It's one thing to buy gifts for your family and other loved ones. It's another to buy the mailman that pack o' crap from Hickory Farms. I think that's what he is referring to.
Why is it whenever I say I'm Jewish when I'm asked if I celebrate Christmas, I get looked at. Then they're like "So what does being Jewish have anything to do with not celebrating Christmas?" Honestly, some people are amazingly dumb and obnoxious. And then if I'm like "Well, I do have Hanukkah," the next question is "Do you get presents all 8 nights?". **** no! People in Israel don't "give" gifts during Hanukkah; it's just a tim to spend with family. It wasn't until the consumerism of this nation "celebrating" Christmas that Jewish people felt the need to give gifts. I don't want to sound anti-holiday, but kids are growing up thinking these Holidays are ALL about getting presents instead of giving and spending time with family. It's not that I don't like gifts, but I honestly haven't gotten anything or asked for anything in years. It's like dressing up for Halloween; you reach a certain age when it just looks silly. The things I do find amazingly out of hand yet still amusing during Christmas time has got to be people going out of their way putting up decorations. Now I haven't experienced a Houston late-December in 5 years, but just seeing some of the decorations, particularly Bellaire was insane. Every time I encounter Jewish people trying to get into the "holiday spirit," I see more and more instances of dull blue lights and Hanukkah bushes. Keep in mind I'm not bitter about the holiday season, I just don't care to celebrate any of it; the meaning of it all seems lost to me. The "worst" thing is Christmas Day when all there is to do is to sleep late, go to the movie theater, and eat at the only place open -- Burger King.
I enjoyed getting presents when I was a kid, but now the consumerist aspect of the holiday seems gross to me. When I was a kid, my family was always able to balance the religious and "fun" parts of Christmas, but now that I've grown up, I really have no need for presents. I just buy the junk I want. Nowadays, my family just exchanges bizarre or funny gifts. Last year I gave my mom an inflatable Tae Bo punching bag; she's in her mid 50s and wouldn't do Tae Bo if I paid her, but she took it to her office and everybody plays with it. This year I'm not even going to put up a Christmas tree in my apartment; I just don't really care about that stuff. I get no feeling from it anymore. I'm not sure how such a minor Christian holiday became so insanely overblown in this country. It's nowhere near the importance to the faith as, say, Easter. I don't really have a problem with the people that celebrate the holiday without any spiritual significance, but it seems so empty to me.
MM, you know Christ was not born on Christmas day. It is a pagan holiday taken over by the Christians. What Christmas has become besides as mentioned above has very little to do with Christ save the name. Would you be cool with the idea of celebrating a holiday which emphasize being with family and exchanging gifts without the religious context? That in and of itself has merit, methinks.
Isn't there some branch/sect of Judaism that celebrates Christmas? Messianic Judaism? I forget their name. It was the oddest thing I ever heard "yeah, we're Jewish, but we believe in Christ". Uhhh.
Well, there are two ways to be Jewish: by ethnicity and by religion. Some people are both. Some people are one or the other. These people want to continue with their Jewish heritage - ethnic traditions and religious too. Since traditional Christianity shares its origins with Judaism, it doesn't seem that weird to me. Just depends who you think the Messiah is.
I LOVE Christmas. I dont know how anyone can not enjoy Christmas. Now having said that....if you dont enjoy Christmas, if it doesnt fit in with your beliefs or your religion....thats fine. Just shut up...get on with your life and leave the celebration untill a time thats important to you. Seriously, people need to lighten up!
Why don't you tell them there's no Santa Claus while you're at it? (JUST KIDDING) While I see your point, I must disagree. I think a HUGE family Christmas is a great thing. When I was a kid it was go to mass on Christmas Eve...wake up...open presents...have the whole family come over. Christmas will never be as good again. I miss all those relatives (most of whom are deceased now)...opening gifts, sharing stories and watching football or basketball.
