On my Soap-Box : The Holidaze

Over the past few days, Paddling Upstream has gotten a huge number of hits from a website that I'd not heard about.  That website is Pinterest.   And here is the image that brought all of this interest:

This image was taken at a mall in Florida by my friend Russell two years ago and he shared it with me on his Facebook page.  I've now seen it re-posted on Pinterest and Facebook.  To both his pleasure and his chagrin, this image seems to have gone viral this year.    He's pleased that its making the rounds, but a little disappointed that his 15 minutes of fame are anonymous. 

On to my soap box...

In honor of Andy Rooney's passing, I'm going to get up on my own soap-box to complain.  He crystallized everyone's thoughts on the issues of daily life so well.  I hope to be able to reflect those things that we've all been thinking of.

As I noted, I've posted before on this subject before, here.  At the end of September, I found myself posting a Facebook status update that my worst nightmares had come true:

It has finally come true.

I was in CVS this evening. There were witches, scarecrows, pumpkins, turkeys, and Santa Claus.

Merry Thanksgivoween.

:::rolls eyes:::

*wretch!*

Horrendous, isn't it?  I think that both retailers and marketing people should come to realize that the public is getting fed up with the homogenization of holidays during the year.  There is going to be a back-lash from consumers one of these years, and I think it has begun.  Most of the comments that were attached to the image at the top of this post included things like "Darn straight!", "Right on!" and "Finally, a store that 'gets it'."  On a Facebook post with the Nordstrom's image, I saw this comment:

I love this!! I get frustrated with people who complain that stores advertise too early but yet they still go and spend their money at these places. People must learn to vote with their wallets! As long as these companies are making money they do NOT care what the public thinks! Nordstrom just got my business!!

I truly worry that my children will not know which symbols go with which holidays because of what they see in stores, malls and in television and print advertising.  I also think that we've diminished the meanings of the holidays - including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza (Or whatever holiday you celebrate, Festivus included!)  to candy, food and football and presents. It seems that parents now need to think much more about traditions, celebrations and how we keep them for our children.

While I love the holidays as much as anyone else, can we please just celebrate one holiday at a time?

Pretty please?