The merchants are worried that the economy is so low that there will be no purchasing of gifts etc. by the populace. Well, the 'conditioning' of the populace has been in place for a long time. this 'conditioning' takes the form of sales gimmicks that range from TV commercials and loads of advertising and flyers in the paper that make the newspaper even triple the size of the Sunday paper. Door buster low prices to get people into the stores to purchase things that they really do not need or want but feel compelled to buy because it is Christmas.
The chamber of commerce here had a gift card giveaway slated to begin at 9am when the chamber opened its doors on the Saturday just after Thanksgiving. It was a card worth $25 and to be used for the Small Business Saturday. a day in which the populace was encouraged to attend the small businesses and purchase from them. Well, many people had blown their wad on the big stores on Thanksgiving day or even the day after which has been dubbed Black Friday - the day in which the businesses are expected to make huge sales that will put their profits into the black for the year when they think they are running at a loss (in the red) for the rest of the year. I wondered how popular this Small Business Saturday would be and how this $25 gift card from the Chamber would work. An item in the newspaper on the giveaway stated that people had begun lining up at 4am in order to take advantage and by the opening of the doors at 9am hundreds of people had gathered. There were only 200 of these $25 cards available from the American Express company and this was the first year the Chamber of Commerce had participated in this program. Each member business was given a special doormat for the front of their business so that people would know that this is where they could spend the $25. So it seems that there were strings attached to the gift card but I do not know for sure. The Chamber did not forsee that hundreds of people would line up even at 4am. Their office is only small and imagine the pushing and shoving of hundreds trying to get into such a small space - how do you get in much less, how do you go against the tide so that you can get out?
There are a number of notices of church basement craft shows and bake sales, but I am not going to attend them. I am tired of the Glue Gun Queens offerings.
the Yavapai Indian Nation hosts a gingerbread house display at the Resort/Casino. We go to it every year and this year it was much smaller. we will tak-e David to see it when he comes for Christmas. We attended the light parade and that was very good. so far the cream of the crop of pre-Christmas activities has been the Walk Through Bethlehem activity that is held by the American Lutheran Church here in Prescott. We went last night and it was very moving. Upon entering the church multipurpose room, we were given a "ticket" to walk through Bethlehem. when our number was called, we gathered with other 'travelers' and greeted by a guide who walked us through the alleys of Bethlehem to follow the Star. We were accosted by beggars who asked for our coins that we received from the census taker (we gave our first names to the census taker). The Roman soldiers were rough with the beggars telling them to get moving and stop bothering people. We passed the jail where some beggars had been incarcerated and then into the next room where we saw that the Three Kings and their camel were waiting to greet us as we traveled. we progressed along our path (through specially decorated rooms to give the appearance of old town Bethlehem) and we saw shepherds (this year they did not have a real sheep with them but rather a hand puppet which had to suffice), a fishmonger, basket makers, potters, women at the well, weavers and spinners and an almost convincing Rabbi and his disciple and our guide asked each group the meaning of the Star that was shining in the sky and if they had heard of a baby being born who was proposed to be the Messiah. The Rabbi said that it would probably be just another baby because "God only knows when the Messiah will be sent to gather Israel". We were turned away at the Inn but the innkeeper and his wife gladly took our 'money' that we got at the census taker - it was a bribe to see if we could get a room at the inn - but he took the money (under false pretenses if you ask me) and our guide took us down a long hall to a room filled with angels. In years past these angels have sung "O come all ye Faithful", or "Silent Night". and one night they had a harpist playing "In Dulce Jubilo", but this year they recited a verse from the new testament. It was very moving to pass from the dark passage after the dishonest Inn Keeper, into this room filled with light and angels in white replete with wings and tinsel halo's, and then when they had finished reciting their verse, we were ushered into a stable with real donkeys and a mother and father and a real baby who was quite animated. I felt compelled to reach out and touch the 'baby Jesus', because this little baby represents all that is pure and wonderful in this world in which we live. Other years the baby representing Jesus was asleep in the manger but this little one was happy to see us. My hope is that Jesus is happy to see us trying to live as he has asked us. And so, our Christmas celebration has begun in earnest - we know that the Christ has come and that he will come again and we look forward to that, and look forward to celebrating the traditional holiday marking his birth, all over again. in 25 days time.
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