I'm going to celebrate a "Shut My Pretentious, Self-Righteous Mouth Advent". Not really... I think these people are not about "protecting" Christmas as they are defeating their sworn enemy of other's consumerism. They are using Christmas as a means. "Buying" or "not buying" has nothing to do with Christmas. Attachments are attachments. "Buying" is not our enemy; our constantly discriminating mind is. Merry Christmas! Rokk on, Santa!
the Christmas holiday season is awesome, consumerism and all. we get to see all the tv things like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. the radio plays all the christmas standards the whole day on Christmas. you get gifts, you give gifts. the economy gets a boost. decorations are up everywhere (my mom loves to makes things, put them up, in fact we won 3 straight years in our neighborhood in some category and got put in the hall of fame so we can't win it anymore, my mom just loves arty projects like that and loves all the decorating stuff). the whole family gets together on christmas eve or christmas day. the christmas eve mass, even though it's really long, is nice because you've got the whole choir there and the songs are up tempo and nice. screw being anti-consumerism, it's part and parcel with the religious and just overall "have fun and be nice for a while" aspect of the holiday. Christmas is a very nice synergy between the 3.
I'm definately with MadMax on this one, as a Christian, I really don't enjoy the consumerism of Christmas. I think it really misses the point. I don't mind exchange some gifts but it can get out of hand. I am particularly bothered by the way people feel so obliged to spend a particular amount on gifts that they will go into debt for it every year. As we're about to have a baby of our own I am hoping to encourage more tame giving traditions from the start. When I was growing up in a half-Christian household it seemed that if we received a lot of gifts (that we would forget about almost as soon as we had opened them) that made it a good Christmas and if for any reason my family had less money and we received less, the holiday was less joyful. In that respect, we were certainly missing the point. Yes, I am well aware that Jesus was in all likelyhood not born in December. I am also aware that from a religious standpoint, what is being celebrated is technically not a birthday but taking time to mark the inaugaration of Christ's Kingdom on earth. If you consider the Christmas hymns you will note that all of them celebrate what God has done in coming to earth to save us. We don't sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus in church. "Jesus' birthday" is an unfortunately simplistic explanation of the holiday that a lot of parents give their children and never correct when they get older. Sorry to go on about that, as to how Christmas can be celebrated without focusing so much on the gifts: spending time on Christmas and around the season meeting other people's needs, spending time visiting family, worshipping God, enjoying a festive meal (as I've noted before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday). I don't mind exchanging gifts but often they seem less thoughtful as people just throw money (and shopping headache) at the project and rarely give things that have much meaning or personality of their own. They'll ask what I want and get it for me. I suppose that system has it's advantages but I don't feel like they spent much time trying to think of something I might like.
I don't do Christmas, except as an excuse to get Chinese food and go to a Jewish singles party. Hannukah, baby. It's all about the latkes.
Yup! I am going over to my folks place for Hannukah dinner tomorrow night. Steak and latkes. We are a meat and potatoes type of family.
When was Christ actually born?... June 12th? Who cares? Christmas is all about Christ. There is no X, Y, or Z about it...Christ's birth is celebrated on Dec. 25th, and the love of family, being around them, the joy of gift giving (not receiving) is a time that I cherish... I suppose it's easy for others who refuse love in their hearts to get negative, but those who know what Christmas is truly about reject the negativity...There is simply too much that is positive about Christmas for me...
I'm not a Christian but I still celebrate Easter and Christmas. Why? Because despite their beginnings these holidays are still positive enjoyable occasions. Yeah the consumerism can be a bit annoying but think for a second if we didn't have the holiday season. These dark, cold miserable months would have no joy to them at all. The holidays give people a reason to get out of the house when it's 10 below and the streets are covered in ice and snow. I'll take commercialization and obligatory empty gesture purchases that are more than offset by the virtues of this time of year.
did you know that the Puritans didn't celebrate Christmas? It was a crime in early America. You could be fined 5 schillings in Boston for being caught celebrating it. But ya'll are right, it was Pope Julius I who chose Dec 25. It was another step in the early church's plan to phase out pagen holidays and replace them with Christian ones. This made it easier to control people. People would be celebrating anyways , just let them celebrate what those in power wanted them to instead.
