Did you know that on July 29, 2005 the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which, among other things, extended the length of Daylight Savings Time.
Guess who lobbied Congress the hardest for this change, the Candy Industry! A one-week move, from the last Sunday in October to the first in November, allowed for an extra hour of daylight each Halloween, which added millions to their bottom line.
We’re being played folks, you all know it, you just choose to let it slide. All of these feel-good traditional U.S. holidays are about money going from your pocket, to theirs. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, plus the after holiday sales, generate billions of dollars for thousands of industries. This also applies to Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Valentines Day which are all about spending money…
Here are my solutions to the Thanksgiving and Christmas nonsense:
• Choose your own family gatherings and make a tradition out of it. Why be forced to travel and spend money around two days of the year where everyone else is doing the same thing?
• Steph reminded me that Christmas used to be all about the kids, and she’s right! There are 316 million people in the United States, with 218 million over 18. If everyone over 18 gave $100 to a Christmas fund for kids (those under 18), each kid in the U.S. would get $220. Set January 1st as the day to give it to them, and then say Merry Christmas.
For those that argue that Thanksgiving is based on some pilgrim tradition and that Christmas is a religious holiday, all I can say is, Really?
As to Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Valentines Day, drop them now! Sorry Jared…
Which leaves Easter and Halloween. I had a tradition with Riley where every Easter morning I would go out early and hide a basket of goodies out in the woods and then leave plastic eggs with reverse engineered clues back to his front door. I would wait down by the basket and watch him follow the clues to it. Great fun, and it could be called Find The Basket Day. Skip the candy and convoluted messages about giant rabbits and Christ rising from the dead!
I liked Halloween as it used to be, where kids went door to door demanding candy and if you refused, you got tricked. I remember the time my brother and I dumped Pete Peterson’s garbage can on his front porch and he chased us down for a half a mile and dragged us back to his house by our ears and made us clean it up. Good times!
Now, it’s just a scripted dance where parents drag their kids around to safe houses and businesses to collect candy in a bag, which is sorted out later for possible poisons, and then the adults dress up in stupid costumes and go to parties and get drunk. Actually, that’s not bad, we do need to escape sometimes…
Merry Christmas!
Christmas and Easter were originally Pagan celebrations. When Christianity came into the picture they applied their Holy Days to Pagan holidays to recruit more followers (no need to stop celebrating.) I believe scholars have determined Christ was actually born in the month of April, as we know it. Mother’s/Father’s Day invented by greeting card companies.
Do I denote sarcasm in your tone. I think there has been some pushy people making it hard to handle the holidays , but to say we take them away from the children of today is totally wrong. The joy of the holidays is being with family. Pick a name to buy a present for and enjoy the company of family. Cook a turkey make potatoes and gravy biscuits a veggie throw in some yummy sweet stuff. Then sit and visit with family and friends for thanksgiving. We have funny hats and pjs. We miss the people that aren’t with us and hope they are having as much fun as we are. Love you guys be happy and enjoy as I know you do. And so do your bus riders.
No sarcasm here Betty, this is how I feel, and I agree with what you say. My point is that these fixed Holidays are on days defined by (as Skoge says, Pagans) and subject to massive commercialization from a thousand fronts. We need to pick our own days to have a holiday or two, and enjoy family and friends on our terms!
Sad that they start all the Christmas crap right after the 4th of July. Takes all the fun and anticipation and delight out of a kids Christmas. I’ve known people that go into major debit to give their kids extravagant gifts. I think the spirit of Christmas has been totally lost in our day.
Yea, we all remember the magic of a special Christmas when we were young. I don’t have little kids around anymore so I can only wonder what it’s like for kids today. I feel confident that the magic isn’t there…
I have two grand babies and I try to keep the spirit of Christmas alive and make our own traditions. I let them decorate the Charlie brown tree and play with the ornaments that are special on the tree.
That’s good Sal! I guess magic is subjective, and relative to your age. Steph and I used to exchange gifts with my sisters kids at her house but that was shut down a few years ago. There was no magic going on, but it was a good time. Now there is nothing meaningful about Christmas.
Gee, maybe I have self diagnosed the actual reality behind this post!