Do you celebrate Christmas?

[Cant trust em]

Since this is a semi-serious poll about people's attitudes to this holiday, I specifically didn't put it in the lounge. I've cross posted in the religion forum.

[L0oniX]

1. christmas is for suckers.

[goclark]

8. Then I am one Happy Sucker

It is such a shame that you feel the need to put down others.

[emilyg]

11. +1

[L0oniX]

12. aw ...I feel the shame ...NOT! It's just my opinion ...get over it.

[Dorian Gray]

19. get over it?

what's there to get over? You don't like Christmas. You said it's for suckers. I like Christmas. In your mind, I'm a sucker. And like the poster said before me, that makes me a happy sucker. I find Christmas a lot of fun!

[goclark]

75. Merry Christmas to you and your family

My Mom is 91 years old, with Alzheimers.

She is a delight ~ for Christmas about ten of our friends decided to give her the gift of taking her out to lunch/dinner .

They signed up in on email message from my cousin.

I get to go too!

Mom loves Christmas and she enjoyed helping me take out our decorations and telling me about the good times and good friends that we hold dear.

Merry Christmas from a "Happy Sucker." :bounce:

[jobycom]

24. Oh yeah.

And candy canes and cup cakes and all kinds of other sweets, too! :)

[FLPanhandle]

32. Nice one.

:)

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

45. I'm a big fan every Christmas I buy myself a new set of golf clubs.

Doesn't hurt that I get a lot of overtime and a holiday pay check this time of year.

[gmoney]

77. A new set every year?

Wrapping them around tree trunks and throwing them in water hazards can take a toll on one's club count, I guess. :shrug:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

84. Something new wedges, driver, irons.

I wanted to go to forged clubs this year so I went to the new Srixon Z-TX irons. I have never broken a club or lost one.

[roguevalley]

76. when my mother died, she asked me to continue to celebrate

Christmas. In Alaska, it is the darkest time of the year and the celebration, the beauty and peace of it are a good thing.

[L0oniX]

82. My mother died on christmas.

[roguevalley]

83. oh crap. Hugs, honey

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Christmas is the Great Capitalist Holiday celebrating conspicuous consumption...

and dedicated to consumerism.

Sure, it was once based on The Roman Holiday of Saturnalia (set on the last day of Saturnalia), in order to entice Romans who just wanted to have orgies for a week into the Christian faith, but Macy's put a stake through the heart of any religious observation in order to make more money. It is meaningful only as a Capitalist Holiday in these times.

[Warren DeMontague]

71. It does suck that they took the week long orgies out of the mix

but the bottom line is, the shortest days of the year are kind of a bummer for most people. Ergo, folks like to up the self-indulgence quota.

Same as it ever was. :shrug:

[BoneDaddy]

81. What a buzz kill you must be

Do you strangle puppies in your spare time? hehe. Christmas in my house, and those of most I know, nothing like you describe. Sure we buy gifts but we are warmed by love,friendship, giving, feasting, reveling, dancing, singing, and celebrating.

We celebrate the metaphorical meaning of Christmas, peace, love, tolerance and joy.

[Wapsie B]

3. I think the Nordic people had it correct to start with.

Therefore I think it only fitting that I make plans for my drunken orgy as I celebrate the winter solstice.

[Mari333]

4. I drink Mogen David, dance in a stone circle, make the sign of the cross

bow to Mecca and sing Hare Krishna whilst lighting incense to my ancestors.

Keeps me busy

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. I drink lots of winter seasonal beer

Does that count? :beer:

Pretty green & red labels and everything......

[HeresyLives]

6. It's Sir Isaac Newton's birthday.

I celebrate that. :)

[lpbk2713]

7. We open gifts and have a big family dinner.

But there is no religious aspect to it.

[MadBadger]

9. Movies, Chinese food. Sure I celebrate Christmas.

[upi402]

10. stuff for kids. buy needed items and make it look like gifts

Nothing other than that. We usually leave the country for xmas

[silverweb]

13. Not quite.

I celebrate the Winter Solstice, but acknowledge Christmas appropriately for those to whom it is important, including most of my family and many of my friends.

Speaking of which... the northern orbital nadir has been passed and the "return" of the Sun to our hemisphere has begun.

Happy Solstice, everyone -- let the Sun shine in!

[Blue_In_AK]

23. And a very happy solstice to you...

Also a big deal in Alaska for obvious reasons. Here in Anchorage, we will gain 12 minutes of daylight by January 1. THAT'S something to celebrate.

