I’ve set a new personal best: I was accused of not being in the proper “holiday spirit” the very day after Thanksgiving. Because, apparently, not understanding that spending my day fighting to get to the very last pair of designer jeans in the mall (marked down! To only $89.99!) means I’m a total jerk who drowns kittens for fun.
Being disgusted with the chaos around the shopping mall 2 blocks from my house is not being a total grinch. The flow of traffic is utterly fubar. It’s a practical issue.
Christmas isn’t for an entire month. Slow the fuck down, dickwads.
Christmas is NOT a fucking “American holiday”. It is a CHRISTIAN holiday. Hanukah is not a “Jewish Christmas”. Hanukah is, traditionally, a very minor, unimportant holiday. Not everyone celebrates Christmas - I don’t, for one. So shut the fuck up about everyone loving it. And no, I don’t celebrate Hanukah, either. You’re a jackass for assuming that.
Christmas, interestingly enough, is not about gifts. I apologize if I’m overstepping my bounds, not being Christian and all, but isn’t it supposed to be about Jesus? And if not that, at least about family and loved ones? I guess some people are just big, gaping, oozing pustules that are badly infected, so they need to buy loved ones. With gifts.
So, no, the true spirit of the holidays is not ‘giving’. It’s supposed to be RELIGION, you dickwad! You know, with Christmas being a RELIGIOUS holiday and all that? And no, you’re an ignorant fuck who’s never even been to a synagogue, so STOP TRYING TO SOUND SMART AND TALK ABOUT HANUKAH. You’re the walking defintion of ignoramus.
All is not well with the world. People are starving, people are dying, people are being abused. If you’d pull your head out of your ass and look around you, you may be able to see past the dispicable levels of advertising in our society, and see the people who could actually USE your money. You want to spread holiday cheer? Write some letters on behalf of Amnesty International. Call your senators and representatives, voice your opinion on something that matters and is going to effect you. Turn off the TV, put down your glossy fashion and entertainment mags. Read a newspaper, maybe. Do something that matters.
I’m not giving ‘presents’ this holiday. For one, I can barely afford anything. My parents and sister are getting donations in their names to non-profit organizations I know they support. One of my best friends is going to get a long, hand-written letter, because he’s been there for me through an incredible amount of shit. I don’t want to demean my closest loved ones by giving them mass-produced shit, which likely was made by slave labor in sweatshops, all outside of the US.
So, yeah. Fine. I hate Christmas music, don’t celebrate Christmas, and buy anything other than newspapers and food between now and after Christmas. If that somehow makes me a horrible person, my only response is a heart-felt ‘fuck you’. I hope a gaudy, over-decorated christmas tree falls on your head and you get pine needles in your eye, you miserable malfunction of DNA.
You are wrong. Deeply religious persons will atteste to this.
The meaning of the holidays is to screw the nearest living organism which may or may or not benifit from your purchase.
Such is the game and you should not participate if you can’t handle it.
Well, no, actually, I think that’s bullshit. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, then why the hell are you telling us who do what it’s supposed to be about? Technically your opinion’s irrelevant, because you don’t celebrate it.
Guess what? For millions of people it’s NOT religious, your claims notwithstanding. Christmas isn’t about religion in my family, not in the slightest. It’s an entirely secular holiday that centers around a big holiday meal and giving each other presents. Obviously the point is to be around family, but the identifying characteristics of the holiday are turkey and gifts. And it’s the same for a LOT of people. If you don’t like the fact that we treat Christmas as being in the spirit of giving, then screw you. If you want it to be religious go celebrate it as a religious holiday.
Sadly, you’re right. My aunt (who I despise to begin with) purports to be a very religious person who’s found Jesus and loves God. She is, in fact, the one who was slinging accusations my way of not being in the holiday spirit. Because it’s all about giving…gifts. To your family and friends. Y’know, it’s okay if you don’t care about them, but give them some plastic shit you plunked down the credit card for.
Hey, I happen to like mass-produced shit! In fact, if something is being mass-produced, that should be a clue that enough people want it that mass-production is warranted. So “mass-produced” is, by itslelf, not a bad quality for an item to have. I’m not too fond of items made in sweatshops, but most stuff isn’t.
Christmas is kind of an American holiday, though it is also a European holiday in much the same way.
