmas. (Xmas to the Greeks.) Which means most years most people forget about her. (I also once had a girlfriend whose birthday was December 21st.) I make a point of every year calling her or seeing her (depending on where I am living) and wishing her a happy birthday, never once mentioning the holiday. Once my family had her over for Christmas with us, and we had a birthday cake for her. She likes that kind of stuff.

So, if any of you have friends who have birthdays right near that big jolly holiday, please, try to remember them. They are so easily lost in the shuffle. Santa and Karma will reward you.

Thank you! I hate having a Dec. birthday, because I would always get one present with a Happy Birthday/Merry Christmas card on it when I was a child.

I told my husband when we were dating that if he ever did this I would hurt him and he always makes sure that my birthday and Christmas are celebrated separately.

Our Christmas tree and decorations do not go up till after my birthday (my birthday is the 14th) so they go up on the 15th.

I'm getting real sick of seeing Christmas decorations in early October, what happened to Halloween and Thanksgiving?

[Jester]

As it so happens, my baby's duedate is December 20th, and since she's a first baby she's likely to take her time and arrive a bit late (i.e. Christmas). We're considering a friend's idea of celebrating half birthdays (in June, in this case) as the major birthday instead.

Personally, I would think that this would only heighten the child's sense that their birthday is secondary to Christmas. What I (a non-parent, just so you know) would suggest is that you celebrate his/her birthday on whatever day it is on. If it falls on Christmas, celebrate both simultaneously, but make sure they know there is a difference between one and the other.

That being said, my family always did kinda celebrate half-birthdays. Of course, having a June birthday as I do (GO GEMINIS!), I always got stuff every six months, but someone usually said something half-jokingly on December 8th. You might want to do a little something something for your child on June whatever just to let them know how important they are to you, but I think it would be a bad idea to make the half-birthday the more important one, if that makes sense.

Uncle Jester and his sage advice, at your service.

[Lace Neil Singer]

One of my brothers has his birthday on Boxing Day. He's always gotten 2 presents, and has always had a birthday celebration on that day.

[TYFSOK]

My favorite retail Christmas story doesn't really fit the theme, but here it is anyway.

The old Kmart I used to work at had the store divided into "Areas." "Area 2," if I recall correctly, was toys, plus whatever seasonal stuff we had. Thus, "Area 2/Seasonal" for overhead paging purposes. During the various holiday seasons, we could also page the name of the holiday.

One busy night, one of the cashiers needed a price-check on some Christmas lights, so she paged, "Area 2 seasonal to register 5, please. Area 2 seasonal to register 5." The customer, seeing how busy we were, decided that he could pick them up later if he needed them. So, the cashier got to tell the Area 2 guy, "never mind." So, she paged, "Cancel Christmas, please. Cancel Christmas."

A hush fell over the store. Followed by laughter.

This story made the corporate newsletter that month.

[Luna]

Looonnggg....

Ahhh..Christmas eve at old jobs. I always got stuck working them b/c most other managers had kids, or as a SM - I was required to close that day.

The most memorable ones were at music store hell. The mall closed at 6pm so people could go home to their families. However, we had to stay there until all the holiday product was boxed up and removed from the section and all the clearance product and signage was up. They said we were NOT to start this task until after closing (yeah, bullshit!) Of course all the managers started boxing up the holiday cds and dvds early. It was a HUGE project. If you waited to buy A Christmas Carol until 4pm on December 24th...too bad for you.

But the corporate office demanded 2 winters ago that all stores MUST remain open while doing this changeover, so as to catch any "last minute shoppers".

This was disaster. I was working in Cherry Hill at the time. A 60 mile (one way) drive from my home. Even if I left exactly at 6pm - I wasn't getting home till maybe 10 with traffic. My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. I celebrate Yule on Christmas Eve with hubby as it's easier than hosting 2 parties, especially with working retail.

Many people flooded into the store that year. We made mabe $50. For being open an extra 3 hours. Know what those people said?
SC: Ohhh! You're still open! You poor things. *walks in to browse*
SC: I can't believe you're staying open! *destroys the new release fixture and proceeds to not buy anything*
SC: Why are you boxing up all the Christmas product?!! It doesn't go half price after Christmas? (When you explain that no, it doesn't - I then had two full blown arguements with two different customers about it. I don't set the rules or friggin prices people!)

When we finally DID close, the store was a wreck all over again. All that letting people in did was give us a headache, get me in big shit doghouse with my whole family b/c I got home at 1:30am, and suck more of the soul out of every employee.

Last Christmas Eve, I shut the gate and locked it. I started boxing up the stuff at NOON. It was done by 7pm. I remember one HUGE brawly man came over to the gate and threatened to beat me up if I didn't open the gate to let him shop. I called mall security. He was led away screaming about how I "ruined his f*cking Christmas!" Another deperate guy waved a $20 bill through the gate b/c he wanted a video game. It was 45 minutes after close and half the lights were off and the drawers were already shut down and deposited bagged, signed and in the safe. No I can't ring you up. He was fuming mad too but he left with only a swift kick to the gate which hurt him. We all laughed at him as he limped away.

We all did have security walk us to our cars though...can't be too safe with the crazies in NJ.

[Kogarashi]

Personally, I would think that this would only heighten the child's sense that their birthday is secondary to Christmas. What I (a non-parent, just so you know) would suggest is that you celebrate his/her birthday on whatever day it is on. If it falls on Christmas, celebrate both simultaneously, but make sure they know there is a difference between one and the other.

Uncle Jester and his sage advice, at your service.

And Hubby and I talked it over again last night (partly due to me reading What to Expect the First Year and getting to the question about the first birthday), and decided that particular suggestion is a good idea.