Hey Bill O! The REAL War on Christmas was waged and won a long time ago.

[AFK]

It's that time of year when Bill O and others across the country get all frothed up about the War on Christmas. They're all Grinched up because some municipalities want to call their Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree and they put up signs that say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

Besides it being a rather petty and pointless argument, what I don't get is how they can ignore the actual War on Christmas that has been waged for a long time now. One that Christmas has lost, and lost badly.  

It is the War on Christmas that was depicted by Charles Schultz decades ago so poignantly in A Charlie Brown Christmas. The siege laid upon Christmas by Commercialism.

Of course, I am not exactly Mr. Christian here. The true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, I left that party behind a long time ago. However, I can still appreciate and respect it as it ties in with spending quality time with family. For me, that was always the spirit of Christmas. Having some quiet time with family and enjoying each others company. The shopping, gift giving, BS, I can do without.

But I don't understand why the Bill O's of the world don't take THAT enemy on? Look at what Commercialism has done to Christmas? Look at how people trample over each other on Black Friday to get a $30 toaster oven. Look at how much people stress out about getting The Perfect Gift. How does that line up with the true meaning of Christmas? How does THAT celebrate the birth of Jesus?  Did Baby Jesus, upon being born declare, "Now, in honor of me, go buy a Cuisinart?"

I think if they are going to fight a war for Christmas, they should forget about trying to defeat political correctness.  I mean, really, who cares.  But how about going after Wal-Mart and Hallmark, and Sears for turning what should be a calm, relaxed celebration with friends and family into a big ball of plastique stress fail!  

[Cain]

All my comments on this topic can be found at http://www.fuckchristmas.org/

[LMNO]

JESUS WANTS YOU TO GO SHOPPING!
    \

[Suu]

I really like this, and I was going to post something somewhat similar.

Technically, I'm Roman Catholic. I had the Holy Vaseline™ smeared on my forehead when I was 13 thus resulting in a cross-shaped zit farm that lasted for a week.  Obviously, I haven't been to church in a long ass time, in fact, my family stopped going to mass shortly after my Confirmation, and I think my last time actually going to one myself I was 16, and visiting my family in New York.

Since then, I've been in a Catholic Church ONCE, and that was during a friend's wedding...and I hit that Holy Water and genuflected like I was a goddamn pro, only to get chastised by my sister for even attempting it. I didn't do it because I wanted it, I did it out of some brainwashed ritual, sure, but I don't feel BAD that I did it. To me, that's proper behavior in a church, and I don't see why me NOT doing it is some sort of protest to God or whomever the hell is up there. The Holy Water didn't set me on fire, the idea of being inside of the church didn't make me hiss...Nothing bad happened.

I found my rosary the other day when I was hastily looking for gold jewelry to be rid of so I could somehow afford Christmas and get the selfish monkeys in my life their holiday cheer through wrapping paper and chotskies, and I had to take a minute to pause.

It's nothing special: Just milky pink plastic beads strung in the typical fashion of one Our Father and ten Hail Marys ten times and finishing with a single bead for the Glory Be, 3 more Hail Marys, another Our Father and the cheap metal crucifix for the Apostle's Creed, which was attached by a pink string my mom had to fix it with. It brought back memories a bit...I had gotten it for my First Reconciliation (For you non-Catholic folk, it's the first confession you make about a month before your First Communion...one of the Sacraments.) and I remember how disappointed I was with it. It's ugly, it's pink and PLASTIC with cheap metal...and my mom has this pretty one with shimmering labradorite and pearl beads and sterling silver that I wanted. Blah.

...Materialistic. I was being materialistic over a ROSARY. A symbol of prayer and peace. You don't even need to technically own one to pray it, for fuck's sake! There are places in this world where faith really matters, far more than I could ever imagine, and there children will never own a rosary, not even a shitty plastic one like mine, and yet will put more effort into saying those prayers than I ever did, and even pay attention to every little mystery prayer in between that I never bothered to memorize. Heck, I hated saying the rosary, it was work. Even one decade of it as a penance would make me groan. These kids don't have parents running into Wal-Mart at 4am the day after Thanksgiving to buy them gifts on the cheap, they're lucky if they'll even get some semblance of a Christmas dinner...but I bet your ass they'll be at Midnight Mass.

