Christmas - What is the message?

[oggbashan]

Recently delivered through my door was a 16-page catalogue of a local supermarket's Christmas lights offering.

There are Santas, and parcels, and reindeer and Penguins. Why ******* Penguins? But nothing at all about the Nativity, not even a star.

Pepsi are running a TV advert trying to persuade people that Coca-Cola, responsible for the red-coated Santa is not the real thing - Pepsi is.

Most adverts for Christmas are about spend, spend, spend - nothing at all about the Nativity.

Has Christ been erased from Christmas where you are?

 

[KeithD]

I think the election has staved off thoughts of Christmas in the States so far this year. Also, the Trump Virus has kept people from wanting to think about gathering for Christmas at all. (Good thing it went away by last Easter and then again by election day.)

 

[butters]

there's still plenty of nativity stuff around, ogg, but fewer people in the uk are church-going people and--let's face it--christmas day as a christian religious celebration day usurped a pagan sun celebration day, the winter solstice.

Christmas was originally celebrated during the first week of January.

But Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered in 354 that all Christians celebrate the birth of the Christ child on December 25. Syrian Christian Bishop Dionysius Salibi writing in the 12th Century explained why: “”It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of the festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day.” Their leaders told them they would be celebrating the birth of the true Sun – Sol Iustitiae – the Sun of Righteousness – Christ.

Before the advent of the Gregorian calendar (Julian calendar – 45 BC – was Julius Caesar’s reform of the Roman calendar), the Winter Solstice came on December 25.

But then it was reborn after the Solstice, as the days lengthen and the sun rises higher and higher in the sky. Once again the Sun proved invincible to the eyes of its beholders. Just as it always had conquered the evils of darkness each night as a new day dawned, no matter how far it fell the Invincible Sun rose once more. And so for merry-making on December 25, lit up by torches and made joyful by decorations of branches and small trees, the Romans celebrated the “Feast of the Invincible Sun.”

my advice is: ignore the adverts. celebrate what makes you happy.

for me, i'm all about celebrating xmas as a time of people coming together, finding hope in the dark days of winter. eat, drink, be merry. i happily embrace some elements of the christian experience like the carol concerts, but see them as just a part of the human need to find beauty in the dark. love me a christmas tree and fairy lights, making/buying gifts for those i love, and just celebrating love. i allow neither commercialism nor religion to spoil it for me

 

[islandman]

The War on Christmas continues.

 

[RobDownSouth]

The War on Christmas continues.

Lest we forget...

Fock Grease Mess!

 

[Biggs_Darklighter]

Gotta be careful not to piss off robot Santa.

 

[Rockymtnman]

Recently delivered through my door was a 16-page catalogue of a local supermarket's Christmas lights offering.

There are Santas, and parcels, and reindeer and Penguins. Why ******* Penguins? But nothing at all about the Nativity, not even a star.

Pepsi are running a TV advert trying to persuade people that Coca-Cola, responsible for the red-coated Santa is not the real thing - Pepsi is.

Most adverts for Christmas are about spend, spend, spend - nothing at all about the Nativity.

Has Christ been erased from Christmas where you are?

Well Christ isn’t real and Christmas was stolen from the pagans. Take five minutes and read about Saturnalia and how there’s no way Jesus was born in December based upon the descriptions in the Bible. If Jesus was real, and that’s the biggest if that’s ever existed, it’s more than likely he was born late summer or early fall.

 

[oggbashan]

The Grinch has stolen Christmas...

PS: I don't care that 25 December is not the actual day. We in the UK have a Queen's official birthday which is not the day she was born...

25 December is the official day for the Nativity.

 

[jaF0]

Money, it's a crime.
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say.
Is the root of all evil today.

 

[HarryHill]

Recently delivered through my door was a 16-page catalogue of a local supermarket's Christmas lights offering.

There are Santas, and parcels, and reindeer and Penguins. Why ******* Penguins? But nothing at all about the Nativity, not even a star.

Pepsi are running a TV advert trying to persuade people that Coca-Cola, responsible for the red-coated Santa is not the real thing - Pepsi is.

Most adverts for Christmas are about spend, spend, spend - nothing at all about the Nativity.

Has Christ been erased from Christmas where you are?

..
Humbug, save now, electricity, gas, anxiety, coinage, Pepsi.

 

[SevMax2]

Money, it's a crime.
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say.
Is the root of all evil today.

But if you ask for a rise, no surprise, they're giving none away...away...away...


