A quick observation…I just got done reading the December issue of MR and there’s no holiday wishes, but a full page thank-you ad for their 75th Anniversary. I’ve never seen them miss a holiday wish page…
Have we gone “Bah, humbug” this year?
Have not gotten mine yet. Will have to go pick one up at LHS and check out.
Jeff
Since we get the “December” issue in late October or very early November, maybe the January issue will be Merry Christmas - or Seasons Greetings for the politically correct nerds!![:-,]
I HOPE we’re not getting PC about December, LOL! But when I get my December issue of MR–or any other monthly magazine for that matter-- the day before Halloween, my interpretation is that we’re not really ‘with’ the Holiday Season yet. I mean, here in the US, we’ve still got practically a MONTH before Thanksgiving (which seems to have become the ‘lost’ holiday in the past several years due to Revisionist HIstory about the Pilgrims) and I don’t even start thinking about Christmas until I start practicing my Advent music for weekend masses, LOL! Guess I’m just old-fashioned, but I always remember the Christmas season starting the Friday after Thansgiving, not the day before Halloween.
Hopefully, the January issue will have more Season’s Greetings in them, since monthly magazines–and MR is not the only one–always arrive at LEAST a month earlier than you expect.
Besides, my Christmas Present to myself isn’t scheduled to hit my LHS until January. Oh, well–
Tom [:P]
Perhaps the only Holiday wishes that are needed are of good health, good company, and to be wishing our members in the armed services a safe holiday while they are serving their country.
Just some food for thought…
Hopefully they will include it in the January issue. It’s still kind of early, even though the December issue just hit the streets.
Ugh, it’s bad enough the stores have had Christmas stuff out for a few weeks, but today on the radio, I heard an actual, bona-fide Christmas song. Not a “holiday” song, mind you - an actual Christmas song, with the word “Christmas” in the title and repeatedly throughout the song itself… Again, I heard that on the radio today, as in November 1 - the day after Halloween. (~shudder~)
If the “Nerds” can’t say “Merry Christmas”, then they have no bussiness celebrating the Holiday!!!
Dick
Texas Chief
I’ll second that one…I can’t even mention the word Christmas until then.
Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ - not gift giving and sales at the stores!!! Wish everyone well, but with the whole sentiment!!! I’ll go as far as to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!![:)]
And the same to one and all from our house to yours. Maybe we could keep this thread up throughout the holidays, seeing that the staff is so “holiday challenged”…LOL
Perhaps someone at MR …just forgot.
I would point out that, regardless of the date the magazine reaches the stands, I can not recall any sort of Christmas greeting ever being included in a January issue of MR. If it ain’t in the December issue, don’t expect to see their classic greeting card page this year.
Incidentally, this year’s copy of the magazine appears to be the smallest December issue, by page count (and modeling content), since the early 1970’s! How many remember when the December issue of MR was a virtual wishbook for hobbyists? And is anyone here old enough to recall their original Pine Tree Central project layout, MR’s very first (Dec. '52)?
CNJ831
It did seem to be just a little spare this year!
Too many people are becoming “politically correct” and are afraid to say anything out of fear of being accused of racial or religious bias. So they have just decided to keep their mouth shut and say nothing.
Last year, Wal-mart even banned Salvation Army bell ringers.
This year I have noticed that MRR is getting later and later in delivery and yes the magazine is getting less and less pages. Of course I understand that a huge amount of MRR is now on these pages on the excellent website. But, I do miss the big, many pages magazine I used to get a few years back. No season’s greetings? Not surprised really.
Anyway, for all you out there, have good holiday (even though it’s over seven weeks away!)
The last two Walthers fliers have already been filled with “holiday” stuff - lots more toy trains, Thomas, race cars and even those completely non-train-related powered tops. (See! You don’t even need kids! These toys play by themselves!)
As I recall, last year one or two of our Boston-area radio stations switched over from their “Oldies” formats to All Christmas, All The Freakin’ Time format. Since they won’t play anything even vaguely religious, their playlist is severely limited. And they did this very early in November, so they were subjecting their listeners to 2 months of Burl Ives singing “Holly Jolly Christmas” ad infinitum. I wonder if they’ll delay the start of the Christmas season until after the election, for fear that it might appear as an endorsement of one candidate or the other. (Hi - I’m Rudolph, and I approve this message.)
I’m not putting Santa back on my layout until December.
I take issue with self righteous people who label common decency as “political correctness”.
Believe it or not, some people celebrate different holidays than you do, and some of them fall at a similar time of year.So can’t we spend just one December holiday season without some Christian starting a holy war over which greeting should be mandated?
It all goes back to the Solstice, as the ancients watched the days get shorter and shorter, always fearing that the shortening of days would just keep on going until eternal night fell on their world. It’s no co-incidence that most of the world’s religions have some sort of “birth” event around the end of December.
I’ll say “Merry Christmas” to anyone. It’s a greeting given freely to all, regardless of creed, in the spirit of the holiday I grew up celebrating. If I get a Happy Chanukkah in return, or a Cheerful Kwanzaa or a Righteous Ramadan, that’s fine with me.
As Model Railroaders, of course, we celebrate this season as Layout Time, when the cold, bleak weather drives us into our basements. With the spring in a few months, we’ll once again greet the sun, pale and ghostly visages of the people who descended the stairs months before. We celebrate the holiday with the tradition of trains around a tree.
This would be a better world if we all had the serenity of MrB.
Mr. B–
Hence, our Germanic tradition of the Christmas Tree–a carryover from when Wotan threatened to eat the sun completely, so we’d run out and put tallow candles in all of our evergreens just in case it went dark forever.
And probably the Celtic Yule Log, also.
Amazing how many ‘pagan’ celebrations–including the Roman ‘Saturanalia’ have made it into our Holiday Season. Who says we’re not inclusive, LOL?
I like your attitude. [bow]
Tom [:)]