What Christmas Means To Me

@blueveinedthrobber,

blueveinedthrobber wrote:

The season is upon us...the one where people who have been posting all year "Why should I give up any of my tax money so moochers, system gamers, wetbacks and their anchor babies can eat and go to the doctor" start posting their "Let's put the Christ back in Christmas" memes and messages.

You are a genius, Bear.

I love your insights!

You are right on the mark. Wink

And as a non-theist, allow me to wish you and the family a very Happy Holiday.

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And ever was and ever shall be.

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@Frank Apisa,

thnx for the kind words.... and happy holidays to you and yours. :0)

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@blueveinedthrobber,

Gawd bless us, everyone!

http://media.beeroverip.org/beers/bah-humbug.jpg

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@blueveinedthrobber,

blueveinedthrobber wrote:

The season is upon us...the one where people who have been posting all year "Why should I give up any of my tax money so moochers, system gamers, wetbacks and their anchor babies can eat and go to the doctor" start posting their "Let's put the Christ back in Christmas" memes and messages.

I think when the government made Christmas a legal holiday, Christ was sort of taken out of the holiday. It is a day to do whatever one wants, since there is no work, other than those that work in the hotel/restaurant/public transportation, etc. fields. Naturally, there are traditions relating to family and meals, a la Norman Rockwell's famous painting.

I personally think of it as one last attempt to enjoy the current year by many people. Then with New Year's a week later, it seems to prove, in my opinion, the year could have been better, since New Year's is usually anti-climactic.

Anyway, I think the holiday should officially be recognized as a holiday to make children happy, and adults should act mature enough to realize that if they don't go to church, they have no reason to celebrate the holiday, other than making any children happy.

Then again, when the holiday got its impetus, some adults were possibly a lot less mature than today, in some respects, so that might be the dirty little secret (many adults want to enjoy Christmas as though they were still children)?

Just my opinion, since I'm only an observer. I do not celebrate it.

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@Foofie,

That's very nice Foofie, but it is fiction.

The December festival has always been a time to get drunk and laid. This was true long before Jesus was invented. My Puritan ancestors, who were strict Christians, hated the holiday and it celebrating it was banned in deeply religious Massachusetts in the 17th century.

If you want to celebrate the traditional "Christmas", drunken revelry is completely appropriate.

(Strangely enough, the people getting drunk and laid at Christmas tend to be the ones who are helpful to strangers and kind to those in need).

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

That's very nice Foofie, but it is fiction.

The December festival has always been a time to get drunk and laid. This was true long before Jesus was invented. My Puritan ancestors, who were strict Christians, hated the holiday and it celebrating it was banned in deeply religious Massachusetts in the 17th century.

If you want to celebrate the traditional "Christmas", drunken revelry is completely appropriate.

(Strangely enough, the people getting drunk and laid at Christmas tend to be the ones who are helpful to strangers and kind to those in need).

I sort of suspect that the "drunken revelry" preceded the holiday, as a Christian celebration, when it was just Saturnalia, the midwinter feast of pagans.

The Church in its marketing genius, overlayed a Christian meaning to a pagan celebration, so the pagans would adopt the new more civilized religion.

Anyway, the fact that your colonial ancestors abhorred the holiday doesn't mean they weren't correct. Meaning, if they thought of it as a Papist holiday, in my opinion, they were right. Notice the holiday only got its real "hoopla" impetus when Catholics flooded the U.S., post 1850. A token of the Protestant largesse, in my opinion. Prior to that, I thought, many a Protestant home just had a wreath on the outer door. Very little hoopla.

But, you can have a Happy Chanukkah, since you are familiar with the Old Testament also.

P.S.: Your point, that the most revelry seems to be with those that are most kind to strangers and those in need, might be due to the fact that the kindness to strangers and those in need might be thought of as "good works" (aka, brownie points for Heaven), since only Protestants correlate Salvation with just having the Spirit in one's heart (no bargaining with God). Makes sense?

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@Foofie,

Quote:

The Church in its marketing genius, overlayed a Christian meaning to a pagan celebration, so the pagans would adopt the new more civilized religion.

