Meaning of Christmas becoming redundant?

[Bonam]

I hate Christmas. I can't wait for it to be over. It's just an exercise in stress trying to spend money I don't have to buy presents that nobody wants just so some business owner or some stockholder can get a little richer.

Easy solution: if you don't want to buy the presents, and the prospective receivers don't want the presents, don't buy them! It's not rocket science.

[Guest]

They don't know they don't want them.

They will buy me stuff they don't know I don't want.

[Bonam]

They don't know they don't want them.

They will buy me stuff they don't know I don't want.

In my family we each make lists of exactly what we want. The lists are long enough that each family member can get each other something while only exhausting a portion of the list, thus your gifts are still a "surprise". Was my little sister's idea, she's a smart one.

[Guest]

Yeah, we do the list thing too. It's still a pain. Everybody says, "oh, don't worry about me" but they don't mean it. I do mean it.

It's not so bad when you have little kids, but when everyone is grown, and can simply buy something if they want it...

Maybe I'll try Might AC's idea of getting them all a donation to charity.

The Human Fund! Yeah.

Edited November 29, 2012 by bcsapper

[Sleipnir]

Try a gift card, that never fails lol

[Sleipnir]

If you're celebrating the Yuletide without the Yulfuor, you've just got ... tide.}

Is 'Yulfuor' the right spelling? I tried googling it, but google keeps recognizing it as 'sulfur'

[kimmy]

My fault; it was a misguided attempt to anglicize "Jölfuðr", "Yule Father". "Jöl" to "Yul" is fairly straightforward, but "fuðr" to "fuor" was a complete screw-up. "fodr" would have been more accurate.

-k

[BubberMiley]

In my family we each make lists of exactly what we want.

I couldn't come up with a short list of anything I want, because if I wanted it, I already bought it. Good thing for shirts though. I can always use another shirt. So if I'm on your list, there you go.

[-TSS-]

In Finnish it is called "Joulu", in Swedish "Jul" and in Old English "Yuletide". To call the mid-winter festival as Christmas is a blatant incursion by the religious people. The mid-winter festival long predates Christianity.

[eyeball]

I hate Christmas. I can't wait for it to be over. It's just an exercise in stress...

I hear ya. Why do I need to gather in good cheer with everybody when I'd really rather go have a root-canal?

[eyeball]

That said, my grand-daughter will be almost two this year and I guess I'd forgo the root-canal and go chill with her for the day. It's also probably time to start breaking in the son-in-law on how to pull off a decent turkey-day.

I usually start with pancakes doused in Grand Marnier and blueberry syrup myself.

[-TSS-]

I enjoy christmas. All the decorations bring some light into the darkness of the darkest time of year. I really don't care about the religion-part of all of it.

[Sleipnir]

My fault; it was a misguided attempt to anglicize "Jölfuðr", "Yule Father". "Jöl" to "Yul" is fairly straightforward, but "fuðr" to "fuor" was a complete screw-up. "fodr" would have been more accurate.

Looks complex, I don't blame you for mixing it up lol.

[Guest]

I hear ya. Why do I need to gather in good cheer with everybody when I'd really rather go have a root-canal?

I'd probably rather do Christmas than a root canal, if the root canal lasted a couple of weeks.

[wyly]

I couldn't come up with a short list of anything I want, because if I wanted it, I already bought it. Good thing for shirts though. I can always use another shirt. So if I'm on your list, there you go.

black socks always work for me....there's not much that I need or that I don't already have...could use a supercharger for the truck but not much chance of that happening...

[wyly]

I hear ya. Why do I need to gather in good cheer with everybody when I'd really rather go have a root-canal?

I had a root canal last year, not bad at all even if it did take 5 hrs over two days...a lot less stressful than xmas...

[betsy]

http://www.telegraph...laims-Pope.html

Pope benedict admits, from the bible, that Jesus was not born on December 25th or in Nazareth. He went on to say that Jesus was not born in a manger surrounded by angels or cattle.

