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an open letter to retail centers

dear bastions of consumerism, masters of marketing, and homes of the best deals and biggest sales,

i'm sorry, but i just don't get the idea of listening to christmas music in mid or early november. i mean, we haven't even gotten through thanksgiving yet, for goodness' sake. now the pastor in me has his own reasons for feeling this way: christmas music is celebrating christmas, not the lead up to it. that's something else. called advent. and at least in our worship, we ought not rush through advent before we get to christmas. advent has its own music. but forget about the pastor in me for a second, just the regular music-loving christmas-loving me still doesn't get it. i mean, we don't listen to "happy birthday" for a month before our big day. we don't start listening to irish music in mid-february to start getting ready for st. patrick's day, do we? of course not. and don't think that i'm being a scrooge here, either. i love love LOVE christmas music, and i'm all for listening to it in the christmas season, but can we please, at the very least, wait until after thanksgiving? please?

fighting a battle i know i'll lose,
greg.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Yeah it's annoying to see Christmas trees around stores before Thanksgiving. I think the push for holiday shopping and the pressure of 'not buying enough' is more annoying. A shopping center in town is opening from midnight to 3 am after thanksgiving for those who want to be 'first' at getting Christmas bargains. And I'm tired of all the economists telling us we won't buy enough for Christmas (every year) and the economy will tank. It turns out every January that Americans completely overspent, so Christmas wasn't terrible after all.
7:18 AM
Anonymous said…
It was unbelieveable to me that a radio station went to all Christmas music the day after Halloween! I preached about this yesterday - that thanksgiving has become the lost holiday as you can barely find any reference to it anymore. Even the sacred - let us give the workers just ONE day a year to be with their families to be thankful is gone - Boscov's will have some stores open ON Thanksgiving DAY! Now that is very sad and wrong. But again - I wonder how many are going to follow...
10:54 AM
Mary said…
umm...im listening to christmas music already. and whos the one who posted themselves dancing around like an elf?
8:16 PM
greg milinovich said…
mary mary, quite contrary...

the only reason i elfed myself and my entire family so soon is that i had to beat crafty p to the punch. :)

and you should not NOT be listening to christmas music. not until friday at the earliest. and you won't, if i have anything to do with it. mahahahaha.....
6:54 AM
greg milinovich said…
for the record, if you want to dress up as an elf or st. nicholas or frosty the freakin' snowman as early as july that's fine with me. just don't start singing about a little baby born in bethlehem, until its time for the little screamer to actually be born.
11:15 AM
Crafty P said…
my kids are programmed to say "Chritsmas music!?!!!??? Already? It's not even Thanksgiving!"

I'm fighting the desire to listen.

and if you're going to be a stickler... well the Christmas SEASON doesn't OFFICIALLY start until, well, Christmas EVE. Up until that time it's ADVENT!
3:56 PM
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