Christmas catalogs

I enjoy the Christmas catalogs. 2 or 3 a day from mid-October to New Years. Love Uline ULINE - Shipping Boxes, Shipping Supplies, Packaging Materials, Packing Supplies . But yesterday Signals arrived. 

I like the t-shirt, door mat and sweatshirt slogans. 

Hardware stores are my therapy.

I don't want to go through things that don't kill me but make me stronger anymore. 

Ring the doorbell and let me sing you the song of my people--the Dog.

Wallet, Glasses, Keys and Phone, Keys and Phone. (to the tune of Head, shoulders, knees and toes. 

Life Goal pet all dogs. 

Mothers of little boys work from son up to son down. 

I remember when things only cost an arm. 

I don't mind getting older but my body is taking it badly.

 

It's Christmas catalog time

This week we've been getting Christmas catalogs. They quickly go in the trash, but I did browse the Hallmark catalog. On p. 24 there was something Christian. Must have slipped past the censors. Our 21st century culture is not unlike the one into which God took on flesh and became one of us to suffer and die for us.

It almost makes me look back with nostalgia to the 60s when Christians worried about the military-industrial complex instead of the minions of Moloch pumping children full of hormones, abusing them with surgery, and selling aborted baby parts to pharmaceutical labs.

Might be a good time for Jesus to return--just saying.

2006

Her cards took a detour

When the mail arrived today I looked through it and pulled out a Christmas catalog to throw away.  But it felt a little thick, so I opened it, and inside were two cards addressed in red to two families in Pennsylvania, from a family in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, a borough in the Pittsburgh metro area with  hockey player forever stamps not cancelled.  So I figured that somehow those cards got pushed inside a catalog addressed to us along the way from Pittsburgh.  There was a return address so I sat down and wrote a note to the sender telling her that her cards had made a detour to Columbus, Ohio and I was sending them on their way.  While checking this out on the internet I learned that the woman’s father had died earlier this year of ALS, so I also included my condolences.

The Christmas catalogs keep coming

I mentioned the huge number of catalogs we've been getting. Yesterday we got "Wireless," which sells just about anything, especially t-shirts.  If you've got a train buff on your list look at VQ7722, $34.95.  Supposedly, each engine and caboose is so detailed you can identify it. Then there is "Easily manipulated by grandkids," that would work for some I know. "Prayer the world's greatest wireless connection." Some really nice long sleeve black T's with musical instruments. "World cat herding champion." "With age comes oldness." "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel." "Back in my day we had 9 planets." http://www.thewirelesscatalog.com/wireless/T-Shirts_3RA.html

 

 

Cleaning out the Christmas catalogs

I usually pitch as soon as I look at them, but a bunch have been stuffed into the corner magazine rack.  Today it’s bye bye to buy buy.  Over the years we have used Harry and David, and maybe LL Bean many years ago.  Someone has sold our name.

Frontgate (out door furniture)

Gaelsong (Celtic)

Wind and Weather (home and nature)

Plow and Hearth (décor)

Uno alla volta (one at a time) (3)

The shop Monticello (Thomas Jefferson Foundation)

Art Institute of Chicago

National Geographic (3)

Harry and David (fancy food)

Gardener’s supply company (nature)

Smithsonian (4)

Expressions (home accents)

Wine country gift baskets

Vermont country store (2)

Bas Bleu (bookseller)

Acorn

Duluth trading (men’s work clothing)

Signals

Bed and Bath

L.L. Bean (I’ve lost track—probably 10)

NorthStyle (women’s)

Hammacher Schlemmer (tech)

Bissinger’s (chocolate)

Charleston Gardens (home and garden)

Gumps San Francisco

The Winter catalogues

Oh NO! And it's 80 degrees. Talbots and L.L. Bean are already here. However, glancing through both (What? a $99 "hoodie" are you crazy?) I noticed blazers seemed to be having a comeback. So this morning, I wore my tan jeans (Lazurus, birthday 2004) and my navy linen/rayon blazer ( Chadwicks ca. 1997) with a white shirt to the coffee shop. Then I read the article in WSJ--something about a jeans jacket over a mini-dress over pants, or something. And I'd just put the 80s in the back of the closet, and here they are again. Back to the drawing board. I'll just never be a fashionista. I used to say I looked better than a lot of women who planned to go to work, but I've noticed with the down economy, people are sprucing up a bit.

