Suffer!!
When people who did not celebrate Christmas or who did not identify themselves as Christian filled out surveys about their moods while in the same room as a small Christmas tree, they reported less self-assurance and fewer positive feelings than if they hadn’t been reminded of the holiday, according to a new study.
The university students didn’t know the study was about Christmas, said study researcher Michael Schmitt, a social psychologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Nonetheless, he said, the presence of the tree caused non-celebrators and non-Christians to feel subtly excluded.
Who says there is no war on Christmas? Apparently there is a war on decorations and symbols. Displaying one might not make someone feel included. Tell the NFL to stop selling jerseys too. This is ridiculous.
Christmas is connected heavily with the Winter Solstice. The Christmas Tree itself is a symbol of Yule, which is a German and Scandinavian holiday from centuries past, connected to the return of the Sun after the Solstice. Absolutely nothing is wrong with this ancient symbol.
Stupidity is growing fast in the GOUSA
Get a FAKE tree… I did and now I don’t feel guilty at all.
And it’s a perfect shape and has lasted 10 years now.
BTW, the more I think about what Christmas really stands for, the more ‘religious’ I become. We really gave JC a raw deal.
Jesus Christ, truly the one whose name can not be spoken.
So much so that even a historically false reference to him must be expunged.
Is there no shame left in the left?
#8
I don’t think people are uncomfortable with with religious aspects of some holidays, they just don’t care.
You can see this already with Thanksgiving. It has become Turkeyday.
Soon Christmas will be PresentsDay; 4th of July will be FireworksDay; New Years will be DrunkenSexWithRandomFloozyDay… well you get the idea.
By stripping all deeper meanings out of our special days we can:
A)Be called into work, because it is just another day.
B)Focus on what really matters, us.
I challenge any hater of Christmas to go to work on December 25th. Seriously.
On the other hand, I do not have a Christmas tree in my house, nor do I put up Christmas lights. I think that lights and Christmas trees distract from the true meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of Christ. He is God, yet he humbled himself enough to become a baby and be born in a stable.
My church does have Christmas trees up and my parents have a Christmas tree. I just don’t.
When store clerks wish me a happy holiday, I ask them to name the holiday I am supposed to be celebrating. I think it would be easier to call it a holiday tree though instead of a Christmas tree. That way, I could leave it up all year and just change the holiday I am referring to. “I have my holiday tree up for Martin Luther King’s birthday.” or “I have my holiday tree up for President’s day.” or “I have my holiday tree up for Independents day.” That way I can avoid the hated task of putting a tree up or taking it down since there is a holiday approximately every month.
Christmas was always a wonderful tradition when I was a child. But as I grew up I realized it’s alsoo a very democratic institution. It’s very inclusive, and not setup simply for Christians. Christmas works when adults labor to make it work. My folks worked very hard to make each Christmas a warm and rich experience. But if you don’t put the effort into it, sure enough, it doesn’t work.
People who complain about Christmas make me tired, because it’s clear they don’t want to make the effort. Such people to me seem to be selfish and lazy. I hardly expect everyone to rush out to the stores and spend more than they have on things they don’t need. This is actually sinful. But to claim to be disaffected by the holiday seems to be a symptom of some kind of disorder. Every belief system has some kind of celebratory season. Christmas itself is an amalgam of “pagan” and Christian traditions (Jesus didn’t have a Christmas tree; neither did the Pilgrims), which should demonstrate it’s inclusiveness. In any case, there are simply people who will find fault in anything that smells of organized ANYTHING; religion, government, stamp clubs, you name it. Party poopers.
#26, Indepedents Day sounds like fun- boot all the Dems and Republipukes out for a day! When is it?
# 25 chris said:
“New Years will be DrunkenSexWithRandomFloozyDay…”
No, we call that Friday.
# 27 Gildersleeve said:
“In any case, there are simply people who will find fault in anything that smells of organized ANYTHING; religion, government, stamp clubs, you name it. Party poopers.”
Be a little more discerning. What there are, are people who object to organized force or fraud.
Look at all the Atheists who have posted above that they don’t have a problem with Christmas.
The people who lawyer-up over Christmas are usually Jews.
Better a fake tree than cut down a real one with child labor in china and have it shipped to walmart. Why not just admire a live one at the park?
This is a keeper:
“I know for some of the faithful enforced secularism in the public square is perceived as an assault on religion but that’s like saying an empty glass is an attack on booze. You are free to practice your faith in spaces we do not share. Public atheism may infringe on your consciousness but it does not violate your rights.”
Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/22/john-moore-atheism-and-the-irrational-mind/#ixzz18rjl14RK
Non-participation in what is perhaps the most widely observed holiday on the planet leaves some feeling a little less self-assured? Really? No kidding. Let me write that down. Of course if one doesn’t like Christmas they’re free to choose one of the alternative holidays like Kwanzaa; a holiday invented in 1966. Or, such a person could choose to ignore the celebrations altogether. That’s what I do every October 31st. With all the imagery of death I don’t quite understand what’s so Happy about Halloween. Nevertheless, I certainly wouldn’t demand that someone take down their Halloween decorations. There’s this beautiful thing in the United States of America that some folks still love to observe. It’s called freedom.