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canie: The US has exported the idea of Christmas to most parts of the world, way before black friday and halloween.
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toxicTom: For once the US is not to blame... The idea had been exported before, with fire and sword no less...
Christianity ≠ Christmas. ;)
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firstpastthepost: They're a worldwide store and not everyone celebrates Christmas.... that would be my guess. Kind of the same reason they would have a summer sale not a 4th of July sale, cause it's only applicable to one market segment instead of the entire market.

My guess is that it's calculated to be as generic as possible from a marketing perspective.
And yet that doesn't stop GOG from using Halloween themes in autumn sale.
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SirPrimalform: I reject the notion that Winter starts in December any. The Winter Solstice (i.e. midwinter) is the 22nd of December, so to my mind winter is well underway in the northern hemisphere already.
The solstice is not remotely "midwinter", since there is still January, February, and March left to go, which are far more wintery than most of December.
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eric5h5: The solstice is not remotely "midwinter", since there is still January, February, and March left to go, which are far more wintery than most of December.
And yet the term midwinter refers to the solstice, I'm not the one who decided this. I also find the idea that March is more wintery than December kind of bizarre.
Post edited December 13, 2019 by SirPrimalform
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SirPrimalform: And yet the term midwinter refers to the solstice, I'm not the one who decided this. I also find the idea that March is more wintery than December kind of bizarre.
And yet December 22 is the official start of winter, and I'm not the one who decided that either. In March I'm typically shoveling through feet of snow, and currently there's barely even any frost on the ground. So yeah.
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eric5h5: And yet December 22 is the official start of winter, and I'm not the one who decided that either. In March I'm typically shoveling through feet of snow, and currently there's barely even any frost on the ground. So yeah.
Official by who?

I'm beginning to think this is one of those things like "football", imperial units and skipping u from the spelling of words that make the US different from the entire rest of the world, while they think everyone is like that.
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firstpastthepost: They're a worldwide store and not everyone celebrates Christmas.... that would be my guess. Kind of the same reason they would have a summer sale not a 4th of July sale, cause it's only applicable to one market segment instead of the entire market.

My guess is that it's calculated to be as generic as possible from a marketing perspective.
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LootHunter: And yet that doesn't stop GOG from using Halloween themes in autumn sale.
That's fair.... the only explanation I can think of is that there is a wide genre of games that fit really well with that holiday, being horror themed games. The same can't be said for Christmas... but that criticism is fair.
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eric5h5: And yet December 22 is the official start of winter, and I'm not the one who decided that either. In March I'm typically shoveling through feet of snow, and currently there's barely even any frost on the ground. So yeah.
That is but one of many definitions, my whole point was that that was a particularly weird one of them.
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SirPrimalform: And yet the term midwinter refers to the solstice, I'm not the one who decided this. I also find the idea that March is more wintery than December kind of bizarre.
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eric5h5: And yet December 22 is the official start of winter, and I'm not the one who decided that either. In March I'm typically shoveling through feet of snow, and currently there's barely even any frost on the ground. So yeah.
I've honestly never heard of December 22 being the official start of winter. Is that a regional thing? In my neck of the woods winter is generally considered to start at the end of November, and in the far north, they talk about mid October as the start of winter.
Turns out the official beginning of seasons depends on the definition you use and where you live:
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/aboutseasons.html
Post edited December 13, 2019 by ConsulCaesar
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AFnord: I've honestly never heard of December 22 being the official start of winter. Is that a regional thing? In my neck of the woods winter is generally considered to start at the end of November, and in the far north, they talk about mid October as the start of winter.
I don't think it's regional; it's definitely widespread. (Although apparently December 21 is the solstice this year? My calendar says 22.)
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AFnord: I've honestly never heard of December 22 being the official start of winter. Is that a regional thing? In my neck of the woods winter is generally considered to start at the end of November, and in the far north, they talk about mid October as the start of winter.
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eric5h5: I don't think it's regional; it's definitely widespread. (Although apparently December 21 is the solstice this year? My calendar says 22.)
It at the very least does not apply in my region. I looked it up, and winter has many regional defintiions, and the further to the north you live, the earlier it tends to begin. But "officially" here, it seems like the first of December is the start of winter, and the end of February is the end.
Are you really going to argue with the Old Farmer's Almanac? ;)
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eric5h5: Are you really going to argue with the Old Farmer's Almanac? ;)
Yes, if it claims that there are no reglional differences in defintions, I will :P

I had never heard of Old Farmer's Almanac before, but it seems to be a US thing that does not apply internationally
Post edited December 13, 2019 by AFnord
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richlind33: Should the natives be thanking the gods of globalism for obviating Eurocentrism? o.O
Cool. "to obviate"... didn't know that word before. :-)
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HunchBluntley: Christianity ≠ Christmas. ;)
Yeah well, the feast itself is way older, and the church has had it's difficulty embracing it for a few hundred years. But then pragmatism won.
Post edited December 13, 2019 by toxicTom