Perhaps I haven't noticed it in the past, but this year some stores put out Christmas decorations before Halloween. The holiday season comes earlier and earlier each year. At this point I am almost ready for it.

In the past I have been know to complain about the general bias in Hawaii during this season towards all things Christmas and the almost ignorant assumption that it holds great meaning for ALL people who live on the island. It is clearly apparent in the glaring exclusion of other celebrations in city parades, sales promotions and even school celebrations.

While my complaints are usually meant to broaden others' outlooks and perhaps enlighten those in charge so that they adopt a more inclusive approach when it comes to this season, I often end up feeling like the proverbial grinch. Not such a great feeling.

So I decided that this year I am going to try a different approach. Instead of complaining about ALL of the infractions about which I could go on and on and on, I will take time and space to commend those that are doing it right!

My first example is the United States Post Office. Kudos to them. I walked in to the Kapolei station the other day and there's a large promotion for holiday stamps. There's even a stamp for Eid which I had to look up. It is the celebration of the last day of Ramadan. This year it was on September 19.

I commend their inclusive approach and am pleased that I learned something from it too. They are an example to be followed.

Another recent experience I had was with Constant Contact. I use their e-mail program to do the newsletter for Kids Hurt Too. I was looking at templates for the November newsletter and clicked on their holiday section. Talk about inclusive. You should check it out. There was even one for Dia De Los Muertos, a hispanic holiday that my older daughter just happens to be doing a report about for her Spanish class.

I would love to include some more local examples and plan to do so as they arise. If you know of any, please share. It is in this spirit that the season will truly be meaningful.

Tags: Chanukkah, Christmas, Constant Contact, Eid, Halloween, Kids Hurt Too, Kwanza, Ramadan, USPS

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 7:12 am and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.