I kinda miss Christmas mass, and for anyone who's ever been to a Catholic or Orthodox Christmas mass know EXACTLY what I mean. It's a celebration, with incense and candles and some of the most beautiful decorations you'll ever see! The atmosphere with the music and the carols...That was such an important part of Christmas when I was kid that we totally took for granted, because we only cared about our presents rather than feeling the faith. I don't care if you're Discordian, or an atheist or a fully devoted Hellenismos or even a goddamn Wiccan...stick your head in a Catholic church during Christmas and check it out.

It's not about Jesus or God or how much the church sucks or Christianity as a whole sucks because of this and that, it's just about the season and the feeling you're supposed to get that we seem to have forgotten so much about. The sun setting at 4pm in December SUCKS, THAT is why every single ancient and modern religion has some sort of festival in December. It's supposed to make you feel better about life in dark times...And Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/Zeus/Zarathustra what have you knows damn well I've had my fair share of dark times lately.

Maybe that's why I found the rosary...Maybe it was a sign from God, or maybe it was just my existence going, "Hey, take a step back and realize WTF you're doing...Stop being greedy and take a chill pill, homegirl."

Long story short, I put the ugly ass old rosary up on the wall, and went to go cash in my gold...and they were only going to give me $26 for it all, because throughout the years, my family members had given me fake or cheap stuff they passed off as real for Christmas gifts.  


tl;dr = Fuck commercialism.

[LMNO]

First off, that was really well written.  There is a mad, ugly dash to prove how much you love your family, and dollars spent means more points on the passive/agressive scoreboard.  Much better to light a fire and curl up with a loved one, sharing your emotions.  I don't need more things, I need more time.


That much said,

Long story short, I put the ugly ass old rosary up on the wall, and went to go cash in my gold...and they were only going to give me $26 for it all, because throughout the years, my family members had given me fake or cheap stuff they passed off as real for Christmas gifts.  

Wrap those things up in cellophane and regift them back to the people who gave them to you.

[Suu]

First off, that was really well written.  There is a mad, ugly dash to prove how much you love your family, and dollars spent means more points on the passive/agressive scoreboard.  Much better to light a fire and curl up with a loved one, sharing your emotions.  I don't need more things, I need more time.


That much said,

Long story short, I put the ugly ass old rosary up on the wall, and went to go cash in my gold...and they were only going to give me $26 for it all, because throughout the years, my family members had given me fake or cheap stuff they passed off as real for Christmas gifts.  

Wrap those things up in cellophane and regift them back to the people who gave them to you.

You know, part of me wants to...but the rest doesn't. It's not worth the fights that will ensue.

And thanks for the compliment, I wasn't sure how a story about me actually bringing up my Catholicism would be received on this board.

[Adios]

To RWHN and Suu,

LMNO, time, yes the best thing of all. Time, especially with family is priceless.

[hooplala]

The biggest nail in the coffin of a Christian Christmas was Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which strangely enough revitalized the holiday when it was dying off... I may be mistaken here, but I don't think Christ is even mentioned in the text.  It is portrayed as a secular holiday, and I love it for that.

I also love the commercialization of Christmas, and hope it becomes even more extreme in the future, sorry Suu.

[Adios]

The biggest nail in the coffin of a Christian Christmas was Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which strangely enough revitalized the holiday when it was dying off... I may be mistaken here, but I don't think Christ is even mentioned in the text.  It is portrayed as a secular holiday, and I love it for that.

I also love the commercialization of Christmas, and hope it becomes even more extreme in the future, sorry Suu.

The best selling Christmas song was written by a Jew and doesn't mention Christ at all.

White Christmas
Irving Berlin


Crosby's "White Christmas" single has been credited with selling 50 million copies, the most by any release and therefore it is the biggest-selling single worldwide of all time. The Guinness Book of World Records 2009 Edition lists the song as a 100-million seller, encompassing all versions of the song, including albums.[3][4] Crosby's holiday collection Merry Christmas was first released as an LP in 1949, and has never been out-of-print since.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_%28song%29

[hooplala]

This year, let's put the "X" back in Xmas!

