- NEW YORK (CBS) -- One of
the ways we divide our year is with holidays. The Fourth of July is the
beginning of summer. Labor Day is the beginning of a new year. New Year's
Day isn't really the beginning of anything except a new calendar.
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- Thanksgiving is our most American holiday and it's good
because we don't have to DO anything on Thanksgiving except maybe eat turkey
and watch football. That's why I object to the way it's being squeezed
out by Christmas. The trouble is, there's no money in Thanksgiving for
businesses. People trying to sell things want to skip right over it and
get to Christmas.
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- Christmas is far and away the most commercial holiday
we have. Some stores do 30 percent of their whole year's business in the
period before Christmas. That's why they try to make it last a long time
by starting it earlier every year.
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- Here it is four days before Thanksgiving and the stores
are already all about Christmas. The big department stores have their Christmas
windows fixed up. They're good to look at, but they're too soon, that's
all. It ought to be against the law to start Christmas before December.
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- In the malls, some stores have had their Christmas decorations
up since October. Kids are sitting on Santa Claus' lap telling him what
they want before their parents know where they're going to get the money
to pay for it.
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- In New York City, they put up the tree in Rockefeller
Center ten days ago - 41 days before Christmas.
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- The Salvation Army already has its bell ringers on the
streets, looking for Christmas donations.
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- Everyone is trying to make whatever they have to sell
seem like a Christmas present. Shoes are not a Christmas present at any
time of year. On television, there are unlikely Christmas gifts. How would
you like a bottle of Pepto Bismol for Christmas?
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- For the past six weeks, we've been getting magazines
with special Christmas or "holiday" subscription offers. When
you open a magazine, these holiday flyers fall out like confetti. In advertising,
"holiday" is the new, religiously correct name for Christmas.
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- I like Christmas presents, Christmas music, Christmas
trees, Christmas cards. I like the Christmas spirit. What I don't like
is the way people whose only interest in Christmas is money have moved
in on a nice, non-commercial holiday as Thanksgiving.
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- Written By Andy Rooney © MMII CBS Worldwide Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
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- http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/22/60minutes/rooney/main530555.shtml
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