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  • Boycotting Christmas

    A lot of people secretly feel that boycotting Christmas would be a benefit to most of us. Many films - mostly comedies - have addressed this issue and have done well in the box offices. The story of Scrooge is a classic!

    But think about it, Christmas is a Pagan tradition adopted by the Christian church and actually has nothing to do with Christ. Santa Claus was originally a very evil man who punished children for misbehaving.

    Most of us lose work, spend money we don't have, get our parenting routines messed up and stress over this holiday.

    The peer pressure starts even before Halloween and keeps growing until boxing Day.

    What are the arguments? It's a tradition, it's fun for the kids? so is making snow men and you can do that all winter long for FREE.

    It's such a massive industry ( same as family court ) that to dare to go against it is a sure guarantee of being socially ostracized and labelled as an atheist radical! I believe in God, not in Christmas.

    Just a vent, not meant of offend anyone .....

  • #2
    Originally posted by Janibel View Post
    A lot of people secretly feel that boycotting Christmas would be a benefit to most of us. Many films - mostly comedies - have addressed this issue and have done well in the box offices. The story of Scrooge is a classic!

    But think about it, Christmas is a Pagan tradition adopted by the Christian church and actually has nothing to do with Christ. Santa Claus was originally a very evil man who punished children for misbehaving.

    Most of us lose work, spend money we don't have, get our parenting routines messed up and stress over this holiday.

    The peer pressure starts even before Halloween and keeps growing until boxing Day.

    What are the arguments? It's a tradition, it's fun for the kids? so is making snow men and you can do that all winter long for FREE.

    It's such a massive industry ( same as family court ) that to dare to go against it is a sure guarantee of being socially ostracized and labelled as an atheist radical! I believe in God, not in Christmas.

    Just a vent, not meant of offend anyone .....
    Heard an interesting recently sermon on the duality of Christmas.

    Saint Nickolas was NOT an evil person, he was a priest who, depending on which version you believe was a generous kind man who helped those in need.

    There are various charecters, Crampus, Black Peter etc., who punished the bad, but they were later additions, and usually related to some of the pagan traditions that morphed into our Christmas ones.

    I have no problems with enjoying the sacred aspects of Christmas. The music is special to me, the season of hope (advent, prior to Christmas) and joy (the birth of the child) are both very special to me.

    The commercialization is a very human thing. We don't need to spend a lot of money to have Christmas, it should be about family and celebrating the birth of Jesus, not putting on light shows and maxing out credit cards. Many of those who chose that ignore the sacred.

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    • #3
      I think with everything you need to take the good and leave the bad.

      As an overall industry christmas is simply a marketing stunt wrapped on top of some day of the year..

      Individually with your families it would be ideal to strip out the gift giving that is really unneeded or with money you don't have and focus on the spending time with family.

      On a societal level, it would take a (r)evolution to remove the commercial interest stranglehold on our holidays. The problem is that things people perceive as innocent are double edged swords that are innocent happy moments but are linked to agrandizing christmas which translates into celebrating it properly ie gift giving beyond your means.

      I am not even christian/catholic

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      • #4
        We attempted something different this year. The kids are use to a big Christmas with a lot of presents and because they have 4+ Christmas they get SPOILED! The problem is, they get soo much and are only here EOW and other Holidays they don't play with it all. We still have gifts sitting in their closet from last Christmas that have not been opened. We had them go through their room and anything that was unopened was donated, they also donated some toys that were open but didn't really play with. They really enjoyed this.

        For presents, we tried to stick to a plan, it didn't go exactly as planned but it worked fairly well.

        We did the following:

        Something they want
        Something they need
        Something to wear
        Something to read

        They got a couple outfits, 3 books each, 3 things they asked for and a couple things they needed.

        They each got about 10 gifts each, all small and actually fairly inexpensive items. We told them part of our Christmas budget had to go towards going to visit family. Surprisingly they understood. They are actually pretty good at understanding that we are not a bank and have to plan for things.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Berner_Faith View Post
          We had them go through their room and anything that was unopened was donated, they also donated some toys that were open but didn't really play with. They really enjoyed this.
          That's what Christmas should be about - appreciating how lucky we are. Children benefit from learning how to share with others

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Links17 View Post

            Individually with your families it would be ideal to strip out the gift giving that is really unneeded or with money you don't have and focus on the spending time with family.
            That's my plan for this year - keeping simple and real

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by DowntroddenDad View Post



              The commercialization is a very human thing. We don't need to spend a lot of money to have Christmas, it should be about family and celebrating the birth of Jesus, not putting on light shows and maxing out credit cards. Many of those who chose that ignore the sacred.
              Putting Christ back into Christmas -Santa (who the heck is that anyway?)

