We are already starting to to get deliveries of Christmas merchandise at my store. Directly after Halloween, just about all retailers will go into a FULL OUT Christmas merchandising mode. As you can imagine, it’s what we call our “Bread and Butter” time of the year. The Christmas selling season can make or break a retailer.

I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year owing to my new and improved work schedule. In past years, as a Store Manager, the season meant 60 hour work weeks and the pressure from the top to do “More With Less”. This will be the first time since I was a teenager that I’ll plug along only having to work 30 hours, and having 3 days off per week!

I want to go to the Octoberfest this year, the Renaissance fair, take the boys to a corn maze, the pumpkin patch, sledding, have a few snowball fights, and build snowmen. I want the boys to be able to come in from a stupendous day of fun in the snow to a warm fire, a hot cup of cocoa and the smell of wonderful food in the air. These are the things they will remember about their childhood. I want to be able to drive the boys through town during the evening to see all the wonderful Christmas lights, nativities, and decorations the residents and town have put in place. The stores will be full of awesome displays of toys and food, the Salvation Army bell ringer will be in front of the grocery store and the spirit of Christmas will be in the air.

Sadly, I think this might become a thing of the past. Every year I watch the news and I hear stories of the A.C.L.U. trying to remove all traces of Christianity from our society. We of course have the Pledge of Allegiance issue, the wording of our currency, Ten Commandments in Courthouses, etc… But it seems they especially go on the warpath at Christmas time trying to eliminate Christian Floats from parades, Nativities from public squares and they don’t want anything labeled Christmas. A Christmas parade must be renamed “The March of Good Will” and such nonsense as that.

Hello folks? It’s CHRISTmas that we are celebrating here! If you take away the premise of the festivities, what the heck are we running around being all joyous about?