[silverweb]

26. Something to celebrate indeed.

And moving thankfully, inexorably toward Spring. Meanwhile, keep warm! :hi:

[phasma ex machina]

37. I celebrate both Christmas and Winter Solstice while ignoring Festivus/Kawnzza/whatever. nt

[silverweb]

44. Enjoy them both!

I'll bet if you had friends or family who celebrated the others, you would to some degree as well.

They're all clustered around the Solstice for a good reason. :hi:

[Odin2005]

42. May you have a happy Festival of Lights.

That's what I like to call Christmas. :)

[silverweb]

49. A happy Festival of Lights to you!

It's all about the return of the Light, both literally and symbolically, around the world.

Keep the light alive, no matter what.

[jobycom]

14. Any excuse for a sappy party. Family, friends, food, grog, gifts... I'm in!!

I do it all. I tour the Christmas displays and lights, I hang out in the crowds, I hit the toy stores, I buy myself fancy electronic gifts (just got my new GPS yesterday) and go into debt. I dance around bonfires to a drum circle and drink mead with the pagans, I break my fast on Eid like a Muslim (without actually fasting beforehand, of course) :), and if I understood Hannakuh or Kwanza I'd do them too.

When the game is over I want to leave as little on the playing field as I can. Merry Fucking Whatever, Baby! :)

[blondeatlast]

17. MFW backatcha, joby!

:bounce:

[invictus]

15. I celebrate Yule/Christmas/Mithras Day/Winter Solstice as a secular holiday.

I display a tree and wreath. No religious symbols.

[psychmommy]

16. my kid and i are in the christmas play at church.

we celebrate christmas and kwanzaa. happy holidays to everyone, enjoy celebrating however you do it. i'll be celebrating on du also.

[Crzyrussell]

85. Both my daughters

did the Christmas play at school. It was great.

I love this time of year.

[juno jones]

18. Been too broke to pay attention...n/t

[Greyhound]

20. We just try to hide and ignore the meanness and hypocrisy. n/t

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Since most of my family

is now Outside, we're being very low-key this year, didn't even buy a tree. I sent little packages with DU calendars, some original photo prints and gift cards for the kiddies Out to my daughters. We're taking my third, youngest daughter and her boyfriend out for a nice buffet at Alyeska Resort for Christmas dinner. That's it. I told the girls Outside that just a "Merry Christmas" phone call from them would be fine with us.

It's wonderful not to have the pressure. That's a Christmas gift in itself.

[Hissyspit]

64. Alyeska Resort!

We did a seventh-grade school trip there in early 1975. Memories.

[Blue_In_AK]

67. The new resort that was built down there several years ago

is really beautiful. That old lodge is gone now.

http://www.alyeskaresort.com/hotel/index.aspx

[Hissyspit]

69. Wow, well it was pretty small.

[Blue_In_AK]

70. It had a lot of atmosphere, though.

I kind of miss the old place, but, I'll tell you, these guys at the new hotel REALLY put out a great buffet. Here's our menu for Christmas: http://www.alyeskaresort.com/Alyeska/SiteAssets/files/dining/Pond_Christmas_09.pdf We went down there this past year for Easter and Mother's Day and the food was FABulous.

[Hissyspit]

72. Yum.

[mike_c]

22. haven't for years....

My girlfriend, with whom I've recently combined households does though, and she even put a tree up in our living room this year-- it's the first time I've had one of those in my house in many years. Makes a nice night light, I suppose. A bit gaudy.

[Cant trust em]

28. I celebrate with my family, but my apartments have been unChristmased.

Now that I live with Lindsey, she's decorated a little bit. This new domestic side is pretty nice.

[jillan]

25. I celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas.

December is a very festive time in my house.

[Tailormyst]

27. I celebrate Yule.

[Toasterlad]

29. I'm a Jolly Agnostic, and I Love Christmas.

I don't give a shit about Jeebus' birthday. I love presents in shiny paper, decorating the tree with pretty ornaments and lights, drinking eggnog and singing Christmas songs, getting a few days off work, saying "Happy Holidays!" to people, and having them return the sentiment, sharing a meal with the family, all the holiday TV specials, going to parties, all the Christmas baking.... it's my favorite time of the year.

If people want to drag religion into it, that's their business.

[rucky]

30. Not a Christian, but I celebrate it for the kiddos.

I grew up not celebrating it and it sucked.

[Roon]

31. I have no choice

If I don't do Christmas, my Mother cries.

[Raine]

33. I enjoy Christmas as a non-religious holiday. nt

[blueamy66]

34. Christmas has become a burden.

Running around like crazy....trying to decide what to get for everyone.....spending money that I don't have.

YUCK.

[HughMoran]

35. I consider it a secular holiday where I get to spend time with my family

...while it's wicked cold outside.

