I worked retail/food service for years. Going to places on Christmas tells employers that they need to be open those days, and that their employees don't need the day off.
Frankly i find it inconsiderate to the social contract to go out on holidays, and sometimes around them.
Its frankly why i always found Black Friday and the "scope creep" of this festival of consumerism partially so repulsive. I mean its repulsive on its own just in the way people act, but doubly so in that it runs right through a national holiday.
I lost years of Thanksgivings with family due to the scope creep of black Friday. Some years family could work around it, like we would have dinner at noon so I could be at work by 6 - but even then you feel terrible for forcing that.
To be fair, not everyone celebrates Christmas. As long as employees are getting a certain number of holidays in a year for whatever tradition they follow, I think it's fine to be open on Christmas. But not to force anyone to work on Christmas, only if the business can sustain itself on non-Christmas-celebrating staff
that's fair, but my experience was unfortunately the latter. Retail was very much "we need you to work today", and any response other than "okay" was pretty much a reprimand. "Show up or don't show up again" was said to me when I wanted to have Thanksgiving with family. Now I avoid anything non-essential on holidays.
It's kind of a paradox really because people can't go to the establishments if they're not open. So how would the owners know whether or not people want to go there if they simply stay closed?
I would argue that then they should just stay closed, for their employee's sake. Even non-christian, Christmas is a national holiday, and I don't know many things that need to be open. (Hospitals and emergency unfortunately of course excluded)
Sadly I have to venture forth tomorrow or the day after for sustenance. Other than that I'm with you, people are nuts this time of year and are best avoided.
What entertainment are you enjoying? I started watching "For All Mankind" this week. So I'd like to get all caught up on that.
people are nuts this time of year and are best avoided
I think it's true because I'm in a really wealthy suburban area right now and there've been so many police sirens at night lately. Like WTF is going on? drunk drivers, car accidents, domestic violence, drug overdoses?
I think people do go nuts the week between Christmas and New Year's because all the white collar people are off work a whole week and it's party time for them
Yeah I went out, pretty much everything was open except for the street vendor I normally get my oranges from. I guess Christmas just isn't as big a deal in China as it was back home - still saw Christmas decorations at a handful of stores and restaurants - my tea said on the cup "Merry Christmas" and had an explanation of what Christmas was on the back lol
Seriously, how many of us lemmies live somewhere else? I'm in Rabat atm, there's zero assassinated pine trees covered in brightly coloured plastic shit in sight. And everything is Business As Usual here.
Did not leave the house. Did not want to give bosses that forced close to minimum wage employees incentive to continue to do so. I believe minimum wage should at least double on holidays.
I was a bartender last year. I worked every holiday. It didn't phase me because I had nothing else to do. But if I had a life I would definitely make sure I didn't work holidays one way or another, either demand it of my boss or get an entirely different job that respects humans.
Didnt leave the house today. I work retail, so Im glad to not be at work today, since were closed.
But my old man did go pick up some burgers from Jack in the Box, so apparently they were open. I hate people going out shopping on a holiday like this, as a retail worker. It means theres incentive for the companies to open during holidays, regardless of how morally correct it is. Having said that, Im thankful Jack was open, as were having a pretty rough Christmas this year, and most of my family couldnt make it due to sickness and a death. This was our Christmas dinner that my dad and I shared.
My wife and I always wake up at her parents' house on Christmas Day and head to my mom's. This year her parents had to head out early this morning, so we were on our own for breakfast, and thankfully we found a mom and pop taco place open on our way down. While I agree that everyone should have the day off, if a business wants to get that one off business and provide that service, power to them.
I did not leave the house, but I was very grateful that there was a sushi restaurant open for delivery because my SO ate all the sushi leftover from last night which I had been looking forward to sharing. Gave a big tip, of course.
I stayed at home and cooked a turkey. I know the grocery store was open till 2pm (normally closes at 10pm) because sibling worked today. I know wawa was closed, they had signs.
Husband and I stayed in all day. We watched football and played video games. I made waffles for breakfast and spaghetti for dinner. Neighbor gave us a box of chocolates so we had some of that too.
I’ve barely left the house lately, that’s a habit that very much predates the pandemic, but I’m the odd duck who is good with that.
If you want to chat - about minimizing exposure to society or anything else - @[email protected]
I’ve carefully curated a life where things come to me instead of vice versa, but we are outliers. Some people thrive this way, but certainly not everyone.
Where I'm at almost everything except truck stops, a handful of fast food joints, even fewer liquor stores are closed.
My work is an outlier as we are in grocery distribution. We do shut down for major holidays, but a day earlier. So rather than getting the 25th off, I get the 24th off. We load the groceries on the trucks Christmas night and the trucks arrive at their destination early on the 26th. And yes, we are paid well.
All the pubs where I live, I think both the petrol stations. There’s Co-Op up the road that saw a sign on saying it is open 5 til midnight “including Christmas Day”.
The airport. I try to avoid going anywhere that makes people work on Christmas when I can, but the airport is always open and we have people that helped us cash.
Xmas was yesterday now for me, but I never went outside the house. I made baklava ice cream and a green chile cheese ball, petted the dog and the cat, wished it wasn't raining so I could take a walk, and my mother bought some sugar that we needed at a pharmacy.
Ran out maybe 500 meters for beer. Otherwise, we stayed in our humble abode and ate. The holiday was the day before with family, so Christmas was the small-but-mostly-traditional Christmas dinner my wife had planned.
Open: stores whose primary business is intoxicating in some way.
Closed: most other stuff.
I overate turkey (cutlets, cause turkey is a pain in the ass when cooking for two), mashed, noodles over mashed, and green beans w/ bacon. Had a couple beers, and a damn good night of sleep.
I’m easy to please, and struggle with sleep, so the whole thing was lovely.
The previous day, we all had breakfast for dinner. I married into a pretty awesome family, but humans are still exhausting so we both wanted to take it easy on the actual day.
Back to work today, but plenty of leftovers and work is just a few steps away thankfully.