Anyone planning a secular "Christmas"?

Dades

So, is Christmas a time for speaking out against the travesties committed by organised religion, or for buttoning your lip and bowing your head for "Grace"?

No doubt the holiday season is approached different by everyone, so it might be interesting to see...

Rev Hellfire

The Atheist wrote:

So, is Christmas a time for speaking out against the travesties committed by organised religion, or for buttoning your lip and bowing your head for "Grace"?

Neither for me, Christmas (and I have no problem using the term just as I'm happy to use Monday, Tuesday etc yet hold no particular belief in Germanic gods, none of this happy holidays rubbish in our house) is a time to gather family and friends, take stock of the passing year and plan for the new one. I quite like whole ceremony of this time of the year and take in the excitement of the children as they ready for Santa, closing of the bad and preparing for the good.

I personally feel it’s the non-secular side to it which gives it it’s appeal, which I feel a purely secular holiday would fail to match look at mothers/fathers/valentines day to me they are worthless I couldnt careless about them, because I know they are just that secular and there for the money. (thats not to deny that christmas hasnt a big secualr element to it, but its not reason for it).

To have a ‘magical’ time of year you need a magical element to it, be this Santa, religion or whatever sometimes its worth suspending disbelieve at least for a short time.

err, if you get me.

Asiaprod

Rev Hellfire wrote:

To have a ‘magical’ time of year you need a magical element to it, be this Santa, religion or whatever sometimes its worth suspending disbelieve at least for a short time..

Cool answer Rev., I second your sentiment. Its a people celebration, end of one year, begining of a new one. Pressies, food, booze, kids and Santa...and a good romp with the wife;), while the kids are busy.:o

Rev Hellfire

Asiaprod wrote:

and a good romp with the wife;), while the kids are busy.:o

Be careful Asiaprod, it’s a trap!

The kids are just performing a staged retreat to ensure next years reinforcements arrive, then they’ll have you out numbered and there'll be no mercy (or sleep) !

monkeyfudge

I'm not on speaking terms with about 50% of my family... so I tend to keep my head down around christmas...

I may go into work and just avoid the whole thing altogether like I did last year.

Asiaprod

Rev Hellfire wrote:

Be careful Asiaprod, it’s a trap!

The kids are just performing a staged retreat to ensure next years reinforcements arrive, !

Ha, already out numbered

Asiaprod

monkeyfudge wrote:

I'm not on speaking terms with about 50% of my family... so I tend to keep my head down around christmas...

I may go into work and just avoid the whole thing altogether like I did last year.

Aw, come on, go out and find 50% new friends and have a ball. I did what you are doing once and thiing only got worse. Life is what you make it, right!

robindch

> Is Christmas a time for speaking out against the travesties committed
> by organised religion, or for buttoning your lip and bowing your head
> for "Grace"?

I've no doubt that chez-robindch there'll be a bit of the former tossed about during the Saturnalia(*) celebrations in a few weeks time, as we bear the inestimable wisdom of Ecclesiastes 8:15 in mind, though I can't honestly see myself bowing my head for Grace, whoever she is.

Though, lest anyone think I won't be keeping my eye on things elsewhere, I suspect I'll be making it to one of the Prod carol services on the 18th and quite possibly the midnight gig in Christchurch where they'll be blowing the dust off some Langlais, whom I can never resist. Even in church. Dammit.

(*) Nice to see Seneca moaning two thousand years ago about the commercialization of the Saturnalia, though, isn't it? :rolleyes:

samb

never a christian but always celebrated christmas. Jesus is not part of it, it just a celebration for the sake of it. A good poll should have a small number picking other, is it too late to change it.
''Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to celebrate the birth of Santa'' Homer Simpson

Dave!

Yeah, Christmas was never a religious holiday for us... it's just an opportunity to get all the family together and have a good time So we'll be doing the same... there's a crib up, an angel on the Christmas tree, and we'll be going to mass on Christmas morning... purely out of tradition

Tar.Aldarion

might pop in to mass, it's very calming and must entertain those silly christian parents
Don't celebrate it myself but it is celebrated at me.

Dades

samb wrote:

A good poll should have a small number picking other, is it too late to change it.

I agree, but yes it's too late.
Besides the poll is only really a prompt to get people talking. I doubt anyone is going to go spouting off statistics from it.

monkeyfudge

The Atheist wrote:

I agree, but yes it's too late.
Besides the poll is only really a prompt to get people talking. I doubt anyone is going to go spouting off statistics from it.

