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How do you feel about Christmas?

neuro-praxis

I love it myself, even though I have had some pretty awful Christmases in the past. You?

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Mr. CooL ICE

Meh, really overrated tbh. Xmas songs and having to buy presents really grate me, but the prospect of the whole family being together for a few days and all friends home for a few days really shines through

Rob_l

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Not to burst your bubble or owt, Rob, but the bible isn't exactly chock full of dates. December 25th is the festival of Christ's birth...not the alleged date. Seeing as December didn't exist at the time and all.

maybe your bible but mine is full of dates and even gives some of Jesus early horoscopes capricorn obviously

like the one for good friday read something like
"dont get too hung up about issues today"

l3LoWnA

hshortt wrote: »

Love it, my favourite time of year, the chilly mornings, the happy faces, the delight of children. Family, friends and just good craic and relaxation.

+1

And the Christmas lovers are leading the poll too

Lola123

Love it!
Love spoiling my family, goin for the traditional crimbo eve drinks in the local with old friends, eating loads, and of course...the presents!!!

monkeyfudge

Can't say I like religion too much... or my family for that matter...

So that just leaves me with commercialism and drinking... which can get a bit tiring after a while.

phasers

I usually love it but this year I am just so lazy I can't muster up emotion either way

Ghost Train

I like getting the few days off... not really looking forward to the family time this year and the whole having to go buying presents is a bit of a hassle.

OctavarIan

I like the whole family-togetherness ideal behind it, but that's all. It started before halloween this year, some people spend thousands on decorations and presents, then on stephen's day the sales start where everything is like half price... It's just too good.

leninbenjamin

The Fr.Ted special and turkey and stuffing sandwiches are the only good thing about christmas.

echosound

Heartily despise Christmas. Pressure on people to go spending money they don't have on presents no-one will like, and getting presents that are useless in return. If I want something, I will buy it myself, so the ideal thing to do would be for everyone to say - you treat yourself to something you want, and I'll do the same. Saves on all the ****e that people end up dumping on Stephen's day.

Towns and cities are crazy for two months in the runup to xmas, with demented people maurauding the streets searching for the last Wiiiiiiiiii and phsyically assaulting other parents who have spotted same and are hefting small children out of the way in a mad rush to lay their hands on it, traffic is crazy, no parking spaces to be found, teeth-grindingly awful christmas songs on everlasting loops in every shop from Nov 1st, everyone stockpiling on groceries like there's a nuclear war approaching, bloody tacky lights. I avoid any centre of population like the plauge from November to mid January if possible.

Frantic dashes to visit relatives on xmas day itself, even though you see these people all year round anyway, multiply that by two sets of relatives if you're married, writing reams of stupid cards even though I have no interest in xmas myself nor of celebrating it, but in order to maintain good relations with friends and relatives I have to send a card in return for the card they already sent me which is cluttering up my mantelpiece as when they visit they expect to see their card on display.

Endless questions as to why we are not putting up a tree or decorations (I have never put up so much as a solitary piece of tacky tinsel in all my years since I flew the nest, why would this year be any different?).

Pressure stress and grumpiness. Lots of people lonely and upset because they just got dumped/are alone/are getting old/lost a family member etc and christmas time magnifies the loss or their lonliness.

Can you tell I hate xmas?? Sure, fine, have a few days holidays to catch up with your family at the end of the year and mentally prepare yourself for the coming year, but many people end up working the holidays anyway due to our 24 hour /7 day a week culture, and feel left out while their friends get to enjoy time off with families.

I just loathe the entire thing. If it was merely a spiritual event, I would be fine with that (even though I don't follow any particular faith so I wouldn't be celebrating it anyway), but it's so commercialised it's not even worth respecting as a religious tradition anymore.

signed
the grinch (aka echosound).

S.I.R

Christmas , another day on the calender for me.

pretty-in-pink

I love it.

Gekko

The past few years I've begun to see it as a big waste of time.

People go mental in the shops rushing around like zombies or something and pushing each other out of the way.

The Real B-man

Used to love it when i was a Kid but when ya get older it looses its appeal great to relax with family & friends thow

baztard

Varkov wrote: »

Wasn't Jesus actually supposed to be born in March or summit?

He was concieved in March, and born in December.

baztard

Christmas is over commercialised sh*te. Its a soul'less retail holiday where big business pressurise everyone into buying a load of crap for other people. They holidays are good, meeting old friends and family is good and children getting the few presents is good. Apart from that its a bullsh*t time of year, everything about it is fake.

SimpleSam06

boneless wrote: »

I wouldn't mind it so much if the Christians hadn't of hijacked a nice old Pagan festival though...

I think that makes it funnier TBH. Theres a big question mark over whether Jesus even existed as a historical figure.

neuro-praxis

Sigh. No there isn't. There's significantly more historical evidence that Christ existed than there is that Caesar did. Whether or not he was God is another question.

SimpleSam06

neuro-praxis wrote: »

There's significantly more historical evidence that Christ existed than there is that Caesar did.

Bollocks.