What is your definition of the word "civilized"? It seems like a rather odd use of the word in this context given the war, murder, rape, destruction of culture and rejection of knowledge (including science) that was brought in by the Christian age. There is a reason that this period of time is now called the Dark Ages.

Of course, the celebration Channukah is a funny story....

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Quote:
The Church in its marketing genius, overlayed a Christian meaning to a pagan celebration, so the pagans would adopt the new more civilized religion.

What is your definition of the word "civilized"? It seems like a rather odd use of the word in this context given the war, murder, rape, destruction of culture and rejection of knowledge (including science) that was brought in by the Christian age. There is a reason that this period of time is now called the Dark Ages.

Of course, the celebration Channukah is a funny story....

The term Dark Ages is currently referred to as the Middle Ages, since they weren't dark per se, but the classics of the ancients were being copied by monks in monestaries.

And, "civilized" is used in its micro/individual meaning; people did not enjoy seeing a lion eat a person.

And, Chanukkah only became a more "known" holiday when Jewish (suburban) children asked for gifts like Christian classmates were getting for Christmas; previously it was a very minor holiday.

The Red Sox won the World Series; you should be satieted and quiet for the rest of the season, in my opinion.

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@Foofie,

Quote:

The term Dark Ages is currently referred to as the Middle Ages,

Foofie...are you sure of that????

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@Foofie,

Quote:

The term Dark Ages is currently referred to as the Middle Ages, since they weren't dark per se, but the classics of the ancients were being copied by monks in monestaries.

And, "civilized" is used in its micro/individual meaning; people did not enjoy seeing a lion eat a person.

I assume you know what Christians were doing to Jews during this time. I don't consider that very "civilized", do you?

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@blueveinedthrobber,

blueveinedthrobber wrote:

The season is upon us...the one where people who have been posting all year "Why should I give up any of my tax money so moochers, system gamers, wetbacks and their anchor babies can eat and go to the doctor" start posting their "Let's put the Christ back in Christmas" memes and messages.

no need to worry, we are now a post Christian nation and will stay that way. Christmas is now a celebration of indulgence and consumption, and will be for the forseeable future.

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Christmas is now a celebration of indulgence and consumption, and will be for the forseeable future.

For most people today it is celebration of indulgence, consumption and being nice to other people. In my opinion, this is a pretty good way to celebrate it.

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Christmas is a celebration of the life of Jesus, I'm sure atheists must like him at least a little bit?
So if they want to leave out the "religious" side, they can still celebrate it by just raising a glass to that young dood who waltzed into the great temple and bust the snooty priests asses-

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@Romeo Fabulini,

Christianity, as it is practiced today, has very little to do with the life of Jesus. Jesus was about loving, forgiving and healing the sick. Today's Christians run around hating gays, keeping people from getting healthcare and yelling against "Amnesty" (which is just another word for forgiveness).

If only Christians acted like Jesus did....

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Max said- "Today's Christians run around hating gays, keeping people from getting healthcare and yelling against "Amnesty"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What makes you think they're Christians?
They won't get under JC's radar.. Smile

Jesus said- "Not all who call me "Lord,Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. Then I'll tell them plainly, I never knew you, GET AWAY FROM ME!" (Matt 7:21-23)

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one thing that I find interesting is that till recently Christmas was considered a time for family and tradition, but I don't see that as much now. Maybe this is just me noticing differently, but I now hear a lot of folks say that they dont care what the tradition is, they will do what they want to do (for instance cook less and lighter). also I am hearing "I dont enjoy having all the family around, it is a pain, so count me out". to me this is just another sign that we are becoming more self indulgent, less tolerant.

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@hawkeye10,

Most families now a days don’t proudly profess how they beat their kids with a belt either, times are a changing.

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@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

Most families now a days don’t proudly profess how they beat their kids with a belt either, times are a changing.

times are always changing, sometime towards progress, sometimes not. I years ago concluded that we are currently living in a new dark age.

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What Christmas Means To Me

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