Well done on getting the moderater position.. I only just noticed.

Anyone know of where you can get some nice secular christmas cards though?

In work we print our own cards to send out, and I always make sure they are completely secular.

robindch

> Anyone know of where you can get some nice
> secular christmas cards though?

http://www.secularism.org.uk/shop.html

...and they do ship to Ireland, though you do have to prod them a bit.

Dades

Cheers monkeyfudge.

monkeyfudge wrote:

In work we print our own cards to send out, and I always make sure they are completely secular.

I've just put together a graphic Christmas mailshot for our company - also with "Season's Greetings" and snowflakes and whatnot.

It is the professional thing to do if you have any sort of a diverse client base.

monkeyfudge

The Atheist wrote:

I've just put together a graphic Christmas mailshot for our company - also with "Season's Greetings" and snowflakes and whatnot.

Same here. Seasons greetings and a frosty background.

I'm amazed I get away with it actually, some of the board of management are pretty religious. One year we tried to give out valentines cards with condoms in them and they completely freaked.

LegacyUser

Rev Hellfire on the ball...

Regarding the talk about Work-related graphic Christmas mailshot, and whats appropriate and P.C. etc...

here's a link to a mail I got the other day, and it summed up the b/s (in my opinion) that comes along with people getting over the top about religious holidays.

http://www.anonymomma.com/party.htm

base2

Jesus highjacked the celebrations that always took place around this time of year.

Dades

base2 wrote:

Jesus highjacked the celebrations that always took place around this time of year.

More and more it seems that Coca Cola, Sony, Mattel and many other corporate co-respondants have hijacked it back though.

I'd probably take Jesus back TBH. :v:

stevenmu

I've always seen Christmas as a secular holiday. I see Christmas as being about happyness, love, caring, giving, family etc, and I think even many if not most Christians could agree with that. Tbh, I think that those who get overly PC about the term Christmas are missing out on the real meaning of it. Really Christmas should be celebrated every day, the only problem I'd have with Christmas is that it isn't. I used to be as sceptical an athiest as is possible, and now that I'm a, ..erm.. I guess new age hippy-ist is the best term for it, my views on Christmas haven't changed a bit.

(let's face it, it's almost entirely a pagan holiday anyway )

stevenmu

The Atheist wrote:

More and more it seems that Coca Cola, Sony, Mattel and many other corporate co-respondants have hijacked it back though.

I'd probably take Jesus back TBH. :v:

I've actually noticed that this year there was less of a 'capitolist' build up to christmas, there didn't seem to be as many christmassy ads on the tv/radio and just not as much in your face product pushing as usual, and tbh, I think there was much less christmas spirit going around this year than before. (I'm 26 so it's far from my first christmas without *ahem* getting up early). I've always complained previously about how the christmas ads begin straight after halloween and 'is nothing sacred anymore' but looking at it now, things like the Coca-Cola ads, and more recently the Guinness ones, have become almost a Christmas institution. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I actually kinda missed all the greddy capitolism this year.

Dades

stevenmu wrote:

I've actually noticed that this year there was less of a 'capitolist' build up to christmas, there didn't seem to be as many christmassy ads on the tv/radio and just not as much in your face product pushing as usual

Possibly you're right in hindsight, though I may just have been watching less TV. The one campaign that really got on my wick was the Meteor ads everywhere, all the time. Everybody I know has a phone - go away you're not solving any present headaches.

Although I didn't go to mass - I did get cleanse my sins in the 40 foot on the Christmas morning.

Asiaprod

The Atheist wrote:

I did get cleanse my sins in the 40 foot on the Christmas morning.

Rather you than me, well done, Happy New Year

UU

Well, I went service in the Unitarian Church on Steven's Green but it was actually rather Pagan as we were talking about the Roman Festival of Saturnalia. Did you know that the paper crowns from the crackers we wear come from the Saturnalia as the servants would switch roles with the heads of the house and they'd wear a paper crown to show their temporary role as a king!

My father, my uncles and a couple of their mates went to the 40ft in Sandycove for a swim. It was packed! My dad actually did a sponsored swim to raise money for the Simon Community - he raised around €800! I decided to stay warm and dry and watched them shiver their arses off instead!

Asiaprod

UU wrote:

I decided to stay warm and dry and watched them shiver their arses off instead!

Ah, another link between Buddhism and Unitarianism, well done UU. Stay home and have a couple of couples of hot whiskeys.
Happy new year to you.