No historians of the time mention Jesus. Suetonius (65-135) does not. Pliny the Younger only mentions Christians (Paulists) with no comment of Jesus himself. Tacitus mentions a Jesus, but it is likely that after a century of Christian preaching Tacitus was just reacting to these rumours, or probably talking about one of the many other Messiah's of the time.

Josephus, a methodical, accurate and dedicated historian of the time mentions John the Baptist, Herod, Pilate and many aspects of Jewish life but does not mention Jesus. (The Testimonium Flavianum has been shown to be a third century Christian fraud). He once mentions a Jesus, but gives no information other than that he is a brother of a James.

Jesus was not an unusual name, either. Justus, another Jewish historian who lived in Tiberias (near Kapernaum, a place Jesus frequented) did not mention Jesus nor any of his miracles.

It is only in the evidence of later writers, writing about earlier times, that we find a Jesus. What is more surprising (Jesus could simply have been unknown to local historians) is that academics note that the gospels themselves do not allude to first-hand historical sources, either!

neuro-praxis

The website you have so elegantly cut and pasted from is not an academic source. If you would like a long list of academic sources on this subject, I can give them to you, but I doubt you'll be popping into your local NUI library to check them out?

Stabshauptmann

I love everything about it and wish fundamental Christians would stop trying to spoil it.

Love the food, the parties, the atmosphere, the singing, kids believing in Santa. Its all great. I even like the way some people explore their faith at this time.

The only thing I dislike is the "either go to mass or go to work" crowd.

Stabshauptmann

baztard wrote: »

He was concieved in March, and born in December.

After the 4th or 5th century, before that he was born in Spring.

SimpleSam06

neuro-praxis wrote: »

If you would like a long list of academic sources on this subject, I can give them to you, but I doubt you'll be popping into your local NUI library to check them out?

So really, you haven't a single rebuttal to offer? Because the case looks fairly clear cut. And thats just one source, baby, there are many, many more, many of whom are academic sources. And just where do you think that website got its information from, do you think it was just made up from whole cloth?

hottstuff

Quite like it , but don't get too excited.

neuro-praxis

SimpleSam, would you like me to pm you a list of academic sources for your own perusal? This is pretty off-topic. Academic sources take a little time to compile; as a fellow academic I am sure you understand this. My area is specifically philosophy rather than theology (or history for that matter) but have read a little on the subject at hand. You can just let me know. I won't be linking to any Wikipedia articles that prove he existed, if that's what you were hoping.

Plus your defensiveness is pretty amazing, it's not like I said he was God or anything, I just said he existed.

SimpleSam06

neuro-praxis wrote: »

SimpleSam, would you like me to pm you a list of academic sources for your own perusal? This is pretty off-topic.

The title of the thread is how do you feel about christmas, the festival to celebrate the birth of christ. I'm not sure how introducing the fact that there may not have been a christ and how that might alter people's feelings on the holday is off topic.

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Academic sources take a little time to compile; as a fellow academic I am sure you understand this. My area is specifically philosophy rather than theology (or history for that matter) but have read a little on the subject at hand. You can just let me know. I won't be linking to any Wikipedia articles that prove he existed, if that's what you were hoping.

Thats a very gentlemanly and dignified response, and I commend you on it. I'm not sure it would be productive to take it to PM though, I've participated in many debates with very learned individuals on the topic, and remain unconvinced.

Making people aware that there is a debate on the existence of christ was the point of the post, and I think it has succeeded on that front.

As for being an academic, I went through that and out the far side; you could probably describe me as a gimlet-eyed capitalist by this stage.

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Plus your defensiveness is pretty amazing, it's not like I said he was God or anything, I just said he existed.

When you are saying things that undermine most of western civilisation as well as the faith of billions, you may as well come out with all guns blazing.

embee

Always loved Christmas, don't understand why people whinge about it. It is even better now that I have a child and I get to be Santa

Stabshauptmann

neuro-praxis wrote: »

SimpleSam, would you like me to pm you a list of academic sources for your own perusal? This is pretty off-topic. Academic sources take a little time to compile; as a fellow academic I am sure you understand this. My area is specifically philosophy rather than theology (or history for that matter) but have read a little on the subject at hand. You can just let me know. I won't be linking to any Wikipedia articles that prove he existed, if that's what you were hoping.

Plus your defensiveness is pretty amazing, it's not like I said he was God or anything, I just said he existed.

If you think ot off topic ok, but I'd like you to pm me the list please.

ejmaztec

Perhaps the greatest Christmas mystery concerns tree-lights. Why is it, that every Christmas, I have to go out and buy a brand new set of Christmas-tree lights and throw away the ones bought a year earlier, because they don't work. No matter where I store them, or how careful I am with them, I never get a flicker out of them a year later.

SimpleSam might say that there is no proof that this problem exists, but believe me, it does.

hottstuff

ejmaztec wrote: »

Perhaps the greatest Christmas mystery concerns tree-lights. Why is it, that every Christmas, I have to go out and buy a brand new set of Christmas-tree lights and throw away the ones bought a year earlier, because they don't work. No matter where I store them, or how careful I am with them, I never get a flicker out of them a year later.

SimpleSam might say that there is no proof that this problem exists, but believe me, it does.

Ha , it's a conspiracy against the consumer!!!!:mad: