The Commercialization of Holidays Is Out Of Control

I just read this today about Lowes Home Improvement Center. Things like this are just getting crazier and crazier.

A 2007 Lowe's holiday catalog advertised Christmas trees as "family trees."

Snopes says its true:

"In an effort to avoid the use of the term "Christmas tree," Lowe's has renamed their Christmas trees and are now calling them "Family trees."

In their Holiday 2007 catalog, containing 56 pages of Christmas gifts, Lowe's advertises hundreds of gift items, including scores of "Family trees." In fact, the word "Christmas" only appears two times in the entire holiday catalog. The ads mentioning "Christmas cover only 12 square inches of the 5236 square inches available."

Lowe's evidently did not want to offend any non-Christians, therefore they replaced "Christmas tree" with "Family tree."

Their Holiday 2007 catalog features scores of products, including lights, wreaths, trees, and yard decorations. Most people would associate these items with Christmas, but not Lowe's! Except for two obscure references, they refer to everything in their catalog as "holiday."

Here's what my mom had to say about it:
I get so worked up over this..... Christmas is what it is... a religious holiday (holyday) and if some don't like it then invent a different day to celebrate and call it National Spend Your Money Day! I spend a lot of money with Lowe's, but I'm going to contact them and let them know, that I'll be buying my CHRISTMAS decorations elsewhere and I hope that doesn't offend them!

Go Mom!

Man....I am so tired of this. Every year the arguments over religion and offending others get worse and worse. The problem I see with this whole Christmas tree thing is, if you don't celebrate Christmas, you don't buy a tree as decoration. So why do you care what others call it?
Maybe Lowes should consider selling Hanukkah menorahs and Kwanzaa kinaras instead of just decorations for those who celebrate Christmas. Maybe they already do, I dunno. Maybe Lowes should just stick to home improvement items and quit selling holiday decorations altogether.

You know, Festivus doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all. I've always said that the best part of the holidays for me is my family gathered for a meal and playing games afterwards. I could care less whether we divvy out presents or not.

You haven't heard of Festivus??
It's a non-denominational holiday featured on the Seinfeld show but now really celebrated in real life. It's an alternate holiday resurrected and modified to protest against the commercialization of Christmas. It's celebrated on Dec 23 and instead of Christmas trees, you have a Festivus Pole.
Sounds crazy but people really celebrate this holiday. And yes, I'm SERIOUS!

"Festivus for the rest of us!"

I think it would be fun!
In fact, I think I am going to suggest this to my family over the Thanksgiving holiday. We can still gather and eat but if you feel you have to bring a present for someone, make it something handmade, homemade or something you already own but can't use or don't want. Nothing store-bought.
We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow, yawl!