It's Called CHRISTMAS

It's happened again, another establishment is avoiding using the word "Christmas." I'm sad to relate that it is a company I worked many years for and was never afraid of using the word, Christmas. They would plan for the busiest time of the year, the Christmas season, where people would mail Christmas cards and Christmas gifts. They would put on more people to work just to handle the Christmas rush. Mailmen (oops, sorry) mailpersons would look forward to the Christmas season because that's when they would work overtime delivering Christmas cards and this is when many would receive Christmas gifts from the customers on their route. Christmas was also the only day of the year in which if you were forced to work had it's own special compensation.


Today I visited a local Post Office and waited in line that was busy with people mailing Christmas gifts. As I waited I looked around and didn't see much in the way of decorations. The Post Offices that I worked in the past would be decorated. One office I was in the Postmaster would come in on his day off, Sunday, and bring his family just to decorate. It became a yearly ritual where many employees would join in and help, One office had a large sign with words Merry Christmas in a variety of languages. In another office there was a tradition where a group of mailmen after finishing their routes would get together and sing Christmas carols in the Post Office lobby each afternoon.


Way back when the Post Office started to appease people that had a hard time with the word Christmas so they started to issue two sets of stamps, religious and non-religious. I never realized that it would reach the point where it's at now. So when I approached the counter and asked the clerk for 30 Christmas stamps, he nonchalantly said that he had none. I found this rather odd since I remember that one thing that I had an abundance of during this time of the year when I worked the customer service window was plenty of Christmas stamps. It was cold and I didn't feel like going to another office and wait some more time in line so I asked if he had any commemorative stamps, and he started to bring out a series on nonsensical stamps like the Simpsons. At that point he turned to the clerk next to him and asked if she had any 'celebration' stamps. I was hoping she would say yes but she also didn't have any. I had asked for Christmas stamps and he in turn was calling them 'celebration' stamps. He finally took out some Mother Teresa stamps and I bought those.


On my way out and home I couldn't help but think of how that clerk avoided using the word Christmas and why he didn't have Christmas stamps. When I got home I went on the USPS web site to see the selection of stamps that were printed for Christmas. I found seven with only one having the word Christmas associated with it and that was the Madonna and Sleeping Child stamp. The others were, An Angel with Lute stamp , a Hanukkah stamp, and EID stamp (for the Muslim holidays), a Kwanzaa stamp, a Winter Holidays stamp, and a Holiday Evergreens stamp. Nowhere on the site did I see them described as 'celebration' stamps.


What's happening to this country? Here is a company who at one time if memory serves me right used a slogan similar to "From the people who bring you Christmas," is now doing it's best to avoid using the word Christmas, in fact it is running away from it.


My sentiments are expressed in the following song: