When I was in high school, I worked at a grocery store. When I started, the store closed at noon the day before Christmas. It felt reasonable to work a half day and then have both Christmas Eve and Christmas off. The next year, we were open until four. I was able to make it to Christmas Eve family events, but it was a little more stressful. The third year, we were open until six. This time, I missed the Christmas Eve dinner. In my final year at the grocery store, we closed "early" at nine o'clock.
I missed everything, except the candlelight vigil.
I wouldn't mind the notion of a store being open if there were only a few employees and the shoppers were all agnostic or Jewish or Hindu or Muslim. However, that's not typically who shopped the night before Christmas. Typically, it was a frantic, irritated, can't-you-get-us-through-this-goddam-line-because-I-have-a-ham-to-cook shoppers. They would rush through, complain about a price check and end with a pleasant "Merry Christmas."
Sometimes shoppers would say, "Well, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve," and I always wanted to respond with, "Yep. Thanks to you, I won't be celebrating it this year." Or they would complain about how stressful it was and I wanted to say, "You know what's stressful? Listening to Bing Crosby belt out songs about snow while every part of me wants to share a meal with the ones I love."
Ideally, it wouldn't be such a bad thing to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Stores would pay overtime and get enough volunteers to fill the positions. The problem is that time and a half isn't enough to sacrifice time with one's family. Survey a store and you'll find that most employees want Christmas Eve off. There simply aren't enough Jehovah's Witnesses to cover every job.
I get it. You need a few last minute purchases for a perfect Christmas. But every time you participate in commerce on Christmas Eve, you are ruining someone else's Christmas. Look, your Jell-O salad can go without the Cool Whip. Your salad can go without the toasted almonds. You can wrap that last present in old newspaper. And I promise this: Christmas will go on without those purchases.
Ultimately, it's a free market problem that requires a free market solution. Boycott shopping on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Don't go to a movie tomorrow and rent a DVD instead. I promise that the movie you want to see in the theater will be around on the twenty-sixth. If you need escapist entertainment on Christmas, escape to a book, take a nap or better yet, learn to relate to your family. Don't go to the grocery store tonight or tomorrow. Make your last-minute purchases a few more minutes in advance. Don't go out to eat. Make a meal. That's why your living space has a kitchen. Brew your own cup of coffee.
Boycott commerce for one and a half days. Ultimately, that's the only way that workers will get a chance to experience the holiday.
When I worked at Mazzios we had to choose to either work on Thanksgiving or Christmas. We were always pretty busy on Thanksgiving (I guess not everyone likes turkey or ham) but never busy on Christmas. I can only remember one old couple that came in every year on Christmas day to eat. I do remember how they were always so grateful that we were open (apparently we were the only ones) and how their attitude assuaged my irritation. I don't remember exactly why they came every year although I am left with the impression that it was part of his present to her so she would not have to make a meal.
Although I didn't like working on Christmas or Thanksgiving it was a very real reminder that as a Christian I am supposed to be a servant. While serving a corporation may not be what Jesus had in mind, I suspect he would have not been unhappy about us serving that couple on his birthday.
I appreciate the perspective you bring to this. You're right. It can be a chance to be a servant. But I also think that the proper response from everyone else needs to be boycotting on the holidays.
Good morning!
Einstein said, or so I gather from the Google, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
The free market creates a lot of problems that the free market has no means (nor desire) to correct. I realize that "free market" is a nebulous concept, but ultimately it comes down to this--if you want to live in a culture worth living in, live as though that culture exists.
I used to work a lot on holidays--I was a pediatrician, and kids get sick. My family gave up a lot. I'm still not sure it was worth it, as valuable as I may once have been in a hospital.
So I tip my hat to the firefighters, the police, the nurses and custodians and docs and line workers and everyone else holding up the infrastructure as the wealthy stagger around drunk singing of love and mercy.
I wouldn't trust the free marker, whatever that is, to fix anything. I've spent too many midnights tending to babies harmed by that very same concept.
I can see where some people have to work out of necessity. People need pediatricians. They need cops and firefighters and I tip my hat to those folks. But people don't need a movie. They don't need a plate of lasagna. They don't need that bucket of Cool Whip. Perhaps it's a condition of the society we live in right now that we struggle (or simply refuse) to differentiate between a need and a want.
