Since I won't be posting on Christmas Day, I thought I'd take this opportunity to wish all my Christian friends a Merry Christmas. As for all the atheists out there, I wish you a Happy Bah Humbug. Try not to be a Grinch. For all who will be celebrating, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about Christmas and what it means to you. I'll post some of my own thoughts later in the thread...
December 25th is Christmas - it doesn't matter if a person is Christian or not, saying Merry Christmas is just acknowledging the holiday. Atheists still celebrate Christmas - so no bah humbug there. The war on Christmas is not real except in the minds of those who want to claim victimhood as a Christian. Merry Christmas to ALL!
Many forget that it was the Pagan celebration of the Winter solstice, far longer than it's been Christmas. We celebrate the season for our friends that are Jewish & Christian. We celebrate coming together as a family. It's a fantastic time of year. Merry Christmas to you, Talon. I don't appreciate your calling me Bah Humbug, though. We are generous people. We were able to dramatically increase our seasonal donations this year, as we've been very fortunate. Food banks, Toys for Tots, and a charity working to help small restaurants through COVID, have all been the recipients of cash from Bah Humbug, and Mr. Humbug.
One post in and people are already bashing Christians. FYI, this happened in my own area, Pants: Christmas songs with “Jesus” excluded from winter concert https://www.nbc12.com/2018/10/10/christmas-songs-with-jesus-excluded-winter-concert/ Like Jacob Marley to Dickens' Scrooge, it's just an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato...
I'm agnostic and not religious by any means, but I'll still tell you Merry Christmas, if for no other reason than common courtesy.
I'm a Christian! And I take serious offence to those who whine about people bah humbugging when told Merry Christmas. It's never happened to me or anyone I know - we've had this discussion. And I know many atheists who still celebrate the holiday, albeit without a creche. But to be fair, I know very few Christians who have a creche anymore. In fact, I'm quite an elf myself - baking throughout the month of December and happily joining in any and all festivities in the area.
We can't really say Merry Christmas to strangers down here. Half of our friends, who are religious, are Jewish, so, when at stores and such, we just say, "Enjoy your holiday." If someone must be offended by that, I choose the Christians who don't appreciate that there are other religions celebrating something during this month, too. Personally, we don't know any such Christians. I believe they are in the severe minority, and have been told to be offended by Fox News.
seems some wish to be selfish (scrooges) and try to make chistmas a christian only holiday, but this is America and that will never happen - christmas is for everyone that wants to celebrate it - peace to all and hope everyone has a great christmas this year, no matter what they believe - christmas should be about bringing people together, not tearing them apart based on what they believe
Indeed, and there are quite a few pagan celebrations and traditions that were incorporated into the Christmas festivities we are familiar with today, for example this jolly old Ancient Roman bacchanal: Saturnalia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia https://www.history.com/topics/anci...he traditions we now associate with Christmas. Merry Christmas to you as well, CA, and I didn't have atheists such as yourself in mind when I made my tongue in cheek greeting to the atheists in this forum who are fond of bashing Christians and Christianity in this neck of the Political Forum. I expect they'll be making an appearance at some point...
I agree, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wishing someone happy holidays, I do it all winter (except on Christmas day of course, then I say merry Christmas), it's just natural I do not say 'happy new years' on Dec 1st either, but I do say it on Jan 1st I may say "hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy new year", but not just plain "merry Christmas" or plain "happy new year" on days other than those holidays --- "happy holidays" is shorter and covers all the holidays, can be said all winter long and without offending anyone, the displays can be left up all winter long, so obviously retailers prefer it
Thank you, Talon. I'm not an atheist. I'm just agnostic. I have no opinion whatsoever, and completely respect the beliefs of my friends, family & strangers, too.
If that comment was directly or indirectly aimed at me I apologize if that is what you took out of the OP because that was not my intent. I'm an Agnostic myself who has no problem with anyone celebrating Christmas as they see fit. As I implied in the question I posed to everyone, I understand that this holiday means different things to different people.
It is unfortunate - and I think we have Bill O'Reilly to "thank" for this - that you can't wish people Happy Holidays without being accused of waging war on Christmas. When I was young that was never an issue.
Now I'm going to submit something that somewhat expresses my own appreciation for Christmas and the birth of Jesus. This is an excerpt from Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago, and the quote is taken from a conversation between Yuri Zhivago's uncle Nikolai, a former Orthodox priest, and his friend Ivan (his scene is not in David Lean's film): "What you don't understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels. Now what is history? Its beginning is that of the systematic work devoted to the solution of the enigma of death, so that death may eventually be overcome. This why people write symphonies, and why they discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves. Now, you can't advance in this direction without a certain upsurge of spirit. You can't make such discoveries without spiritual equipment, and for this, everything necessary has been given us in the Gospels. What is it? Firstly, the love of one's neighbor - the supreme form of living energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And secondly, the two concepts which are the main part of the make-up of modern man - without them he is inconceivable - the ideas of free personality and of life regarded as sacrifice. Mind you, this is all new. There was no history in this sense in the classical world. There you had the blood and beastliness and cruelty and pock-marked Caligulas untouched by the suspicion that any man who enslaves others is inevitably second-rate. There you had the boastful and dead eternity of bronze monuments and marble columns. It was not until after the coming of Christ that time and man could breathe freely. It was not until after Him that men began to live in their posterity and ceased to die in ditches like dogs - instead they died at home, in history, at the height of the work they devoted to the conquest of death, being themselves dedicated to this aim." This theme is echoed in the works of scholars (ex. Larry Siedentop) who asserted that it was Jesus who overturned the assumption of natural inequality that prevailed in the Classical world. This was a dangerous and revolutionary idea for its time.
We haven't put the tree up yet. Will do tomorrow I guess. Sure we are celebrating and having the usual suspects over on the 24th and on the 25th. Just been working on some home improvement that has turned the house upside down so I am still righting the ship before I decorate. My house isn't huge so clearing out of the biggest rooms in it for the work just flooded the rest of the house with flotsam and jetsam
Try wearing a shirt with Jesus on it even at Christmas and liberals will beat you down for intolerance.
*sigh* some Christians just feel the need to paint themselves as victims. Merry Christmas to the rest of the Christians who don't feel the need to hang themselves on a cross. Though an agnostic myself, I really enjoy the spirit of Christmas, the pageantry, the food and traditions, the music, the gatherings ... and hope it's a great season for all ... even Melania.
That doesn't change the reality. I would literally dare you to walk around a college campus with a Jesus shirt that isn't mocking Him.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who hasn't had an opportunity to put a Christmas tree up. I suffered a Paul Bunyan-related injury right before Thanksgiving, so this will be the first year in my entire life I won't be having a tannenbaum in the house during the Holidays. In its place we're going to build a roaring fire and fill the house with candles on Christmas and hold a little Festival of Lights. To add to the ambience I'm going to break out my wife's collection of Medieval and Renaissance Christmas music, which I'm hoping will give our little cabin in the woods the feel of a miniature cathedral. I'm also glad to hear you'll be having company over and celebrating with your friends. Have a great time - Merry Christmas.
Christmas music is beautiful; especially the religious songs. There is no better Christmas song than O Holy Night.
I'll second that sentiment. Here's a little something off one of my wife's traditional Christmas albums:
No problem. Millions of students walk around with cross necklaces every day without harm. I find it sad and funny that if you walk into any Christian bookstore, you'll find a hundred titles mocking Mormons for their faith, yet Christians keep complaining about being victims of ridicule.