              Comment


              • #8
                I'm not religious or a christian. Christmas was originally a pagan holiday celebrating the winter solstice. However, if you're religious and find meaning in making it a religious holiday...that's wonderful and that's what you should do.

                Personally, I use christmas to celebrate my family and my children. I get time off of work. We get to visit friends and family we haven't seen in a while. We just spend time reminding ourselves how lucky we are and enjoying each other.

                Whether you're religious or not...christmas is really about being thankful and showing your appreciation for the people you love by giving them gifts. For me, there's a feeling that goes along with the season that's magical and fun. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday this year in whatever way you choose to spend it.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I believe Christmas and the pagan Winter festival came into being at the same time in different geographic locations.

                  I agree that Christmas has different meanings to different people. No different than people who wed in a Church - some people find it a religious ceremony and others merely want to have the beauty of the church as a backdrop for their exchange of "I Do's."

                  Boxing Day also has several meanings depending upon where you live. I was raised to believe it was the day one boxed things up for charity. Nowadays it simply means "shop till you drop."

                  Hope everyone has a great Christmas and hope Santa rewards the good boys and girls on this forum!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by arabian View Post
                    I believe Christmas and the pagan Winter festival came into being at the same time in different geographic locations.

                    I agree that Christmas has different meanings to different people. No different than people who wed in a Church - some people find it a religious ceremony and others merely want to have the beauty of the church as a backdrop for their exchange of "I Do's."

                    Boxing Day also has several meanings depending upon where you live. I was raised to believe it was the day one boxed things up for charity. Nowadays it simply means "shop till you drop."

                    Hope everyone has a great Christmas and hope Santa rewards the good boys and girls on this forum!
                    It was common for the early church to try and recruit by merging Christian holidays with pagan ones. Hence Christmas, whose timing wasn't really known, got glommed onto other pagan rites, and we have Christmas trees. Easter eggs are similarly pagan. But, Christmas has been around since the very early church, how we celebrate it has changed. Gifts were taken from the gifts of the wise men, but weren't such a big deal until the commercialism of the last century and a half. Boxing day used to be where the rich would present boxes of gifts to their tennents, and later the poor.

                    It really is for me the thought that counts. Given the weather, my GF gave me one present early, a hand knit wool hat. I could buy a warm hat for $10 and already had an expensive ski hat lined with thinsolate. But she designed this hat herself, and it tool hours to knit, so it is the thought that counts.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I use Christmas double duty.

                      I buy her the winter clothing she needs and even a few spring items. She gets a new pair of shoes/boots (fashion type) every year and they generally last her until the next Christmas. I buy her a pile of books because she loves reading and every year she gets a classic board game to add to the collection in the house - and that she'll take with her when she's grown (Monopoly, Scrabble, Life). She'll get one bigger toy/electronic type thing - last year it was a laptop, but I consider computers to be a necessity these days. This year she'll get a cell phone, which again, is something that I'll be glad she has.

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                      • #12
                        I'm Jewish, and I love Christmas! lol! I love the music, the lights, the decorations. It's a time where we all get to be together....time off work, kids not in school, oldest son home from university. Nice meals, giving gifts or acts of kindness, watching all the specials together that I watched as a child. The whole month is time of celebration, eating together, being together and anything you want to make it. It doesn't have to be about spending money. December is just a month of trying to find peace, joy, togetherness, etc. Some years the kids get a lot, some years they've had very little. But they've loved Hanukkah and Christmas regardless.

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                        • #13
                          We do a lot of celebrating in December (Yule, Saturnalia) but don't do Christmas. I don't believe in the Christ mythology and don't care for the Santa tradition so we skip that holiday but do a lot of other things this time of year.
                          We also focus a lot on giving to people who are worse off than we are, as winter is especially difficult for them.
                          My kids do get gifts, but the focus is more on celebrating the season and helping other people through winter than it is on getting a whole bunch of presents.

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                          • #14
                            We decided to skip the consumerism this year.

                            I'm sitting on a beach in the cayman islands at the moment. And tho there are turkeys in the freezer here in the grocery stores, I think we've decided on surf n turf for Christmas day, with a cold caybrew or pinacolada.

                            No presents ( though I am doing stockings, I have to do something!)
                            Start a discussion, not a fire. Post with kindness.

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                            • #15
                              Awesome! - now that's my idea of a pretty great Christmas. Enjoy!

                              Comment

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