Should we be celebrating Christmas?

[ilikeitlikethat]

You forgot about Vunter Slaush!

View attachment 17365

That's not Santa.
That's someone else.

The less said about Dutch Santa, the better; but you brought it up so; here goes -
Is this Dutch holiday character racist? - CNN Video

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

My dad told me when I was two there was no Sandy Claws. Made me promise not to tell the other kids.

It indicates that your dad respected you and had high expectations of you. What about you do you think he finds most disappointing?

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Christmas used to stress me out. I felt like I had to get something for everyone in my extended family. I have enjoyed Christmas so much more since I discovered Buy Nothing Christmas. I convinced each branch of my family to forego the usual gift orgy in favor of just getting together. Now the only people I get gifts for are my kids and my nieces and nephew. Sometimes I make something for other family members, food or a craft or something, but that's it.

I don't have a problem with the pagan origins of Christmas. That doesn't make it evil. I love Advent even more than Christmas, actually. My church also does a "Darkest Night" service on the winter solstice, acknowledging that the holidays aren't all joyful and happy for all of us. I lost my mom and my grandmother last year just before the holiday season began and it was a difficult year to celebrate. But my family and my church always come together and there's joy even in the midst of sadness.

I hope the holidays are more happy for you this year. It sounds nice that you have so much support.

What other things do you and your extended family do during get togethers?

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

It's slightly different; It's a yule log that kids beat the shit out of demanding it defecates presents.

Merry Christmas everybody!

You know, I actually thought these kids were getting their shit out of the toilet and carrying it around for a while until beating it with a stick. But it's really just a wooden log. That seems okay.

 

[The Cat]

It indicates that your dad respected you and had high expectations of you. What about you do you think he finds most disappointing?

disappointing? I'm not certain I understand your question, could you elaborate?

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

disappointing? I'm not certain I understand your question, could you elaborate?

It was my sad attempt at humor....How do you think this experience with your dad affected the course of your life and your worldview?

 

[The Cat]

It was my sad attempt at humor....How do you think this experience with your dad affected the course of your life and your worldview?

I honestly feel it made me more receptive to things. believe it or not.

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

You know, I actually thought these kids were getting their shit out of the toilet and carrying it around for a while until beating it with a stick. But it's really just a wooden log. That seems okay.

Savages ..
Teaching kids; beat something up and demand gifts from it as you beat it up; like
'I fed you, fattened you up, now pay out, bitch!'
*wack
'I said where's my presents bitch?!'
*wack
*chop


I wonder if I could produce some sort of breakable storage container and have it log shaped and decorated; like a piñata where you could put gifts in; different sizes depending on how much gifts you wish to store; a product aimed at the Catalonian market.

 

[Coriolis]

Fan of Christmas lights here too. If there wasn't Christmas, maybe people would have lights up all year. That would be better.

That's wasteful of energy, which is one reason I don't bother decorating the outside of my house. We are far enough away from the neighbor houses that the decorations would have to be lit up somehow to be visible. I have one of those neighbors, though, with outrageous, gaudy lights all over his house and yard. He used to have a huge inflatable Santa Claus on his front lawn. Almost every day, by evening it would deflate enough that the head would sink into the body. We called him "(completely) headless Nick".

Symbols construct our mental-scape, which affects how we interact with the world. I feel like Christians don't understand these symbols or their bible stories, and that creates chaos and confusion in the world, not just during the holidays, but all year.

Pagans understand the symbols. Indeed, many Christians do not, and seem content in their ignorance. Of course some simply redefine the symbols to fit their perspective, which I suppose is fair game.

 

[The Cat]

Pagans understand the symbols. Indeed, many Christians do not, and seem content in their ignorance. Of course some simply redefine the symbols to fit their perspective, which I suppose is fair game.

[/QUOTE]

Some of us dig deeper into things, much deeper than some of our fellow seem comfortable with. I've learned to keep some of my studies to myself...which was hard, and made me feel kind of sad tbh.

 

[HongDou]

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Savages ..
Teaching kids; beat something up and demand gifts from it as you beat it up; like
'I fed you, fattened you up, now pay out, bitch!'
*wack
'I said where's my presents bitch?!'
*wack
*chop


I wonder if I could produce some sort of breakable storage container and have it log shaped and decorated; like a piñata where you could put gifts in; different sizes depending on how much gifts you wish to store; a product aimed at the Catalonian market.

