Holiday Polls and "Opining" My Gifts
By Daniel L. Bamberg
It has been a strange year here in Centreville, so Bibblogger readers can look forward to a 2010 re-cap soon. Meanwhile, we thought it would be interesting to get a real sense of our readers during the holiday season.
So we polled our readers on a few pressing holiday questions. How much Christmas shopping did you do inside of Bibb County? What are your 3 favorite spiritual Christmas songs? Then, there was the most pressing: What stirs up your bah-humbug?
Fifty-one readers proved what many already knew. There isn't a lot of holiday shopping done in Bibb County, even from its residents. Just over 27% of Bibblogger readers said they did most or all of their Christmas shopping inside the county. A staggering 54% of readers admitted to doing little to no holiday shopping inside Bibb, with 15 readers suggesting they didn't spend a dime on shopping in the county they call home. Just under 18% suggested they did about half of their shopping inside Bibb County.
Forty-one readers responded to our Christmas song poll. According to Bibblogger readers the most popular spiritual Christmas song in Bibb County is "O Holy Night." Just under 66% voted this among their 3 favorite Christmas classics. The popular "Silent Night" came in second with 53% of the vote. Rounding off Bibb County's top 3 is a tie between a classic and a more recent song. "Mary Did You Know," which was the most recently written of our 13 song list tied with the traditional "Joy to the World" with 34% of the vote. Grazing the bottom of our list was "The Twelve Days of Christmas" which earned a mere 2% of the vote. "We Three Kings" and "Angels We Have Heard On High" tied for 7%. Of the 41 voters 15% selected "other" in their top three. Unfortunately there was no way to generate a list of what unlisted songs they were fond of.
To really get to the heart of Bibblogger's readers during Christmas time we asked the tough question. What stirs one's inner Ebenezer Scrooge? What causes one to temporarily escape the joy and blessing of the holiday season? Thirty-five readers opined in this poll. Not surprisingly, nearly half of our readers are annoyed by the commercial aspect of Christmas. In fact 48% selected this pet-peeve in our poll. Meanwhile 25% of readers suggested that holiday drivers were among the most annoying aspects of the season. Twenty-percent claim that holiday shoppers are the most annoying. Though "my pathetic Christmas bonus" and "the holiday itself" were possible answers for voters to select none of our readers chose those items. Which goes to show perhaps Bibblogger's readers know a blessing when they see one and that they all love the Christmas time of year.
Being a weekly opinion columnist, I thought it might be interesting to express my own answers to these questions. Personally I have done most of my Christmas shopping in the county but more-so out of convenience than as a service to the community. Admittedly, while I support spending money within one's own home area, it is hard to do this time of year. There simply are not enough places of quality to shop within Bibb County. My hopes are that in time, Bibb will become a place that draws in tourism dollars so we the citizens can enjoy better shopping here at home.
My personal 3 favorite spiritual Christmas songs are "O Holy Night," "The Little Drummer Boy," and "Mary Did You Know." My second choice, "The Little Drummer Boy" only received 13% of the overall vote.
Finally, it would have been interesting had I allowed myself to vote on these polls myself. My bah-humbug is stirred up equally by 2 things, and it would have been impossible to choose one over the other. While the commercialism of Christmas angers the spiritual side of me, I find myself getting more red-faced over holiday drivers than anything else. There is something about this time of year, that makes everyone who purchased their driver's license on Ebay come out of the woodworks. From people in parking lots backing up without looking behind them to idiots on the road driving as if Jesus himself was born again somewhere up ahead and they have a thousand crates of frankincense and myrrh to deliver on time, I am apalled at the way people drive in the month of December.
Just two weeks ago I was nearly crushed by 4 cars (2 on each side) of me in a parking lot as I waited for an elderly lady to back out. I actually had to pull up in order to keep from being hit by one which almost caused the elderly woman to back into me. I could not believe in the distance of one car length on both sides of me that so many idiots were doing the exact same moronic practice. ALWAYS LOOK WHEN YOU BACK UP! If December is the only month you drive, please do us all a favor, take some of your Christmas money and hire an escort. You do not need to be on the roads during Christmas.
I hope you all enjoyed our polls and my extended commentary on the subjects. Have a safe and Merry Christmas!
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