I love Christmas! it's got to be one of my favourite times of year, i know people bang on about the commercial side of it but Christmas is what you make of it, people celebrate it in different ways.
It's our Son's 12th birthday on 21st December so Christmas starts then for usused to love taking him into town to see the lights when he was teeny tiny, he'd always ask if the lights were up for him for his birthday
on religious grounds (and as a practicing christian), I agree christmas does have some authenticity issues. We don't actually know on which day christ was born, and it certainly wasn't in the year 0. Anyway, we consider Easter a much more important festival anyway (anyone can be born, but christ actually rose from the dead!).
On psychological grounds, I think it's a good idea to have a jolly, happy festival in wintertime. Lets face it, if there was no christmas to look forward to this time of year, there would be alot more suicides. Yes, I know there are alot of people who are miserable because they feel lonely at christmas time, and I agree commerciallism has got completely out of hand. These are symptoms of the 'modern' society we now live in I'm afraid.
I think people moaning about commercalisim, i mean why?
Yes it costs money, but its fun, thats the idea of commercalisim, a key backbone of our economy, people always say "oh to buy all the food and presents its expesnive" but there is so much extra work going round in the run up to xmas you can easily earn that money.
Why have just one day when you celebrate, why not make it every day?
If you eat stake everyday, after a few weeks you forget how damn good it is. Humans are relative machines (due to how nural nets work) and tend to not be able to remeber a truely great event if that event is on-going. So with our family its the massive roast goose, oodles of trimmings, the fact we have the "specail" plates out (which are extra large and can't fit in the dishwasher). The sheer glutteny of the event even thou there are people starving (who quite frankly, no one gives a hoot about, because they are selfish and want to be happy). To asign religous or deep spiritual meaning is one of those things that could be done to my cuddly toy, and would serve as much purpose. The event as many have said was a pagan one, when chrisitianity was spreading, they realised that they couldn't stop people celebrating or they wouldn't convert (well the more cult like religoins ban celebrations to do this, but thats a differen't physcological ball park). As such they assigned religous meanings to the celebration.
So in short, have fun, be selfish with your friends + family, have fun choosing presents that refelect how you feal and care for them, and vice versa. Then feast + drink till you reach that loverly plain where your on the edge of dosing off with complete relaxation.
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I wasn't moaning about commercialism per se, I feel (like alot of people it seems)that it's completely out of hand. I think the average spend per person last year on christmas was abot 1800 quid. In geek terms that's four 7800 512's! Considering the average person in this country owes something like 100,000 at the moment, it seems like alot to spend on one day. I'm not an accountant but the long term sums simply don't add up.
I'm not saying don't buy any christmas presents, I'm saying there is far more to it then just the commercial aspect. I've got three kids, all have written great long lists to father christmas. I've budgetted the same amount for each child and will not spend a penny more.
It's far more then a public holiday, a big meal and loads of prezzies. If that's all people care about then they're missing out on alot - but then I would say that, wouldn't I! If you are caught up with commerciallism this christmas, do yourself a favour and give the gift of time to help out at a homeless shelter one night, talk to those people, you may get to know a different meaning to christmas. When you're sitting at the dinner table feeling smug that you've just bought that ferrari your sister always wanted, it might make you think of others not fortunate enough to be able to afford christmas.
Sorry for the rant but that's exactly what I mean when I say christmas is too commercialised now. And no, it wasn't always like that.
It doesn't really matter why (historically) we have chosen to celebrate Christmas (the event) on 25th December - the arguments about forcing people to appear to join in the Christian celebration no longer apply - nor does it matter why (historically) we follow certain Christmas traditions. As a Christian, I don't think that Jesus was born on 25th December, and I don't really care. It's not like a birthday party, which is kind of a celebration of having stayed alive for another year. Christmas is about the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, came to live on Earth as a human, which is WAY more significant!!
Of course, I celebrate that fact all through the year - I wouldn't be a Christian if I didn't think Jesus had really been born and lived. It's just that on 25th December I get to celebrate that publically and remind others about it too. That's why I give presents, why I have decorations up etc etc. The fact that others have done and are doing the same sorts of things for other reasons doesn't make me feel the need to stop, though it does make me sad - especially to think of people celebrating the fact that the days are going to get longer again, without giving a thought to the God who causes that to happen...
Just to add to the pagan festival info - the origins of tinsel are not all that nice. Apparently the pagans would feast on livestock to bring good fortune and fertility for the coming year, and having disembowelled the animals, they would hang their entrails in the trees! Gotta love the roots of our annual festivities - celebrating the burning of a quite possibly innocent man for terrorism (bonfire night) is another good one!
We don't normally agree when it's a religious debate going on, but this time I agree with you 100%.Originally Posted by Stewart
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