[AFK]

The biggest nail in the coffin of a Christian Christmas was Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which strangely enough revitalized the holiday when it was dying off... I may be mistaken here, but I don't think Christ is even mentioned in the text.  It is portrayed as a secular holiday, and I love it for that.

I also love the commercialization of Christmas, and hope it becomes even more extreme in the future, sorry Suu.

This year, let's put the "X" back in Xmas!

Well, if you go and get Gene Simmons involved, it will become more extremely commercialized. 

[Phox]

I really like this, and I was going to post something somewhat similar.

Technically, I'm Roman Catholic. I had the Holy Vaseline™ smeared on my forehead when I was 13 thus resulting in a cross-shaped zit farm that lasted for a week.  Obviously, I haven't been to church in a long ass time, in fact, my family stopped going to mass shortly after my Confirmation, and I think my last time actually going to one myself I was 16, and visiting my family in New York.

Since then, I've been in a Catholic Church ONCE, and that was during a friend's wedding...and I hit that Holy Water and genuflected like I was a goddamn pro, only to get chastised by my sister for even attempting it. I didn't do it because I wanted it, I did it out of some brainwashed ritual, sure, but I don't feel BAD that I did it. To me, that's proper behavior in a church, and I don't see why me NOT doing it is some sort of protest to God or whomever the hell is up there. The Holy Water didn't set me on fire, the idea of being inside of the church didn't make me hiss...Nothing bad happened.

I found my rosary the other day when I was hastily looking for gold jewelry to be rid of so I could somehow afford Christmas and get the selfish monkeys in my life their holiday cheer through wrapping paper and chotskies, and I had to take a minute to pause.

It's nothing special: Just milky pink plastic beads strung in the typical fashion of one Our Father and ten Hail Marys ten times and finishing with a single bead for the Glory Be, 3 more Hail Marys, another Our Father and the cheap metal crucifix for the Apostle's Creed, which was attached by a pink string my mom had to fix it with. It brought back memories a bit...I had gotten it for my First Reconciliation (For you non-Catholic folk, it's the first confession you make about a month before your First Communion...one of the Sacraments.) and I remember how disappointed I was with it. It's ugly, it's pink and PLASTIC with cheap metal...and my mom has this pretty one with shimmering labradorite and pearl beads and sterling silver that I wanted. Blah.

...Materialistic. I was being materialistic over a ROSARY. A symbol of prayer and peace. You don't even need to technically own one to pray it, for fuck's sake! There are places in this world where faith really matters, far more than I could ever imagine, and there children will never own a rosary, not even a shitty plastic one like mine, and yet will put more effort into saying those prayers than I ever did, and even pay attention to every little mystery prayer in between that I never bothered to memorize. Heck, I hated saying the rosary, it was work. Even one decade of it as a penance would make me groan. These kids don't have parents running into Wal-Mart at 4am the day after Thanksgiving to buy them gifts on the cheap, they're lucky if they'll even get some semblance of a Christmas dinner...but I bet your ass they'll be at Midnight Mass.

I kinda miss Christmas mass, and for anyone who's ever been to a Catholic or Orthodox Christmas mass know EXACTLY what I mean. It's a celebration, with incense and candles and some of the most beautiful decorations you'll ever see! The atmosphere with the music and the carols...That was such an important part of Christmas when I was kid that we totally took for granted, because we only cared about our presents rather than feeling the faith. I don't care if you're Discordian, or an atheist or a fully devoted Hellenismos or even a goddamn Wiccan...stick your head in a Catholic church during Christmas and check it out.

It's not about Jesus or God or how much the church sucks or Christianity as a whole sucks because of this and that, it's just about the season and the feeling you're supposed to get that we seem to have forgotten so much about. The sun setting at 4pm in December SUCKS, THAT is why every single ancient and modern religion has some sort of festival in December. It's supposed to make you feel better about life in dark times...And Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/Zeus/Zarathustra what have you knows damn well I've had my fair share of dark times lately.

