I
can't believe that we're almost finished A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S
ADVENT CALENDAR
for another year! It's crunch time now,
as Christmas Day gets closer and closer.
Any minute now, I expect Santa to finish his last minute errands before
setting out in his sleigh to deliver toys to every girl and boy in the world.
Well,
every girl and boy who happens to be on the nice list, that is.
Today
is Day #23 in the advent calendar, and I've been trying to come up with a
suitable topic that is holiday themed that I have never talked about before in
this space. You'd think that would be
easy, but I've also been doing this blog for almost five years now. I'm starting to run out of ideas.
So,
you know something? I think I'm going
to talk about another personal memory.
A memory that actually takes place at a store chain that essentially
doesn't exist any longer.
And,
I'll warn you ahead of time, Canadians will likely have a better memory of this
store than some others who may be reading this.
I
still can't believe that it has been almost three years since Zellers shut its
doors. The Canadian retailer - which
began operations in 1931 - closed up shop in March 2013 (save for two stores
which run as liquidation centres). The
stores were mostly bought up by Target in 2013, only for the Canadian portion
of the business to collapse just two years later in April 2015.
It's
really too bad that Zellers is no more.
I remember when I was a kid, I used to really love going to
Zellers. The Zellers store in my
hometown back in the 1980s was a great place to shop, and it was hard not to
love the loveable bear mascot that Zellers had representing the store.
It
was a mascot known as the Zeddy Bear.
Cute, huh?
Anyway,
right around the holiday season, I remember that Zellers would have these
special sales that would happen every weekend before Christmas. And the special thing about these sales were
that they always happened during the night hours.
They
were known as Moonlight Madness sales...and I do believe that I went to a couple
of them when I was really young. Mind
you, I don't think I remember buying anything - I think if anything, my parents
would often put me in the care of my siblings while they went Christmas
shopping for deals.
But
the Moonlight Madness sales at Zellers were quite fun. It was rather unusual to have sales start at
night - and if I remember correctly, Zellers used to close their store for two
or three hours in between the daylight hours and the nighttime hours so that
the staff could have time to set up the displays for the sale. That wasn't a whole lot of time for the
staff, and now that I work retail, I have huge appreciation for people in
retail who had to set up store displays on such short notice.
But
once the doors opened up for the sale, there were definitely a lot of things
that were available that were quite nice.
I seem to remember wanting to go to the toy department to see what they
had, hoping that Santa Claus would think I was good enough to have him bring
them to me!
Truth
be told, I really do appreciate businesses that think outside the box when it
comes to selling items. Especially
since we now live in a world where the almighty dollar seems to take precedence
over fun and enjoyment.
And
it's not right. It's just not right.
There's
no reason why Christmas shopping shouldn't be filled with fun and creativity,
right? Case in point, I have examples
of this - once again from my own childhood.
Everyone
knows that part of the fun of shopping is finding and buying that perfect gift
that will make the person getting the gift squeal in delight - kind of like
what I did the year I got Super Mario 3 for Christmas. But what if you didn't have to pay for the
gift?
And,
by that I DON'T MEAN FIVE FINGER DISCOUNTS EITHER. Stealing is wrong. Santa
doesn't like thieves.
No,
I mean entering your name into various raffles and silent auctions that were
held inside of the local shopping mall.
It was fun to enter all of these contests, trying to see what prizes you
could win. Whether it was a nice chunk
of cash, a video game console, or a Cabbage Patch Kid during the shortage of
'83, every prize guaranteed that someone would have a Merry Christmas.
I
also want to praise the church craft sales and the bake sales held at community
venues. I went to one of these last
year, and it was definitely one of the greatest places to get homemade gift
ideas for people. They had everything
from chocolate covered pretzels to hand made jams and jellies, to hand crafted
fountain pens, and even whole pieces of furniture! And in many cases, you can pay a lot less for these items than
you would at say, IKEA, Michael's, or the Real Canadian Superstore! Seriously, check out these craft fairs when
they come to town. You won't regret it,
you'll be helping local artisans continue to do business within the community,
and in some cases, the money you spend is donated to various fundraising
organizations throughout the community.
And really, isn't giving back to the community a fine way of saying
Merry Christmas?
I
also like to see businesses take part in the Angel Tree program as well. That's where they set up a tree filled with
the wish lists of kids who may be having a tough time during the Christmas
season. If a person wants to help out,
they take an ornament off the tree that has the child's age as well as what
they want for Christmas, and then they buy the item and place it underneath the
Angel Tree so that it is delivered to them on Christmas morning. I've even seen trees that have wishes from
senior citizens who may be forced to spend Christmas in a nursing home or
hospital, which I think is equally a nice idea.
I
guess what I'm trying to say is that in this...the last final stretch before
Christmas...is that Christmas shopping doesn't have to be the headache most
seem to think it is. There are lots of
ways to make the experience more fun.
Come visit Santa Claus at his village.
Stroll the streets of the town with hot chocolate in hand gazing at the
Christmas lights twinkling in the streets.
Do your shopping when the sun sets so that it will be easier (and
besides, the stores will be less crowded).
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