Christmas

THEU

THEU

2,500+ Posts
So I am watching the Today show (because I am on vacation and being lazy), and they are talking about 'Holiday shopping.' I am going to go ahead and call it Christmas shopping, because no matter religious beliefs, this is pretty much what most people call it.
So what is your take on Christmas? Is it just an excuse to buy presents and get presents? Does it have any religious meaning to you? your family? our society? What is the core of Christmas now?
 
It's way out of control. The meaning of Christmas is nearly lost all together. My wife has already begun Christmas shopping for the thousands of kids and family membes we hardly associate with. Praise Kris Kringle.
 
I love Christmas. Family, friends, presents, decorations, Santa, egg nog, good food, good booze, bowl games... an almost endless list. Without question my favorite time of the year. And I'm an atheist.

But to answer your questions...
In reply to:
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love it. as stated above - family, friends, cheer. we happen to be christians so of course there is a religious component and it obviously has more meaning to us than what some of you have said it has become to you, but it's still just a fantastic time at our homes...
 
I certainly enjoy going to church more, that's for sure. Something about the Christmas Season says friends, family and foraging.... for gifts that is.
wink.gif
The season is sort of a passing of sorts as time ticks by and the children get a year older. The birth of Christ (though probably not the right date) is the reason we celebrate and the remembrance of the good deeds we do throughout the year are reflected upon. Volunteer some time, and reach out even more to help those in need. Usually end up tipping the hell out of some of the bus people who we see all year long. $25 bucks goes a long way for a bus person at Christmas let me tell you. The appreciation and thanks when they are probably short on cash in their eyes makes me just feed good inside. It's a time when I am reminded that the actions we take with those we interact with every day. I refect more about the blessings in my life on a more daily basis during the season. I also wonder when my dang clients are going to pay me as well...

We try to get most of our shopping done early and only fill in late in the season. I will occasionally wake up at 5 am the morning after Thanksgiving and go grab some ridiculous deal if it's still in stock.

However the thing that's best about Christmas is spending more quality time with the kids without the interference of soccer, school or other commitments for the most part. I like the parties as well both the family and friend variety.
 
I used to love Christmas. Now I hate it.

It is competing family obligations -- why'd you spend so much time with X set of grandparents? (Note -- no matter how much time we spend with either one, we hear that from BOTH sets). It is comsumerism. It is pressure and stress.

This year, we have banished the grandparents from the actual holiday. They can see us before, or after, but the actual day is just for our little family.

We are limiting the number of gifts that the kids can get. They have plenty, and need little else.

We are going to do some volunteer work as a family. Our kids need to understand and appreciate their blessings, and they need to exercise their "servant heart."

The only things I really like are (1) the weather is usually cool, and (2) I can usually sneak away a morning or two and go duck hunting.
 
Beautiful time of the year, no doubt. Put aside the materialism and mass marketing and enjoy family and friends. For people of faith, celebrate The Gift that opened the heavens. It may seem hard, but it really isn't.

xmasnana.gif
 
Last year my family (Mom, Dad, Brother) decided to stop buying presents for each other. We never spent a lot on each other but we are now to the point to where if we want something we will just go buy it for ourselves. We spend time together, eat good food, and just enjoy the company. I look forward to Christmas a lot more now.
 
CHRIST CLIMBED DOWN
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings
.
.
.
.
Actually, I love Christmas. I really get into it, but not for the gifts. I love the decorations, the warmth, the songs, the movies, the food, and most of all the celebrated birth of my Lord and Savoir (even if He really was born in April).
 
Its the big winter holiday, the biggest of the year, in fact, with deep, deep roots in European pagan history, with multiple cultural overlays and a dominant Christian overlay. I mean, it is what it is. Watch it being celebrated in Singapore and Hong Kong, in Russia and Kazahkstan, Angola and The Congo, and you sense the true diversity of what it is, as it is nothing without its meaning to people.

I'm not religious, but I'm sentimental and nostalgic as all get out. The wife and daughter to go midnight mass, the son and I smoke cigars and watch football.
The week before Christmas is when I take off work and do my shopping. We open the presents Christmas morning, and call around the country to siblings to find out what Santa brought.

We've always hosted Christmas since we've been married, before, actually. We make the big dinner. We pour the big wine.

Thankgiving is like practice for Christmas. But with a special ingredient of UT football.

I love Christmas. Dont mess with it.
 
Christmas is during the Holidays. It's about a family dinner and watching the kids open their presents from Santa.

This year it'll mean spending time in Playa del Carmen with my girlfriend and her parents. Merry Christmas!
 
Christmas in our society is a ******* abomination. My wife still thinks I am an ******* because I've told here that I am not going along with the whole Santa thing with our kid. "What about the children!!!!"
 
I don't disagree with P/C here. There are plenty of people who seem to only show up for church on Easter and Christmas. I don't pretend to know what these people actually believe (plus I don't think they all believe the same thing).

It would make more sense if the holiday celebrating the birth of Christ was Christmas, and all the other stuff involving Santa, songs about snow, trees and lights, giving gifts, etc, happened earlier in December on Saint Nicholas Day. But the current way of merging the two has already been far too entrenched.
 
I don't begrudge those showing up for Christmas and occasionally Easter. I hope they get something out of it. It makes it a hassle for everyone because of the physical numbers but that's in every Church everywhere. And Yes LOTS of folks lie about how much they attend church. Certain denominations more than others from my lifetime observations. The tradition was oft passed down from the parents, or the kids can't bring themselves to be honest with the parents about attendance.

I do agree with the potential for stress. However you have control of that and I learned long ago I can't please everybody, but I am normally accomodating if I can be. I also usually do what I want to without regret and the fact we do Christmas Eve with her folks, Wake up and go to 7 am service, and then do Christmas morning with my side of the clan works out jsut fine. IF both had a Chrismas Eve traditon and were pressuring me about it, that would be real pain in the ***.
 
I honestly don't get the complaint about crowded churches on Christmas and Easter. Why wouldn't that be the most popular time to go? It's like bitching at crowded theaters on The Dark Knight's opening weekend. "Dammit, where were all these ******* last week!".
 
i may be splitting hairs here, but anastasis, do you really consider it "lying"? i just think that's interesting... i mean, i guess technically...
anywho, can we all agree that plum pudding is only good at christmas time? and that at christmas time it is beyond good, but that if you fed it to me at any point in the year other than christmas i would punch you straight in your face?
 
I walked in to Home Depot this morning, and Christmas music was playing. W.T.F. We haven't even passed Halloween yet. Pissed me off, and I love Christmas.

Christmas is awesome for kids. For adults, it's part nostalgia, and part family gathering. I'm getting too old to care about the gifts.

It doesn't have any religious meaning to me. I think of it as a cultural event, not a religious one. I imagine most people think that way these days. Even though I don't think of it as a religious event, the commercialization of the holiday season doesn't sit well with me.
 
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