'The Holidays'

[JillP]

I live in Western Canada and we are now getting ads on the telly that start off with 'This holidays...' and then go on to prompt the viewers to buy gifts for 'The holidays' from their store.
Does anyone know which holidays they are talking about and why would anyone be buying gifts for 'the holidays'?
Meanwhile, Christmas is coming up so we'll soon be Christmas shopping again.

[Pea Pod]

I have always taken it as refering to Xmas,Easter and any other time you have off from a normal working week. I live in England but to me it is another saying from our American friends.

[EngTeach]

In America, "The Holidays" refer to the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is not PC to say "Christmas shopping". So we must say "Holiday" There was abig push to eliminate the words Merry Christmas from the retail world, as to not offend our Jewish, Muslim, etc, brothers and sisters.. There was a backlash and some retailers have used Merry Christmas in their ads and even encourage the sales people to say it.

This country, though diverse, is a Christian founded gov't and society. If I moved to a Muslim country, I would NEVER expect them to bend and change the culture to suit MY views. and they wouldn't. So MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I love to share other religous and cultural holidays and have others share in mine. That is one thing that makes the country great. we can all share and learn, but I WILL NOT hide My culture for fear of offending someone else.

My friend lives in a complex where no decorations can be visible from the outside. So the Christmas tree cannot be in the window or opposite it. That's crap!!!!!

[JillP]

Thank you, EngTeach. Of course, I was being deliberately obtuse as I do know which holiday they are referring to. We also have 'Festive Trees' and 'Festive Cake' in the stores. This is being shoved down our throats by the same P.C. brigade as in Great Britain. I come from England myself and have noticed that if someone lives in Swansea, then it is Swansea, Wales. If they live in Edinburgh, then it is Edinburgh, Scotland. But if the live in Colchester, then it is Colchester, U.K.

[jake-the-peg]

I think you're totally missing the point.

It's not fear of offending people that gets companies to talk of holidays rather than Christmas but desire for profits.

Christmas has been pretty much totally absorbed by secular culture now. I know church going's still popular in the US - I don't know about Canada but in the UK it's less than 7% of the population now.

Of course that doesn't stop us all giving presents and celebrating - fair enough it was pagan long before the Christians stole the festival.

But more and more people from other backgrounds especially Jewish seem to join in.

Maureen Lipman was on stage talking about all the Jewish women at the Kosher butchers in December saying "You know what we thought we might have turkey this week - no reason - bit of a change you know".

Anyway I think the tendency to refer to "holidays" is to try to encourage people to think of the time of year as a general festival of consumerism rather than as just a Christian festival

[jake-the-peg]

Not PC tonyted

We're just taking the mid-winter festival back off of the Christians!

Happy Holidays!