IIRC, the Romans co-opted the Pagan holiday that is now Christmas, and arbitrarily (and incorrectly) decided that the 25th of December would be Jesus’ birthday in order to make it more acceptable to Christians. The thinking was that the holiday was far to rampant in the Pagan communities to allow much successful conversion of the Pagans to Christianity without it, so Christianity included Christmas to say, in effect, “come join us, you can still celebrate your cool holidays.”
To think that one must be Christian to celebrate Christmas is about as absurd a notion as one could come up with.
Someone help me out, what was the original Pagan holiday called? And am I reasonably correct on my interpretation?
I think the emphasis in this case should probably be on “shit”, and “mass-produced” would be the qualifier. Meaning something along the lines of “This object is a piece of shit, and it’s mass-produced, so there’s TONS of this shit out there. What a wonderful and precious gift for someone I love. :rolleyes:” instead of “This would make a halfway decent gift, but it’s mass-produced! I can’t give this, it’s not unique! If only it were a one of a kind!”
coughJar-Jar Binks action figurescough
On preview, the co-opted seasonal pagan holiday would be the solstice. I’ve always thought it was a pretty insidious deal myself.
Yeah, I’ve got to say my interpretation of ‘mass-produced shit’ is that she’s talking about generally valueless things (meaning-wise) that represent little more than the giver’s socitally and commercially-driven need to spend money on people, which is supposed to prove one’s feelings for them.
I agree generally with the OP. I am always surprised at how many people seem to give basically worthless, throw-away stuff.
I’m lucky I guess that my family has always seemed to do a good job of giving things that are relevant, lasting, and needed, and don’t give things that are there just for the sake of giving another ‘thing’.
I’m sure many people here fall into that category of giving as well, and I think the rant is about people who don’t.
Scuzzi? Christmas has become an entirely secular holiday, else christians wouldn’t need to remind each other about “the reason for the season”. Despite christian origins it’s an American holiday as much as Thanksgiving is - something that has transcended its origins and become something all-pervasive and entirely different. Don’t like it? Fine. But don’t spread the bizarre idea that Christmas is entirely christian.
For what it’s worth, this atheist loves christmas, as do most of the like-minded people I know.
What, people are jackasses for assuming you might have some religious reason not to celebrate an essentially secular holiday? Nice.
Wow. T’was a beautifully sanctimonious rant which followed, though I’ve cut it for brevity. For the most part it’s difficult enough for people to deal with their own lives, let alone the massive shit most of the world’s in. Most people are too busy doing what they can do to get food to their own plate and have a warm place to sleep every night. It’s not that people aren’t aware of hardship; it’s that in the face of all that shit, sometimes the extent of what you’re able to do for the world is erect a cheerful goddamned face.
It’s bullshit for you to suggest - as it seems that you are - that an excuse for people to try to act happy a month is wrong. So the fuck what if things are bad? Things are always fucking bad. Que sera, and all the fuck that. If you don’t like that somebody’s starving on the other side of the world, wait fifty years and he won’t be. But there’ll be other starving people. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
And god came down from up on high and made you the arbiter of what things are those “that matter”? What matters to me is building up a life, getting enough money together that I can give my mother a place to stay when she’s old. If I’m not out trying to change the world every goddamned day I hope holiest pricks like you can forgive me.
Who said you fucking had to? I mean, seriously - who the fuck pushed you off the wrong side of the bed onto a rusty goddamned nail, stepped through your kidney with a high-heeled boot, and ran over your dog with a tractor this morning? So you’re too fucking good for christmas? Good for fucking you.
I’m on NinjaChick’s side in this. I can totally see what she’s getting at - she’s basically saying that XMas has become so watered down with commercialism over time that the true meaning of it has become lost underneath plastic and the rustle of money. She’s saying that you don’t need to spend money in order to give something to someone. I think she’s right - some people think just from their pockets, some from their hearts and their pockets. Maybe we ought to think just from the heart for a change. Don’t come down so hard on her.
Well, what I want to know, is why anyone else feels the need to dictate what the “true meaning” of this particular occasion is to anyone else anyway.
My family isn’t Christian, but we still celebrate christmas. We all get together, have a nice meal (or 5), give each other gifts, and generally have a pretty good time.
Fuck you for thinking that the fact that we don’t pray to the little baby jesus somehow negates my family’s experience and tradition.
In fact, this is probably one of the reasons none of the people in my family is a Christian - all the judgemental crap spewed by so many people in the name of it.
