daddysprop247
Posts: 1712
Joined: 6/24/2005
From: DC Metro area
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Aeon
quote:
ORIGINAL: daddysprop247
i don't care for christmas personally, as 1. i'm not a christian, and 2. loathe materialism, and 3. hate the way that thru christmas, christianity is forced upon us all this time of year, but us non-christians are not supposed to complain about it.
daddysprop24
i have a couple of honest questions for you here...
How do you feel Christianity is being forced on you? Is it the music and it's references to Jesus and God or family and friends urging you to attend religious gatherings in the name of Christmas or....? i am just honestly curious here as i don't feel that religion of any sort should or CAN be forced on someone and have never had that experience so i wonder.
Also, in respect to the materialistic aspect of the holiday, do you refer to the simple sight of people around you frantically buying as many THINGS as they can or is it a more personal observation of yours? Is this something you experience with your own circle of friends and family? i ask because my family has sworn off gift giving among the family. What we do instead is we each buy something silly and fun for under $10 and then we play poker or bingo and use the gifts as prizes. We've found that this not only promotes a fun time spent interacting with family closely, but also wipes out any need to buy extravagant gifts or give the best gift.
Before that we used to draw names and have secret santas amongst the family so that instead of buying 20 gifts for all the aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, siblings, etc. we had only one gift to buy.
i guess my point is that Christmas means something different to everyone. If it is not about materialism and Christianity for you then don't let it be. Make your own tradition!
Aeon, i understand that in theory christmas means something different to everyone. but in reality it's a day set aside for christians to celebrate the birth of their "savior", which makes it a religious holiday. by participating in it even in the most superficial of ways, i feel like i'm being a hypocrite and also that i'm just plain not being true to myself.
as far as the materialism, no that's not what i saw so much growing up in my own family, rather it's what i see from the population at large. every store, from the drugstore to the supermarket to the clothing store has a christmas sale. people shoot and kill other people trying to get a freakin' toy for their child. all year long children are encouraged to behave themselves or else they won't get THINGS for christmas. it's just everywhere.
and because christmas is pretty much forced upon us all (unless of course we choose to live in a dark cave with no radio or tv) this time of year, the religion it comes from is forced upon us as well. i don't mean that people are trying to convert others to christianity, but rather there's this assumption made that everyone celebrates christmas (which would make everyone christian), and that everyone should be fine with the christmas trees up on public display (not in front of churches but the shopping mall or superfresh), "santa" in every dept. store, christmas music, which is often religious, playing everywhere, christmas-themed assignments being given to our children in PUBLIC school, etc. and if anyone puts up a word of protest against any of this, rather than being understood or accomodated in even the slightest way, they're seen as unreasonable, narrow minded "grinches". it all just makes me long for january.
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RE: Christmas; Hate It or Love It? - 
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