Can't find Advent candles? WTF?
I haven't found any since I moved here, but this year I was determined. I have searched in four stores for Advent candles so far this year. At best I was met with confusion and looked at like I was an alien. There weren't even boxes of individual tapers with colors approximate enough to tolerate.
I told Cantropos about this when I picked him up for work and asked if we could look at Wal-mart on the way home. I told him about my troubles and he laughed. He'd grown up Presbyterian and had always seen them about at home and church. I didn't see an Advent wreath and candles until I was in high school or college, but I knew vaguely what Advent was. I knew what Hannukah is too.
So we looked in the Christmas section and in the regular candles but no purple or pink to be found anywhere. So on our way out we asked a lady who was stocking a section.
Us: Do you have any Advent candles in stock?
Wal-mart worker: *stares*
Us: You know 3 purple candles and a pink one for the Advent wreath.
Wal-mart worker: Is that something new?
I was angry. Cantropos was trying not to laugh at her. She sent us to the garden section where there were more Christmas goods. Nothing. There was a small section of Hannukah things. Oddly, we saw very little religious imagery at all. One light up nativity for the front lawn, a few card sets, angel tree toppers. Not much else. At Wal-mart, the bastion of "family values" where they won't carry music CDs with violent lyrics. Just goes to show that the only real value Wal-mart has is the value of profit.
I'm going to call around to the religious bookstores today and try Michaels and the pottery barn place.
And this in a world where religious snobs refuse to shop in stores that say, "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," it seems like an all or nothing mentality. I want there to be Hannukah and Kwanzaa decorations to be had, but I still want to find my Advent candles and little mangers to put under the tree. The post office had holiday stamps for sale (I passed on them because I'll probably be using these stamps until next July), and the prettiest ones were for a Muslim holiday. All gold lettering vaguely shaped like a tree. Since when is selling Christmas as anything but Santa Claus and reindeeer and Frosty the Snowman become popular?
I don't get it.
I told Cantropos about this when I picked him up for work and asked if we could look at Wal-mart on the way home. I told him about my troubles and he laughed. He'd grown up Presbyterian and had always seen them about at home and church. I didn't see an Advent wreath and candles until I was in high school or college, but I knew vaguely what Advent was. I knew what Hannukah is too.
So we looked in the Christmas section and in the regular candles but no purple or pink to be found anywhere. So on our way out we asked a lady who was stocking a section.
Us: Do you have any Advent candles in stock?
Wal-mart worker: *stares*
Us: You know 3 purple candles and a pink one for the Advent wreath.
Wal-mart worker: Is that something new?
I was angry. Cantropos was trying not to laugh at her. She sent us to the garden section where there were more Christmas goods. Nothing. There was a small section of Hannukah things. Oddly, we saw very little religious imagery at all. One light up nativity for the front lawn, a few card sets, angel tree toppers. Not much else. At Wal-mart, the bastion of "family values" where they won't carry music CDs with violent lyrics. Just goes to show that the only real value Wal-mart has is the value of profit.
I'm going to call around to the religious bookstores today and try Michaels and the pottery barn place.
And this in a world where religious snobs refuse to shop in stores that say, "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," it seems like an all or nothing mentality. I want there to be Hannukah and Kwanzaa decorations to be had, but I still want to find my Advent candles and little mangers to put under the tree. The post office had holiday stamps for sale (I passed on them because I'll probably be using these stamps until next July), and the prettiest ones were for a Muslim holiday. All gold lettering vaguely shaped like a tree. Since when is selling Christmas as anything but Santa Claus and reindeeer and Frosty the Snowman become popular?
I don't get it.