We traveled on Thanksgiving to my in-laws where we always stay at a hotel. Before we left my girls decorated little cards thanking people for being there for us on the holiday weekend. We talked about how much it stinks to have to work and not be with your family and how grateful we were for those folks. On Thanksgiving we only went to the hotel and gave cards to the people there. But my girls kept giving out the cards all weekend when we went out to eat or to a movie. When we checked out of the hotel it was the same ladies working who had checked us in. They went on and on to our girls about the cards. I hope we made some days a little brighter and gave our daughters a better sense of other people's lives.
Jenny, that's a wonderful gesture, one that your little girls will likely benefit from and remember for a VERY long time. Our ladies group at church makes care packages to take to care-facility workers on holidays to thank them for giving up their family time to care for others.
I totally agree about the stores and restaurants. The CEO of Chick Fil A has it right by closing down on Sundays so that his employees can enjoy family time. We need more people of character like that!
I do not celebrate Christmas and do need to go to the supermarket today or tomorrow to prepare for 15 of my family who are coming to celebrate Hanukkah on Monday. I am aware that many more people celebrate Christmas, however there are many people who don't. Does this mean that all of us who adhere to different faiths should have to account for a holiday that doesn't affect us? We are already inundated by the ubiquity of the holiday with only token references to our own (and only as a response to how commercialized Christmas is). Don't think I am a humbug. I am grateful for the people who work on the holidays but I also know it is the nature of working in certain types of industry that you will need to work on certain holidays. The best we can do for them is make their day as pleasant as possible.
I see your point about your faith. I totally get it. And if there's anyone who has a right to go to the store, it's you. However, if the only people who went the grocery store were those of other faiths, this would be a non-issue. Stores would have enough workers to fill in the gaps. My point (and I didn't make it well) is that those who celebrate a holiday should get the day off. In the same way, someone who wants to celebrate Yom Kippur or Purim should get the day off as well. It should be a right in this country - and one that trumps capitalism.
I'm not Christian, either, but I hope John's message reaches lots of Christians. Many folks are not really identified with a religion. It would be great if they stayed away from stores today and tomorrow too.
We were going to head to the grocery store. Maybe we don't have to. It's run by Muslims, though, so perhaps they don't mind working today. Hmm...
I love your cards, Jenny!
Gee, now I feel guilty for running out to get bagels and a loaf of bread at 9:00 this morning. Thanks a LOT!!!
I see your point, though, and I remember working popular holidays and not being able to partake in festivities (in my case it was a summer job and it was always the 4th of July), so I know how tough it can be to shuffle around the day when everyone is off. But I remember those holidays being both a financial and social boon to us workers because not only did we get paid double time (I worked for the state parks department back then), but we had a "brothers in arms" sort of attitude with one another. You know, like we made it through working this day and we've bonded.
I know, that sounds silly. But sometimes you find a holiday moment in the oddest places.
Merry Christmas.
Sorry for the two posts; My son banged the keyboard and published the post before I was finished :/
I'm a little disappointed about how narrow this post is and would like to offer an alternative view.
Both of my parents are nurses. They work weird shifts and sporadic schedules and always offer to work holidays...not because they don't want to spend it with family, but because my whole extended family (all 50 of us) has agreed that it is less stressful to celebrate on a day near the holiday that works best for everyone. For example, Thanksgiving is always celebrated the Saturday after and this year we will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow; on the 26th. Because of this tradition, when my sisters and I were in college and working customer service positions we also volunteered to work on holidays for the very same reason.
Holidays are what you make of them, and Christmas especially is about the spirit of the season rather than about the importance of gorging yourself specifically on December 25th. This has nothing to do with faith. Yes, you may want to go to midnight mass, or the sunrise service when Easter Rolls around. So take a few hours off and agree to work the rest of the holiday. A little forethought on the part of an employee goes a long way, especially when it comes in the form of "I would love to work Thanksgiving and Christmas if I can have New Years Eve off". Faith is not about NOT working, faith is about celebrating the birth of Christ. And saying that working on the 25th is disallowing you from celebrating the greatest gift ever given to man is completely missing the point.
I think it would be more important to suggest that if you DO shop on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day, or any other holiday, that you remember to be nice to the people who have made their lives around being there for you...just like you would if it wasn't a holiday.