It was proposed that the Dec 25th was chosen to coincided with the pagan holiday of Yule, with no other significant meaning. Some scholar placed Jesus's birth date in March 25th or even May 30th.

As a quote from an article:

http://people.howstu.../christmas4.htm

But by the early fourth century, Church leaders decided they needed a Christian alternative to rival popular solstice celebrations. They chose December 25th as the date of Christ's birth and held the first recorded Feast of the Nativity in Rome in A.D. 336. Whether they did so intentionally or not, Church leaders directly challenged a fellow up-start religion by placing the nativity on December 25th. The Cult of Mithras celebrated the birth of their infant god of light on the very same day.

So my thought is, why do we still celebrate something that never happened on December 25th? It's almost like a phantom holiday. December 25th, as it seems more appropriate, should be a celebration of the original meaning - paganism.

That it was celebrated to coincide with a pagan holiday (as a screen - and to make it easier for pagan converts - since there was Christian persecution at the time), God knows what's in the heart.

Anyway, even if we celebrate Christmas on the exact day of Jesus' birth, I think it's still like a "phantom holiday" to a lot of people, and some Christians....since it's become a "celebration" of materialism, really.

Anyway, Christians celebrate the meaning behind the birth of the Messiah. We give thanks to God for sending us His only begotten Son, to save you and I....that we may all have a chance at eternal life.

Edited December 1, 2012 by betsy

[Guest American Woman]

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without the annual "Christmas is meaningless/Christmas is simply materialistic/Christmas is nothing but stress" thread/posts - basically from non-believers. My suggestion would be to either enjoy the season as a holiday - or ignore it. Leave the meaningfulness of it to the believers. Seems to me that should be simple enough to do. Yet every year we have the non-believers pushing their objections to the association of the Christian aspect, which is really what it's all about, as they then claim that Christmas has become nothing but commercialism. I dare say it hasn't lost its meaning to those who believe - and the rest of the crowd looking for "meaning," criticizing the lack of religious association that the atheists have pushed so hard to eliminate, is just, well, amusing.

For the overly-stressed - try focusing on and looking forward to family time, the blessings you have, rather than the gift giving/buying. Just a suggestion. And enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZH0eZ9KT1U

Edited December 1, 2012 by American Woman

[Sleipnir]

We give thanks to God for sending us His only begotten Son, to save you and I....that we may all have a chance at eternal life.

-removed statement-

Edited December 1, 2012 by Sleipnir

[Shady]

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without the annual "Christmas is meaningless/Christmas is simply materialistic/Christmas is nothing but stress" thread/posts - basically from non-believers.

LOL, you're so right! Every year the same threads appear at the same time, about the same things.

[Michael Hardner]

And how exactly did Jesus gave us a chance at eternal life?

That statement assumes that the reader shares the same faith, obviously. There's no reasoning behind this, just faith.

[-TSS-]

As I said, I like christmas, it brings light into the darkest time of year, but having said that, all the fuss about christmas starts to early. The christmas-lights were switched on in the streets a week ago and it was still a month away from the actual christmas.

[kimmy]

LOL, you're so right! Every year the same threads appear at the same time, about the same things.

And every year at this time you're here to talk about "the War on Christmas". I'm sure that once again you'll be out there in the trenches to bring us the latest from the front lines of the War on Christmas. I'm actually a little worried that you may still be suffering PTSD from last year's War on Christmas. We really appreciate the risks you take to bring us front-line coverage. War changes you. "I've seen things, man."

-k

[Michael Hardner]

We did have a new point of debate this year, though, when Stephen Colbert editorialized that Black Friday was becoming too commercialized.

[kimmy]

We did have a new point of debate this year, though, when Stephen Colbert editorialized that Black Friday was becoming too commercialized.

Oh the humanity... to me, I think the human cost of the War on Prices is becoming too high.

-k