I was born and raised in Hawaii where retailers live and die by the tourist dollar. As such, on Christmas and New Year’s it’s business as usual across the island chain. All of the local McDonald’s are open and ready to super-size your Big Mac meal on Jesus’ birthday, and if Santa forgot to include batteries with your son’s new remote control snake, don’t fret, you can run over to Wal-Mart to get your AA fix.
Such is not the case in the relatively small Northern Wisconsin town which I currently reside. In fact, during the first Thanksgiving I spent in this particular town I was shocked to pull into McDonald’s to find that it was closed. I had just completed the morning shift at the local TV news station where I was employed and had hoped to grab an Egg McMuffin before heading home to cook my own bird. No luck. I figured if I had to work Thanksgiving morning, surely others would be trying to make a buck as well. Ah, sweet, ignorant youth.
This year along with movie theaters and a few convenience stores, Starbucks swung open its doors on Christmas. The news was nothing short of a Christmas miracle for caffeine fans who can’t stand their in-law’s percolated version of Joe.
If you ventured out to the world-famous coffeehouse Christmas morning you might have smiled at some of the hilarious holiday quotes posted near the entrance, including:
Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money. Author unknown
Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year. P.J. O’Rourke
Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money. Author unknown
There are three stages of a man’s life: he believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus. Author unknown
He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. Roy L. Smith
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