Christmas in Remembrance Week

I received the below text as a forward from my father. I hadn't really thought about it before, but now that i have I find it extremely disrespectful. Please read the following, and think hard about what retailers are doing. You don't have to agree with every mission our military goes on, but please keep in mind, without them we wouldn't have many of the things we do now.

Sir,

Please note, today is November 8, 2008, three days before Remembrance Day. We call it Remembrance Week.

As you may know, I sent the embedded email below to a major retailer last year.

“I walked into a major retail store tonight and found it festooned with Christmas decorations. I felt all the golds and reds and greens diminished the blood red of my poppy.

I said to the teller, "I realize it is a corporate decision, but I think you should hold off on Christmas until after Remembrance Day." She expressed equal dismay at the display. I went home, found the retailer’s website and sent them the email below.

Dear retailer,

It is 6 days before Remembrance Day. I will spend those days teaching my students the meaning of sacrifice, honour and grace.

You will be making a buck.

WW1 - 66000 dead for you,

WW2 - 45000 dead for you,

Korea - 516 dead for you,

Peacekeeping - 119 dead for you,

Afghanistan - 71 dead for you.

Could you not grant us the dignity of holding off on your Christmas Decorations until Nov. 12?

Those 71 men and women will not be shopping this year.

I don't want to punish retailers. I'm just disappointed. I've never taken such action before, but I'm sharing this with everyone on my list. Perhaps it could become a movement.”

The only reply I received was:

"Thank you for your e-mail.

A Customer Service Representative will respond to your e-mail as soon as possible.

Customer Service"

No further contact was ever made.

With the lack of follow up, I forwarded my email with the accompanying remarks to my entire list of correspondents. As it turned out, the email circulated the country and was duplicated to a number of retailers.

Nov 8 2008

I bought another poppy last night from an 86 year old veteran, standing in the cold outside the door of a store. I also attended a school Remembrance service yesterday, where another elderly gentleman, who was accompanied by his attendant from a nursing home, wept openly in great heaving sobs as we read the Honour Roll.

This year I am again offended. I should note those same stores are again decorated early, as are a large number of others. This is a tough year for retailers. It was tougher for the 27 families who have lost sons, husbands and fathers since our last Remembrance Day. TV stations that provide poignant Remembrance Week programming, bracket it with Christmas Parade advertising. I looked farther and realized municipal decorations are up, and private homes are also ablaze with Christmas wreaths, trees and lights, and it’s only early November, It seems that all that has changed since last year, is the count of dead Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, which is now up to 97.

I’ve realized this is not an issue with retailers, but a cultural feature. We get our lights up early to avoid the cold. We start buying earlier to spread out the cost, and retailers are merely reacting to compete for those dollars. I don’t mind unlit early strings of lights, or Christmas stock on shelves. I just don’t want our attention diverted for a scant few days with blazing lights, inane seasonal music and needless glitter.

Let a poppy in the window be our symbol for the first 10 days of November. This can’t be legislated nor imposed. It must be heartfelt.

Do you feel perhaps, we could make it a national tradition to delay plunging into the orgy of Christmas consumerism until after we have paid respect to our fallen on November 11? Can we give less?

Bruce Davidson CD

Chatham ON

Now I'm not one to normally forward random emails i get from people, but this really struck a chord with me. I don't care if Bruce Davidson is a real person or if he actually wrote those emails to the retailers. The fact is, Christmas items started showing up before Halloween. I for one, would support legislation banning the retailer Christmas extravaganza before November 12th. Show some respect people.