Yesterday I saw a woman who appeared to be of middle eastern origin wearing bright fuscia leggings, under a shear black mini-dress with a lot of jewelry and 3" high heels. At a 3 store shopping area in Upper Arlington. Did I miss a fad while I was gone for the summer?

If your company ignores Christmas--Plow & Hearth

Dear Jim McCann, CEO and
Chris McCann, President
1-800-Flowers
Carle Place, NY

You didn't ignore Christmas! Good for you! I see that you now own Plow & Hearth. I just may send an order, because it's a neat holiday catalog, and they managed to insert the word "Christmas" into several descriptions of gifts. The word Christmas is actually on the cover of the print edition (even if it is an adjective modifying delivery) and on the verso where it appears on musical miniature music boxes. There's a tiny mention of what it's all about in "Star of Bethlehem" bulb garden on the back cover. On page 11 they also advertise that if I order a live fir sapling ($24.95), they'll send me a tree-shaped ornament engraved "Merry Christmas 2007" along with planting instructions. There are 11 pewter ornaments on this page, and for each one sold, a tree will be planted by the Canadian company that creates them. I'm guessing there are at least a few million Canadians who know the real meaning of Christmas, and perhaps next year Plow & Hearth could request a religious symbol of the infant Jesus and his mother be included along with the secular, like the baby penguin and its mother.

I wish you could have done more for the millions of Christians who might be potential customers, but so far, you are definitely winning in my Christmas Catalog competition!

In 2005, Plow & Hearth celebrated its 25th anniversary. It was sold to 1-800-Flowers in 1998. It has grown from a small country store into a multi-channel retailer, a leader in the catalog industry and the premiere source of products for the home, hearth, yard and garden. It participates in and has won awards for many state (Virginia) and local projects that help people and the environment.

Barnes & Noble
Lowe's

If your company ignores Christmas--Barnes & Noble

Carolyn Brown
Director of Corporate Communications
Barnes & Noble.com

Dear Ms. Brown,

I'm looking through your on-line holiday catalog (for something to blog about or purchase on my membership card), and I see that you ignore my holiday, Christmas. There are many items for an unspecified holiday, a winter event, a joyous memory, and a seasonal gift, but nothing about Christmas, which millions who receive your catalog celebrate every year. Can you account for this? Why should I support you if you don't support me?

Thank you,
Norma Bruce

See also letter to Lowe's

If your company ignores Christmas

don't expect my business.

Dear Melissa Birdsong,
Vice President,
Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Thank you for sending our household "Lowe's Creative ideas for Home and Garden." Winter 2007-2008. I noticed you had a lot about "holiday season," "winter season," "holiday trees," and "holiday cheer," etc. Fine, but the holiday we celebrate in this house is known as Christmas, a time when we celebrate our Savior's birth. The only nod you give to my holiday is an article about how a family can blend Hanukkah (listed first) and Christmas traditions in one unique decorating scheme where your decorators have cleverly mixed blue and green (sorry, but I missed the importance of this). And then in the next article you feature a Kwanzaa celebration. It's so little known, you actually explain what it is in a specially highlighted spot. It might have been nice if you had done the same for the Christian holiday, since it looks as though you might need to research it to learn what we celebrate.

Thanks, but no thanks. Maybe I'll stop by the store in the spring when it's time to clean up the yard, but if you don't recognize Christmas, I'll skip your promotions.

"With fiscal year 2006 sales of $46.9 billion, Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a FORTUNE® 50 company that serves approximately 13 million customers a week at more than 1,450 home improvement stores in 49 states. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe's is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world." Stock price today (Nov. 15) is $24.81.