Vanillaice said:
Ok. Hey, I’m all for it, I was just confused by your original post. I’ve never read that book, but I’ve met Flynn, and I doubt he’d agree much with the other stuff you had to say here. 
I didn’t even know trees had balls – let alone balls with Cecil’s photo on 'em!
majormd,I didn’t mean to imply that I was morally superior.I am not.It must have sounded that way.Sorry.Dave,Mr. Flynn would not agree with my religious beliefs,but he’s a great writer. Unlike arg,I Do read books and magazines that say Christianity is a bunch of hokum.Why not?I am open to learning.I can’t go a night without reading.I am addicted to reading(only nonfiction tho).
Vanillanice -
There is nothing wrong with your choosing to live by anything you decribed in your original post, but when the thread title is “Cancel Christmas”, I (at least) was left to conclude that you weren’t stopping with yourself & your family. That is where I got the idea you were claiming some kind of moral superiority over those who either had not read Flynn’s work, or who had read it & were not swayed by it.
Nice to know otherwise.
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html
With a nod to the truth of Christ’s birth being nowhere near December, what we do in our family is try to place emphasis on the actual meaning behind the holiday. In other words, we do the Advent wreath for four weeks prior to Christmas, and explain to the young’uns what it all means; and we don’t do Christmas carols before December 25 (properly, they should be sung betrween Dec. 25 and Jan. 6, which is the Feast of the Epiphany, when Christmas ends—Epiphany, by the way, celebrates the Visit of the Magi). As far as the Santa thing goes, we explain to the young’uns that Santa is a somewhat overblown, fictionalized, secularized version of one of our very own Catholic saints, St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra. (We tell this story on Dec. 6, which is the Feast of St. Nicholas.) Good St. Nick is the patron of children, and the bringing of gifts thing is related to the legend of Nicholas saving several girls from poverty by secretly dropping bags of gold down the chimney of their house one night. We also explain to them that the “Santa” image is more or less pagan, related more to Thor and the Yule log than St. Nicholas, and that the tree thing is also a Druidic holdover from winter solstice festivals; it’s okay to enjoy the sparkly lights, and the Rudoph cartoons, and all that, just so long as you understand that none of this really has anything to do with Christmas; this is stuff that “they” (the secular folks) have attatched to our holiday so they can sell more Furbies and have a celebration too. It’s okay, we tell the young’uns, but we make sure they know what the real meaning behind the whole works is. As for Halloween, we do an in-house party that’s kind of related to fall—the leaves, and Indian corn, and so on. If the kids want to dress up, we discourage costumes relating to the traditional “Halloween” themes; I don’t care for the Halloween emphasis on ghosts and ghouls and demons and devils and witches on broomsticks and all that jazz, so we downplay it, and under no circumstances do we “trick or treat” unless it’s uncles and aunts or grandma, because there are too many loons out there who put crap in candy to hurt kids for the sheer maliciousness of it.
Pickman’s Model:
and under no circumstances do we “trick or treat” unless it’s uncles and aunts or grandma, because there are too many loons out there who put crap in candy to hurt kids for the sheer maliciousness of it.
You want check out:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/hallowee.htm
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.htm
These may ease your mind somewhat about the prevalence of evil maniacs in our society. If those links don’t work, just go to www.snopes.simplenet.com and click on “Halloween Legends”
Last year was the first I took my son out for Halloween.He got 99 pieces on candy,but I only kept 5.He didn’t Need that much sugar,they looked wrapped safely,it was just the dressing up-going out part I wanted him to do.
What’d you do with the other 94 pieces?
I threw them away.Is that okay?
No, it’s not ok! That’s candy abuse! There are children starving in Ethiopia who would have loved to have that candy! Or the homeless in your own town. Sheesh.