I like it. Seems clever. Instead of wrapping a bunch of presents, you could just stuff them all into one pinata and let the children fight over them. And put breakables in there too, just to be an ass.

Maybe, with a book to go with it, you could sell it in a similar way to Elf on the Shelf. A normal pinata is probably passe. It should be something that is maybe more durable, I think.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

That's wasteful of energy, which is one reason I don't bother decorating the outside of my house.

I love the grandma from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation laughing when Clark can't get the lights on, and she says, "I hope you kids see what a waste of resources this is." I don't know if you'd do that. I think you're actually a nicer person than her, but that's what the above reminds me of.

We are far enough away from the neighbor houses that the decorations would have to be lit up somehow to be visible. I have one of those neighbors, though, with outrageous, gaudy lights all over his house and yard. He used to have a huge inflatable Santa Claus on his front lawn. Almost every day, by evening it would deflate enough that the head would sink into the body. We called him "(completely) headless Nick".

The gaudiness can be obscene and messy when there's just a bunch of random inflatable stuff strewn across the yard. I wonder if ENFP's are in charge of those decorations.

There's a house a couple over from ours. They've got a Frosty the Snowman with a red light shining on him and they've got Mrs. Frosty (I guess?) with a green light on her. It looks eerie. I know those morons well enough that I'm certain they didn't do it to be funny, which is the part that makes me laugh. We call it a Christmas House of Horrors.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Some of us dig deeper into things, much deeper than some of our fellow seem comfortable with. I've learned to keep some of my studies to myself...which was hard, and made me feel kind of sad tbh.

I've experienced the same. When I first started pondering the virtues of Christmas, I asked a friend who'd gone to church all her life about it, and it seemed like I offended her. I thought since she proselytized all the time it was cool to ask. Maybe I caught her off guard or something. Later she messaged me a picture of the birthday cake she baked for Jesus, which was new for her. The whole interaction around this topic felt strange for me.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I don't believe in celebrating Christmas. I prefer to celebrate Chrimbus. Winterman > Santa.

 

[Coriolis]

I love the grandma from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation laughing when Clark can't get the lights on, and she says, "I hope you kids see what a waste of resources this is." I don't know if you'd do that. I think you're actually a nicer person than her, but that's what the above reminds me of.

I do think rather unkind thoughts in situations like this, but know enough to keep them to myself. It is not for me to tell the neighbors what to do. I just make sure I don't do the things I think are wasteful, or otherwise ill advised.

Some of us dig deeper into things, much deeper than some of our fellow seem comfortable with. I've learned to keep some of my studies to myself...which was hard, and made me feel kind of sad tbh.

I do the same, sharing them mainly with those who are truly interested, or who have a track record of open-mindedness. Every now and then, though, I will unleash an idea or two on some unsuspecting schmuck soul who really needs to be shaken up a bit and broaden his horizons. I cannot fathom willful ignorance, and it always is a disappointment.

 

[kyuuei]

I never ever understood why more Christians didn't rebel against the whole idea of Christmas or Easter, given the pagan nature of the holidays.

But since I am pagan, I love seeing the decor! At the end of the day, more and more people are making the holiday a personal one as society keeps peeling away from religion.

 

[The Cat]

I like to think that a lot of us are realizing that most of the dogma that's cropped up around various denominations actually has very little to do with the whole basis of our faith as I understand it. Which is essentially that we love God and love others as we love ourselves. We were never meant to sit in judgement of our fellows, but to show them love and compassion. To show justice with mercy, forgiveness. Nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes, and are human. There's so much to learn and discover in this life and I'm driven to learn and understand as much as I can. To qoute a cliche I believe that's part of why I was born. I totally agree that there's nothing quite so terrible as willful ignorance, I believe that pretty much every atrocity through history is rooted in ignorance. I guess everyone has something, but I think for the most part people try to rise above it. But nobody's perfect. This is just one flawed person's opinion, offered with respect to different ones.

 

[EcK]

The Top 10 Reasons Christmas is Evil: Holiday Hoax! | Heavy.com

I can see why atheists might be fine with it, but is it wholesome for Christians? And to what extent is it okay?

The answer is: if you want to, of course

 

[Merced]

Eh, I like the aesthetic and consumerism has its charm. I'm hindu and my christian family is anti-fake holiday so it doesn't have a huge place in my home. I would even go as far as saying I'm the most festive person in my household and I don't even celebrate it.