Maybe that's why I found the rosary...Maybe it was a sign from God, or maybe it was just my existence going, "Hey, take a step back and realize WTF you're doing...Stop being greedy and take a chill pill, homegirl."

Long story short, I put the ugly ass old rosary up on the wall, and went to go cash in my gold...and they were only going to give me $26 for it all, because throughout the years, my family members had given me fake or cheap stuff they passed off as real for Christmas gifts.  


tl;dr = Fuck commercialism.

It's for these reasons that I keep all of my rosaries, I still wear St. Christopher, I still carry St. Bernadette and St. Jude in my wallet, and I still have a crucifix on my wall. I do still attend mass on Easter and Christmas. I say all the prayers at mass, I genuflect, I perform the gestures. If I'm feeling particularly "in the mood", I'll partake of the Eucharist. Partially, because of it's expected of me. But for the most part, I do it, because these things were all part of my life in a simpler, happier time. I was damn glad to have my shitty little plastic rosary, because it was my first one, and I still have it now, though I also have two nicer ones. I've lost more crucifixes and St. Christopher medals than anyone I know. And I always replace them when I do, even after I left the Church. Maybe it's selfish, and maybe it's so some people will leave me alone about religion. But it's also, reminding myself that I CAN be a better person, and for all the problems with the Church, they were teaching some things correctly.

Erm, sorry, that wasn't exactly related to the primary topic.

[Suu]

There's nothing wrong with wearing a religious symbol. Religion is a creation of man so that the unexplained may have answers, and it gives the mind hope of salvation and the comfort of faith.

It's not about war or who's prophet is better at telling the same story...It's just helping the ever-so-curious brilliant human mind find peace.



...Unfortunately, we're all still far more primal that anyone dare give us credit for, and our greed and modern secular way of living has destroyed what true faith may have been like. We have allowed commercialism and capitalism to get the best of us...and there's not really a whole lot we can do about it anymore. I mean, here I am bitching, but that didn't stop me from buying the folks gifts or asking for a Kindle for Christmas.

My post was more about taking that step back and going, "Whoa, Linus was right." and just try to remember why we celebrate what we do in this season. It's not just Christmas or Chanukah or Saturnalia/Natali Invicti/Mithra...This is the darkest time of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. Dark and cold...So party with your family and friends, light lots of candles to fend of the darkness, eat lots of special food, and have a good time.

[Phox]

There's nothing wrong with wearing a religious symbol. Religion is a creation of man so that the unexplained may have answers, and it gives the mind hope of salvation and the comfort of faith.

It's not about war or who's prophet is better at telling the same story...It's just helping the ever-so-curious brilliant human mind find peace.

Yes, I agree. I meant that the religious symbols remind me of the good to be found within the Church and other organized religions. And many times I see it as prominently as the bad.

...Unfortunately, we're all still far more primal that anyone dare give us credit for, and our greed and modern secular way of living has destroyed what true faith may have been like. We have allowed commercialism and capitalism to get the best of us...and there's not really a whole lot we can do about it anymore. I mean, here I am bitching, but that didn't stop me from buying the folks gifts or asking for a Kindle for Christmas.

My post was more about taking that step back and going, "Whoa, Linus was right." and just try to remember why we celebrate what we do in this season. It's not just Christmas or Chanukah or Saturnalia/Natali Invicti/Mithra...This is the darkest time of the year for the Northern Hemisphere. Dark and cold...So party with your family and friends, light lots of candles to fend of the darkness, eat lots of special food, and have a good time.

Yeah, I realize my rant got way off the original point you were getting at. I did apologize for it. 

And I agree with you here, too. It's cold and dark and scary now, so we should all be with those we care about and not have to fucking worry about whether or not they will like whatever stupid junk we're buying for them, but I still bought my beloved gifts, and I am looking for a gift for my ex-fiancée, and I will buy gifts for my brothers and sister and nieces and nephew and parents. I am going to buy into the consumerism for Tradition^TM, but really, that won't detract from my good time.

[Jenne]

I like the OP and Suu's subsequent rant.  It's why I keep on keepin' on with the holiday, even when life was shitty as it has been the last few years.