FWIW I have some FB friends that were lamenting that churches were cutting back on Christmas services this year.
That’s interesting about your church’s Christmas service. That’s exactly the sort of thing I was curious about. And I assumed Christmas was the big holiday without even thinking about Easter. My knowledge of Christian traditions is pretty small.
As for daily life, I really don’t know. Like I said before, the only Christian I compare people to is my grandma. She was the type of person who put everyone else first, would give the shirt off her back, was not judgmental AT ALL, and was just very kind to everyone she ever came across. She had a great sense of humor, but never at anyone else’s expense, and she lived very simply, modestly. And she went to church every Sunday until she became ill, and then watched her favorite tv pastor every Sunday after that. I don’t remember her ever reading the bible, really, but she definitely knew it.
Please don’t take my questions to mean that I think I know anything at all about what Christians should or shouldn’t be doing. I really don’t know, which is why I started this thread. I consider the Dope a great community with smart people of all different kinds. I figured this would be the best place to ask about this stuff.
Your grandma sounds like a great lady, and very special.
Unfortunately I’m supposed to be cooking dinner now, but here’s a short version: part of being a Christian is noticing that you are not a specially wonderful or good person. Human beings are very flawed; thus the belief that we need saving. Yes, we have a code of behavior about being honest and kind and unselfish and not prideful, etc. but the thing about that is, it’s really hard. No human being can keep all the commandments all the time–that’s why church is often compared to a hospital for the sick, it’s not for perfect people. So, you try, and you fail, and you repent and keep trying. Hopefully you end up more like Jesus in the end, but you’re never going to make it all the way.
Various Christians have various interpretations of this–some will say that faith is all you need and your actions don’t particularly matter (“not perfect, just forgiven”). Others will say that actions are part of faith.
OK, I have to go feed the hordes now. 
Churches are packed on Christmas in my neck of the woods. Midnight mass especially.
We posted at the same time and I didn’t see your edits.
It makes sense that a church would realise that family time takes precedence - although for “hard core” Christians I’d expect that it should mainly be about the “birth of Christ” and less about family - after all, you have 363 other days of the year to be a family. And, as one particularly irritating (non-church-going) acquaintance of mine likes to remind people with 50 glurgy email forwards per day - Christmas is about CHRISTmas, Jesus is the reason for the season, blah blah. Not that she is a remotely Christ-like person; she’s a fat, sanctimonious, dishonest git but I suppose that sort will always be with us.
I would expect a serious Christian to be thin, ascetic, to spend part of their lives in service to others, and to do their best to be humble, honest, above crass commercialism. Deviation from any of these points is a fail, IMO. The one overtly Christian friend I have pretty much hits all of these points, (as well as going to services weekly and singing in the choir) so I very much respect her christianity. The other people I know who identify as “Christians” are for the most part nice enough people, but nothing special, certainly not anything I mentioned above, and not particularly virtuous, or trying to be. I don’t regard these folks as Christian or even religious, no matter what they call themselves.
I know a lot of Protestant churches don’t have services on Christmas, and it shocked me. We always got up early, opened our gifts, then got dressed and went to Mass. I have to admit there were lots of kids with long faces at those 9 AM Masses knowing their Christmas presents were home waiting for them.
Ah, the reincarnation of Cotton Mather! Or perhaps an Inquisitor…
So at what BMI are we supposed to go from thinking that people have a right to consider themselves serious Christians to calling them gluttonous hypocrites?
I know it wasn’t the main point of these posts, but I think it is insulting to a large number of innocent fat people to call obesity a moral failing. It’s kind of like the old beliefs that mentally ill people are possessed by demons.
Not everyone who is fat is necessarily eating to excess. For example, someone might be fat just because they were never taught healthy ways of eating and not because they are taking some pleasure in overindulging. Thin people can also eat gluttonously of course.
I think the idea is that you spend the time as a family talking about the birth of Christ. They go together.
I guess I lose, then, because I am indeed a bit on the pudgy side. I hope I am not greedy, but I do like chocolate too much. Of course I’m not going to brag about all the countless hours I spend in service to others. 
I might also be too cheerful to be called ‘ascetic.’
Oh, I did want to address something that Indygrrl said too, about prominent conservatives or something. I think that in any organization of any kind, you’re going to get a certain number of people who are just after power. A book I read recently called them Machiavellians–people who are manipulative and who will say or do whatever they think will get them to the top. Then, of course, even ordinary regular people who get power are often corrupted by it. A person can be a truly devout Christian and still commit some really serious sins, but it’s to be hoped that they would then repent. Either way, there are always going to be Machiavellians in the mix.
Don’t you think it would make more sense to draw a distinction between people who take their religion seriously and those who merely pay lip service to it? Would that not be more reasonable than lumping them all together, painting them with the same brush, then saying “They’re all talk”? (Emphasis added.)
