This past weekend.
I’ve got a rather cynical explanation. The retailers want people who have no interest in the religious aspects of Christmas to nevertheless participate in celebrating it, particularly in the gift-giving part of it. They make money from that. It’s very much in their interest to have people who are not comfortable with the religious side of Christmas be included.
With other holidays, there’s not the same financial incentive to include others, because those holidays don’t traditionally involve gift exchanges on the scale of Christmas. The greeting card and candy companies have a reason to push for an inclusive celebration of Easter, but that’s fairly easy to avoid if you don’t normally shop for those things. But all sorts of things are given as gifts at Christmas, so if you want to avoid retailers that are decked out for Christmas, you would have to avoid shopping for anything.
This morning, here in the People’s Republic of Portland.
Dob, I’d like to introduce you to a buddy of mine named confirmation bias.
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That’s just realistic, not cynical. If there’s some die-hard Christian retailer out there who doesn’t care about losing money, nothing stopping him from spraying “Merry Christmas, whether you like it or not!!” all over his store. It’s not like there’s some “war on Christmas” or anything. We established that in a previous thread.
You’ve started from a false premise (Christmas is the only inclusive holiday) and proceeded to a false conclusion (non-religious people demand Christmas be inclusive). The demand for “inclusiveness” on Christmas comes from stores and companies who don’t want employees or potential customers to be offended. Trust me, atheists don’t care if you say “happy holidays” or “Merry Christmas,” since to most of them both terms are equally non-applicable.
Is anybody lecturing YOU how to celebrate YOUR version of Christmas?
Then leave MY secular atheist half-Jewish Christmas alone!
If the Christians want to keep Christmas a purely religious festival they should have cracked down on Santa Claus and Christmas trees and all the other secular trappings a hundred years ago. But that train left the station a long time ago. Christmas belongs to all of us now.
I agree. And I think the pervasiveness of that attempt to be inclusive says that commerce is a very important and influential (some would say too influential) part of our society.
But Advent originated as a penitential season, too.
Don’t be fooled – confirmation bias is not your friend!
On topic, I perceive much more complaining about how modern people are ruining Christmas for True Christian Patriots than I perceive actual scaling back of Christmas celebration.
Sailboat
Going back to my point, then, I would say that Christmas shouldn’t have to be inclusive, but if there is going to be a religious holiday that is, then it makes a lot more sense for it to be Christmas than Easter. Although Anne Neville is right that Advent is also a penitential season, it isn’t nearly so much so as Lent, and never has been, as far as I know. The way I was raised, it would probably be considered wildly inappropriate if not actually offensive for someone to talk about “holiday cheer,” for example, during Lent. The closest equivilant I can think of would be to say “Happy Yom Kippur!” Christmas isn’t like that…it’s legitimate (relgiously) to be happy/joyful during the whole season.
Complaining is easier and more enjoyable than actually scaling back one’s celebration of Christmas, so that’s not at all surprising.
Would you find it wildly inappropriate if someone wished you “Happy Easter” a few days before Easter?
You could have the Easter holiday season after Easter. That’s what they used to do with Christmas when the tradition of Advent as penitential season was stronger. That’s why the “twelve days of Christmas” start with Christmas, rather than ending with it. Of course, that’s much less convenient from a retail perspective. If you want to sell gifts to exchange on the holiday, you want people feeling “holiday spirit” before the main holiday.
No, I would consider it wildly inappropriate if someone referred to the time before Easter as a time of cheer/joy/happiness, the way people refer to the time before Christmas.
Well, exactly. Not to mention that in general, the time before a holdiay is the time when we gear up to celebrate it, culturally speaking. No one wants to decorate for a holiday ON the holiday and then leave them up for another few weeks!
We Jews do just that for Passover. It’s an eight-day holiday (seven for some people), but the main celebration (the seders) happens only on the first two nights. We don’t decorate for it (at least most of us don’t), but we do do a very thorough housecleaning if we keep strict kosher for Passover, and if we’re hosting seders we prepare in advance as anyone would for any holiday meal.
Happy Easter!!
And Christmas doesn’t actually have to be inclusive; regarding their personal property and behaviors, Christians have always had and still have the option of saying “Hey, if you heretics, pagans, and godless lost souls don’t want to worship Jesus, that’s your problem; don’t hassle us and we won’t hassle you.” I don’t see any jews trying to shove hanukkah down my throat, and that works out fine for everybody.
The problem is that Christians want to share the joy, being the dominant culture and not wanting to restrain themselves to private rituals. That’s fine to the degree that the people on the recieving end like it, but if some other people don’t want to play ball, they’re not obligated to do so.
On the Easter front, there is always the inclusive Mardi Gras. There is also Halloween - which is a very strange mix of Catholic (Feast of All Saints) and Pagan turned cultural holiday (and having very near the Christmas level of marketing twist going!)
That’s true, but I was speaking more as a cultural thing in our society. Everyone seems to have decorations for everything these days…every month, it’s a different wreath on the door with a holiday theme…Valentine’s day in February, St. Patrick’s day in March, etc., and the decorations seem to go up a month before the holiday and come down a day or two after to make room for the next one.
I don’t think you give a blanket statement like that. The attitude to Advent varies with different denominations, and with personal observances. My mother, an Anglican, never held a party during the Advent season, for just that reason - Advent is a penitential time.
If she held a party during the Christmas period, she would hold it during the 12 Days - on Boxing Day, or the Friday or Saturday following Christmas. (Plus, she said people were always more relaxed once the big day was done, so having them in for the evening in the 12 Days was more cozy.)
That is so interesting…thank you for correcting me. I am Catholic, and have never heard of avoiding parties during Advent, even among the most religious people I know. Certainly, you are right that the 12 days of Christmas is the traditional season of Christmas celebration (vs.the Advent season), but I didn’t realize that anyone would consider it inappropriate to have a party during Advent.
Do you think your mother would hold Advent on par with Lent in terms of the level of solemnity?
Lent was the more solemn for her, with the “giving up” obligation. One year, she gave up smoking for the entire Lenten season. Then when Easter came, she said to herself, “Why do I smoke? I can obviously give it up permanently.”
So she did. 
And then increased her charitable giving year-round, with the money she saved.
I would find it unusual, since it’s not customary.
And the 12 days of Christmas… never heard of that, but wouldn’t it lead directly to the feast of the Epiphany? AKA the Three Wise Kings Day, which is when those of us who aren’t on speaking terms with “that fat foreigner” give gifts.
I find it quite curious that nobody has mentioned the original meaning of Easter, the celebration of the release of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. It’s not like there aren’t any jews in here!
That’s not a good analogy because we’re different societies living in different parts of the world. There aren’t all these Brits with the day off work and nothing to do because picnics and fireworks displays are taboo for them.
Easter is on a Sunday, so it doesn’t disrupt the calendar. And kids get some candy and a small toy, so it’s not that big of a deal. People don’t greet each other with “Happy Easter” weeks in advance, nor go around singing Easter carols.
Kids breathlessly anticipate Christmas–with all its metaphorical sugar plums–every year, so it’s too bad that some of them get nothing. And people used to greet each other on the street and spread good cheer in anticipation of the Main Event, when by all rights they should be gloomy due to the long nights and crappy weather.