Very fitting lyrics for what is sure to be a very lean Christmas here in America.

 

[coati]

Yeah, well Christ got pretty pissed off about what has happened to his birthday celebration. He flipped over the merchants' tables recently, after his dad sent us a plague.

Now we've got idiots like FGB openly following Satan.

I agree with another poster, make it into whatever has real meaning for you, Tiny Tim.

 

[Wrong Element]

Penguins are not really part of typical Christmas iconography, not surprising since they're not Northern Hemisphere animals and Santa is famously a Northern Hemisphere resident.

 

[rae121452]

the message is: buy a bunch of shit that no one needs, give it to your associates to show how altruistic you are and then feel really good about yourself while reinforcing capitalism.

 

[rae121452]

oh! and penguins are cute. enough said.

 

[NickBarn89]

Recently delivered through my door was a 16-page catalogue of a local supermarket's Christmas lights offering.

There are Santas, and parcels, and reindeer and Penguins. Why ******* Penguins? But nothing at all about the Nativity, not even a star.

Pepsi are running a TV advert trying to persuade people that Coca-Cola, responsible for the red-coated Santa is not the real thing - Pepsi is.

Most adverts for Christmas are about spend, spend, spend - nothing at all about the Nativity.

Has Christ been erased from Christmas where you are?

It is alive and well here in the middle of America where churches far outnumber bars, and this is a college town! Is it commercialized too? Yeah, to an extent, but that's what Americans do; sell that which they are most emotionally vested in. Otherwise, we'd be, I imagine, Switzerland...

 

[NickBarn89]

Yeah, well Christ got pretty pissed off about what has happened to his birthday celebration. He flipped over the merchants' tables recently, after his dad sent us a plague.

Now we've got idiots like FGB openly following Satan.

I agree with another poster, make it into whatever has real meaning for you, Tiny Tim.

You got that story very wrong. Very wrong. Hang your head...

 

[oggbashan]

For two years running, our local mosque has had a nativity scene.

Why not? They accept Jesus as a prophet...

 

[NickBarn89]

Deceitful outreach - "You can fool some of the people some of the time..."

 

[BrokenBarbie]

They threw the nativity scene off of public property here a couple years ago, but a local businessman bought an empty building on Main Street and had it demolished, turned it into a nicely kept lawn with underground power feed. He hosts the scene there now.

 

[NickBarn89]

Good for him.
Urban areas need more green.

 

[Jada59]

Dammit! I typed out a very long reply and it disappeared. So I'll boil it down to Covid.

Here, we are not allowed to celebrate. We can do whatever with the people we live with. But we are not to visit, have people over or socialize. No church either. So... What's the point?

My gardener may or may not be here on the day. I have a $5 tinsel wreath for us to enjoy. We usually exchange lottery tickets but I may also give him a small gift or money.

My daughter and I will wear masks. She'll drive by so we can exchange gifts through the window of her car.

I may drive to my brother's place and drop something off outside. Or have it sent. Have to send to my nephew and his family. They're a bit far away and we're not supposed to drive much. Driving means getting gas and touching things. Could get Covid that way. My mom is on total lockdown (senior living) so have to send to her. I've seen her twice in all of Covid. I took her a Morganite crystal the other day. And thy're back on lockdown.

What's to celebrate? Nothing here.

 

[coati]

They're a bit far away and we're not supposed to drive much. Driving means getting gas and touching things. Could get Covid that way.

If you have not figured out how to get gas without contracting COVID, I can see why you sound so pessimistic.

 

[phrodeau]

Recently delivered through my door was a 16-page catalogue of a local supermarket's Christmas lights offering.

There are Santas, and parcels, and reindeer and Penguins. Why ******* Penguins? But nothing at all about the Nativity, not even a star.

Pepsi are running a TV advert trying to persuade people that Coca-Cola, responsible for the red-coated Santa is not the real thing - Pepsi is.

Most adverts for Christmas are about spend, spend, spend - nothing at all about the Nativity.

Has Christ been erased from Christmas where you are?

If the word Christmas is in the ad, Christ is involved.

 

[Rockymtnman]

They threw the nativity scene off of public property here a couple years ago, but a local businessman bought an empty building on Main Street and had it demolished, turned it into a nicely kept lawn with underground power feed. He hosts the scene there now.

As they should have and that’s awesome by the local business man. As an atheist, I’m all for freedom of religion as long as it’s done on private property and not sanctioned or paid for by the government in anyway.