Wow, you’re strict! Haha.
My idea about how Christians “should” be is more about them being openminded, non-judgmental, and possessing some humility. That’s what the Christians I come across seem to lack, and what strikes me most of all is that they don’t even seem to hold those things in high regard. It makes me wonder why they even bother.
Sure, but how can one tell if a person actually takes their religion seriously or not? If you can’t tell by their behavior, how they conduct themselves, and their habits, then how?
But you are right. It was unfair of me to paint all religious people with the same brush, and I’m sorry for that.
No. For a person to be a Christian, they must believe that Jesus was our lord and savior. There are no other requirements, though many do in fact belong to churches and attend church regularly.
Some people will protest that you need to be a church-goer in order to be a “good” Christian, but the bible says otherwise.
A real Christian does the best they can, but usually isn’t satisfied and does not quit trying. They know that GOD (not others) will judge them in the end.
Just because you are in a garage doesn’t mean you are a car and just becase you are in a church doesn’t mean you are a Christian either.
Because just like everyone else in the world, no Christian is perfect, either. Sometimes, I simply don’t feel like going to church on Sunday or to choir practice on Tuesday nights to teach my choir kids. I’d rather be home, hanging out in my PJs, watching cartoons with my kid or using that time on Tuesday night to try to finish up some work. I tend to swear like a sailor, which I’m trying to curb (it helps that my five year old gets after me for every ‘darn’ or ‘crap’ that he overhears…little narc), and I have a host of bad habits that are I’m trying to change but are still works-in-progress.
I have a long way to go to become the person I want to be for God, and I know I’ll never be perfect. But because of my faith (and I’m pretty new to this whole-hearted embracing of faith, so it’s weird to put it into words), I know if I miss church, I won’t hear my pastor’s sermon, which I’ll regret because they’re always uplifting and educational. My kids rely on me to be there for choir, and I rely on them to make me smile. It’s a learning experience and I try to remind myself that if I can’t make the effort for Christ, why should He bother with me? But since I know He’d never turn his back on me, I make the mistake of letting myself miss church sometimes.
Other times, I’ll read a bible verse in email or in one of my bible study books that’s so fascinating or meaningful that I can’t wait to talk about it with one of my pastors or a friend from church or my sister-in-law. It’s exciting and I try harder to be a better person because of that renewed faith.
There’s no switch anyone can flip that makes us perfect, Christian or not. But speaking only for myself, even if others may look at me and think I’m standing still, I know I’m just taking tiny steps. I bother because even those small steps deepen my faith.
I’m probably coming across like a Holy Roller, and I’m sorry if I am :o, but the point you’ve made is one of the reasons it took us so long to find a church we love - but our church (Methodist) has accepted and embraced us, warts and all, from day one. And even more importantly, we haven’t sacrificed our rather liberal views on many issues - if our church had expected us to do so, they wouldn’t be our church.
As far as not going to church on Christmas, my family has always attended on Christmas Eve, and that’s kind of stuck with me. We’re having one service tomorrow, a carol sing, and I’d actually like to go, my family just has traditions in place that are hard to break. So we go on Christmas Eve, as always, and spend Christmas Day doing the family stuff.
Actually, not even midnight Mass – Catholic Churchs have all their Christmas Masses on Christmas Eve, usually. (4, 6, 8 and some churches have one at 11 now, instead of midnight)
Some MIGHT have one on Christmas morning, but most people seem to go on Christmas Eve. At least, most of the ones I know. A lot of churchs will have a “children’s Mass”. Those are usually packed.
My grandmother hasn’t been to church in awhile, despite being a devout Catholic, because it’s too hard for her to leave the house every week. (She’s 93). So my aunt recently talked to her parish priest and now he comes to her house every week to give her Communion. (It’s not like she’s totally house bound, but lately she’s been too frail to go anywhere)
A friend of mine’s mother went to church today at 5:30 pm, some churches have Midnight Mass for Christmas, some churches have services the day before Christmas… That is one answer.
Not in my experience, which covers parishes in half a dozen countries including your own.
Catholic churches usually offer eve services for every Sunday except Resurrection Sunday (Easter Sunday) - the closest to an eve service you get for Christmas when Dec 25 doesn’t fall on a Sunday is Midnight Mass, again IME (note that calling it “Midnight Mass” doesn’t necessarily mean it starts at 0:00 - that 11pm Mass counts as a Midnight Mass).
I agree with Guin, Eve masses were always very popular and held alongside Christmas Day service. Just because it was easier to attend mass on the Eve than to try to cram one more thing into Christmas Day.
However, a lot of folks I knew attended both and Christmas Day mass still had the biggest attendance for any of the day.