Discussion: Happy Holidays from Orienteering Canada

I'm not on holiday - but down under here in the heat we're not so painfully politically correct (in general) and still dare to say "Happy Christmas" or "Merry Christmas".

So, compliments of the season (is that PC enough for the USA / Canada?) to orienteers everywhere...

Santa in tights? Must be very warm down under. Or maybe its body paint. Better not zoom in.

Forecast 39C tomorrow on PC Holiday Day (in the 1.8M Perth anyway, don't know about the other three).

The .005M Perth just got 30 cm of snow! They are celebrating Christmas in their usual way with annual pilgrimages to Walmart to purchase gifts and gift cards followed a few days later by annual return pilgrimages to the same Walmart to exchange gifts and redeem gift cards.

not so painfully politically correct (in general) and still dare to say "Happy Christmas" or "Merry Christmas".

You forget that here in 'Merica we have an entire *season* devoted to excessive shopping and the sport of trampling people at the malls. It would be entirely inaccurate to say "Merry Christmas" when the shopping and greed season extends from Thanksgiving through to New Years, or maybe even Epiphany. It is only appropriate to give a greeting inclusive of all of these important dates on the shopping calendar.

It is pretty impressive that it took 2,000 years to establish this holiday and only 20 or so to denude it pretty well. Who says we are regressing as a society? It looks like cultural progress has accelerated beautifully.

@Tooms - I think you're barking up the wrong tree. I'm not sure that it is an issue with being PC, more an issue of it not really feeling like "Christmas" really. Still, we all appreciate how you guys in remote corners of the world like to cling to the old quaint notions of Peace and Goodwill to All Men and other cute things like that. You guys even still have the Union Jack on your flag don't you?

(Do I need to put a smiley here to indicate this is a joke? Yeah, probably. Better be safe)

;-)

Cristina - the use of the term 'Christmas' does not imply any restriction of the shopping season. In fact it's even worse here, because there isn't a Thanksgiving to stop its start from creeping forward into November (or even October).

How about Happy Yuletide?

(Newish traditions like that guy who was born in a stable and shopping for myrrh and incense hasn't really fully conquered this part of the world yet.)

The world doesn't have corners; it is round. I think they discovered that sometime after they discovered Christmas so perhaps you haven't heard yet.

Actually it does. You do speak the Queens English don't you? I picked this from the OED but I'm pretty sure any English dictionary will show that you stopped a little too soon in English class and spent too much time in Trig...

Corner:
2 a location or area, especially one regarded as secluded or remote:
fountains are discovered in quiet corners and sleepy squares

Sorry I speak 'Strayan, which is a derivation of Nu Zulander I think and I failed trigonometry (and English) so not sure how I came up with that definition.

4am Blair? You weren't trying to catch Santa in the act were you?

Might have been 4am in places where people think that daylight saving time fades the curtains and makes the cows stop milking, but it was 7 where I was.

No no, DST fades the cows and kills the mining industry.