I’m thinking of how much fun it was to put the tree decorations on with my 3yr old. How fun it is to remember all the different ornaments with my wife and where we got them. I was thinking how excited she will be when she comes down on Christmas and sees all the presents under the tree. I was thinking how it will be nice to have the family together, big meal, gifts, all of it.
I’m thinking anyone who doesn’t celebrate christmas because of some high ideal of not wanting to succumb to someone else’s religion is full of shit. Everything is what you make of it to be, not what someone tells you it should be. Christmas is about family, friends, and showing your appreciation for them, at least IMHO. If you have a deep religious belief and don’t celebrate the day, that’s fine. If you just want to spout nonsense about being an atheist and not bowing to religion, your full of crap. Your just a Grinch and you could probably use some joyful celebration!!
Hold the phone there, Father Dob. Why is being an atheist nonsense? And why is not wanting to bow to someone else’s religion full of crap?
I’m an atheist. I’m not a Grinch, although I wouldn’t say I celebrate Christmas as much as I tolerate it. I like getting together with my family and buying shit for each other, but you’re not going to get me to celebrate the birth of your Christ for all the shekels in Jerusalem.
I think he meant that not celebrating because we’re atheists is nonsense.
Before I got married I never celebrated Christmas (which we do purely secularly) because, being atheist and Jewish, my family didn’t either. But I was not going to try to disrupt the traditions of my wife and her family. This was easier since my father-in-law is an atheist also, so there was nothing offensive about their celebration. I enjoy it because it is fun, and we get to give our kids stuff.
However, I reserve the right to roll my eyes every time I have to listen to a niece or two thank “God and his son Jesus” before I tuck into the Christmas turkey.
They are not in the slightest bit worried about that. They are worried about change (which upsets people) and (amongst activist Christians) losing control of culture to non-Christians.
I know people who are, or have been concerned about the ‘war on Christmas’ - they perceive it as being waged by shadowy conspiracies bent upon schemes of subtle persecution.
It really is not much more than a persecution complex, however, it isn’t necessarily always a delusion formed by the person suffering it - more often, it’s because they have uncritically accepted the content of a chain email, a newspaper article (especially this), or some bit of gossip.
Here’s one I received by email a week or two ago:
These things nearly always consist of a tiny kernel of verifiable truth, wrapped in an enormous collection of alarmist speculation and misinformation.
I would venture to suggest that it’s probably impossible for each branch to fail to send sales figures to head office (for each and every product they sell - stamps, envelopes, whatever), and of course you have to stipulate that you want religious stamps - they keep them behind the counter, with all the other stamps - if you stand there and say nothing, you get nothing.
But why would they try to establish a false lack of demand for a product they make money selling?
Wait, that jesus character has something to do with Christmas? Since when? As long as I’ve been around, it’s been the formally official Crass Commercialism holiday, with a central figure of a fat imaginary decidededly-non-religious elf in fur-trimmed red long johns whose role in life is secular gift-giving. The bare few christian elements lingering around Christmas 1) are the boring parts, and 2) can be given the old heave-ho without effecting the fundamental sentiment of the season (family, friends, gift-giving, gluttony, greed, and partying) in the slightest.
Well, give or take the actual name of the holiday. But given that the alternative is to call it “happy holy days”, I can just write that off to the secularizing evolution of language, like I do the rest of it.
Because thats when it is! If we had it only in July you would be asking why not in December. But I really wouldn’t care if it was moved, its not the date/month thats important anyway since Dec 25 is not really JC’s b-day anyway. Its just the day it’s celebrated after all.
I did Being an atheist, or any -theist is fine with me… aren’t you glad you have my approval?
Of course. The rest of the year, he’s having sex with rabbits, or casting demons out of pumpkins; during this season, he waits under a little branch for a tongue kiss.
I guess my point wasn’t clearly made. I’m not saying you should celebrate in July instead of December. I’m just saying that the idea that we’re celebrating Jesus Christ’s birthday is delusional.
You can give someone a gift any day of the year. Why wait until Dec. 25?
And I think the U.S. has too few holidays for celebration. Do you happen to know which place in the Americas has the most holidays?
Pagans had a good run, but they’re gone*. Their symbols and celebrations have been co-opted by the Christians for the celebration of Christ’s birth. Some people stubbornly refuse to deal with that, which is possible because Christmas (like Easter and Halloween) is a mix of Christian, pagan, and purely secular trappings and traditions. You can pick and choose which parts you like to celebrate, but that doesn’t mean you’re bringing back the celebration of Yule, and you’re not celebrating “Christmas”.
*for all intents and purposes.
I think it’d be interesting to start lavishly celebrating the Feast of the Assumption on August 15. No pagan traditions to deal with, no confusion with secular celebrations, and August needs a holiday.
My take on the “war”: it’s just a semi-natural reaction to the increased diversity of America. Some people (retailers and their marketing departments, oddly) are out in front, noticing that not everybody is a WASP any more…so maybe we should broaden the appeal of our marketing, and use a more generic greeting. And local governments and school boards, always wary of getting dragged into court, start getting gunshy about decorations and carols. Suddenly it looks (to those who are a bit touchy about creeping diversity) that Christmas is under siege.
By a few Christians, maybe, but most Christians have co-opted the celebration for the same purpose the pagans celebrated it: An excuse to have a party and show off ostentatiously at what would otherwise be a rather drab time of year.
If it were really about celebrating religious events, we already would. The fact that we don’t give the Feast of the Assumption nearly as much attention as Christmas tells you just how significant the religious aspects are to most people.
Voodoo, as was practiced in America, has heavy West African roots with a veneer of Catholicism. Now surely you can’t say it is the same as African Voudon religion, since there are saint’s names and Christian iconography everywhere. And there is a lot of time and space between the local voodoo queen and an African village. But at the same time, I doubt anyone can say it is a particularly Catholic practice. No matter how often they pray to St. Peter, they are still sacrificing chickens.
It’s become something that goes beyond the two, though if I had to choose I’d say the actions (sacrificing chickens) speak louder than words (praying to St. Peter.) Christmas is the same thing. We have a Christian veneer over some pagan practices, milled through centuries of history to become it’s own thing. I’d venture the pagan influence is stronger, since it is the basis of what we actually do, not just what we say. But YMMV. I’m not Christian at all and I feel perfectly entitled to celebrate Christmas. And I don’t think you really lose a lot of the festival by not centering it on Christ, since I don’t think it was ever centered there anyway.
Being an atheist, or any -theist is fine with me… aren’t you glad you have my approval?