A Thread to Express Love of Christmas

And a merry Christmas to you edgar.
Christmas is what we make of it, and it doesn't need
to be overly religious, as long as we keep up the traditon
we started, gather the family around, think of those
less fortunate and reflect on the blessings we've gotten.

If we make it a commercial holiday, then we shouldn't
complain about it either. Christmas is what we make of
it.

I teach my child that Christmas is a time to reach out
to others, help the less fortunate and count our own
blessings. If we all proceed in that way, commercialism
won't be the priority of Christmas.

Christmas in Europe is more traditional and religious,
despite the gift giving, one just has to choose what's more
important.

Sure. I give a few gifts, but from love not from a credit card.

Biting tongue to wish everyone a very happy holiday.

I do both Edgar, but love comes first

Edgar - come and visit my "little cultural treat" thread. I think you'll enjoy it.
We've got Christmas trees, advent candles, Chanukah candles, recipes ...

The last link I added there was to a marvellous site called Religious Tolerance, and their research on all of the interesting December traditions over the religious/cultures/centuries.

It's third advent - time to light another candle.

Ya know (Warning - shameless self-promotion may be a factor here :wink: ), thinkin' back, I recall that a couple years ago, a similar topic; How Did We Get To Christmas was raised. The discussion started off OK, but never really got anywhere. It prolly got buried under discarded giftwrap debris. If any care to chase it down, a brief look at where "Christmas" came from, and an observation that mebbe it never was what some meant it to be, or remembered it as havin' been, is HERE

I dunno, its sorta my take that "Christmas" - more properly The Winter Solstice Observance - always has been about nostalgia for things fondly, even if inaccurately, remembered and wishes for better yet to come.



Anyhow, seasonally appropriate platitudes are heartilly extended to all in whatever fashion as may be most politically correct by the sensibilities of the parties concerned. Those who wish to be exempt from the offering and/or acceptance of such sentiments, or who take issue with the derivation thereof, are invited to consider themselves unreferrenced

Happy Solstice to all.

The year the sun begins to move north at 7:42 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, on Wednesday, December 21.

As the days grow longer, winter grows stronger--but spring will come.

Happy Solstice.

Timber, I just have to give you credit! That is, by far, the longest "Happy Holidays" I have ever read. I think you definitely covered all bases!

I just read farmerman's story in the "anti xmas thread"
and I think this story is a great example of how love is
spread around christmas

Re: A Thread to Express Love of Christmas


edgar, I can very much relate to your comment above. My former husband spent our entire married life, doing just that. He despised everything to do with the entire month of December and made his feelings very well known, even to his children. Since I have had our kids now alone for the past 12 years, I have tried hard to bring joy and love back in the spirit of Christmas. Even after all this time, I still feel the pangs of those dreaded times. Some memories die harder than others it seems.

Lady J
My step father was a Christmas hater. When my mom would beg him to put some of his beer and party money toward gifts for the kids he would vent in angry tirades.
Then there was my first wife, an uredeemably selfish person. She loved recieving gifts, but not giving. After our divorce she joined a Johovah's Witness church and used that for a reason to refuse any gifts or Christmas for our children.

I think we all are aware that Christmas was not originally envisioned in its present state. So?

Thanks for the invite, ebeth.

I haven't been to the anti-Christmas thread. Don't intend to let 'em bring me down.

Edgar, I too love Christmas for the ideal of charitable concern for others, for the open expressions of love and joy and for the lesson, not religious, of gratitude and awe at being alive.

I also love Dicken's stress on welcoming the lower classes--he was a wonderful civil rights worker.

Also, the music, beautiful, sacred, devotional. All things this agnostic can and does appreciate.

Dunno that's the point, edgar - I was more askin' if Christmas ever was what some folks have wanted to remember what it was.

A whole buncha what we take for granted today as "Christmas Tradition" came by way of the Crimean War - or at least the effects of the Crimean War on away-from-home-troops and their stay-at-home families and freinds, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria's public relations response to the national angst, similar cultural impact was caused here in the US by our own Civil War a few years later, and even moreso to sociologic effects the World War I and World War II periods had on Western Culture. Nitpicky attitude, yeah, but the whole deal - its history and development, its various cultural antecedents and influences, that sorta stuff - has long been a fascination to me. Don't get me wrong here - I get all seasonally warm and melty myself. I really enjoy Christmnas, and look forward to it.

What I like about Christmas, in part, is its connection to the past - to the tradition of looking forward to light. So many traditions have festivals celebrating light - Diwali, Chanukah, the Star of Christmas - they all represent the best of what it is to be human, I think. They represent a belief in the future - what is Christ's birth meant/means to some.

Each time a child is born - there should be a lightness/brightness about. I like the celebration of that opportunity to get things right.

Didn't mean to be snippy, timber, though I guess I was. Away from the computer, I hang with family and friends who revel in the season. The ones who snipe at it online should not bother me in the slightest, but I suppose they really do.

No harm no foul, edgar. I wasn't feelin' "snipped at" at all ... and if you were led to believe I was was aimin' any snipes at Christmas and what it means, then it was me who failed to communicate. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

Have some spiked eggnog, timber.