[Caretha]

36. I advocate for celebrating

Christmas on only leap years. I love the festivities, food, drink and comradarie....but it just gets old year after year. I think it would be more special and less work every 4 years.

Can't you hear it now? Yay it's leap year....goodie goodie Xmas!

[Regret My New Name]

38. I guess I do, but mostly because people around me do...

I'm not really into it though, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't miss it too much... Not 'cause of some anti-religious or anti-consumerism thing either...I'm just lazy and indifferent when it comes to such things... I mean, I don't even celebrate my birthday :P I also hate getting gifts... I don't mind giving them, but getting them has always been awkward for me.

[bigwillq]

39. Fun stuff only (nt)

[flvegan]

40. Barely.

It's a nice day to talk to family and spend time together. Unfortunately, it's also a day that family spends money they don't have.

Yeah, I sound like a grinch. What ruined it for me? The real world. The whole "peace on earth, goodwill towards man" jumped the shark so long ago. Now, it's just buy! get! me me me! out of my way! People are more ugly and rude to their common man during this time of the year than any other.

Bah humbug.

[Odin2005]

41. I celebrate it as a secular winter solstice festival.

The festival of lights at the darkest time of the year.

[saltpoint]

43. "Sire, he lives a good league hence / underneath the mountain..."

I smorgasboard this holiday and take the good stuff and put it on my plate.

Some of the music is glorious and I'm talkin' secular angels here.

Sent a modest donation to the DU 4th Annual Charity / Hunger Drive last evening.

Downloaded Judy Collins doing "Good King Wenceslas."

[bridgit]

46. Other: we observe it

[gardenista]

47. not this year.

miss my mom too much. we're keeping it very low key.

[Zhade]

48. Giftmas -- we do the tree and presents thing, but there's nothing religious about it.

We're all atheists, aka without religion, so we just do the we-love-each-other-here's-an-excuse-for-presents thing.

[EFerrari]

50. Our family celebrates a bunch of holidays during this season

because there's a bunch of different traditions represented in the family. Purists would pretty much be horrified. lol

[saltpoint]

51. If you're horrifying the purists it sounds to me like you're doin'

it exactly right.

Continue to kick butt!

:thumbsup: :hi:

[Skittles]

52. no, but I do send cards and I love Christmas lights

yes INDEED

[RainDog]

54. I WILL KICK SKITTLES' CHRISTMAS LIGHT- LOVING ASS

okay, not really.

[Skittles]

60. I'LL SPORT SOME ASS-LIGHTS WHILE I KICK SOME RAINDOG ASS

YES INDEED :D

[RainDog]

53. I used to celebrate christmas

but now I don't have the money to make a big deal and I work the most during the holidays so I don't really have the time or inclination to do stuff because I'm tired.

but I haven't celebrated christmas as a religious holiday since I was a kid and believed in the santa clauses of various disguises.

[bertman]

55. I HATE all the shopping for gifts for family and friends until I start doing it, then I GO HOG WILD.

This year we have agreed to cut our gift-buying and -giving to a minimum, so I'll spend less time at the shops thinking of cool things to get for folks. But the spirit of giving still pervades.

It's good to get together with family to celebrate. Makes me appreciate the holiday even though I am a pagan.

Merry Christmas!!

[JustAnotherGen]

56. I'm a Unitarian

We generally aren't Christians per se - since we don't generally follow the Christian Theology and demand for a Trinity and generally - the rising/ascension/PDR are of low importance to many of us. And most certainly not the idea that he was a 'super natural being'. Just a regular rabbi trying to get by in Jerusalem. ;-)

But we are the folks who brought you the Christmas Tree, A Christmas Carol, and spit in the eye of the Government that said it could not be celebrated (hold over from the begging in England on Christmas day - they/the poor were considered distasteful.

So while Christians the world over have as their holiest day - Easter. . . for UU's of the Judeo Christian tradition - this is our holy day. The birth, the words, the actions. I'll leave the macabre of the death and resurrection to the Christians.


So -

Yes - I celebrate Christmas with a tree, a wreath, christmas carols, a reading of A Christmas Carol (kind of nails the UU theology as Dickens was one of us), the giving of gifts, the extra care and feeding of the last, the least and the lost (following HIS words/actions only - not anything else in the New Testament) . . .

But I also celebrate it as my high holy day in the Judeo/Christian tradition as a Unitarian.

The commercialized Christmas brought to you by the UU's - :rotfl: - Please whether a follower of that rabbi's' words or not - keep his words in your heart.


Sorry - couldn't answer your poll. To me - this is the Unorthodox holiday - the Christian indentification should be used in a poll like this at Easter time. :pals:

Are written above was written with positive intent. ;-) I just get frustrated that the holiday which is really an unorthodox one, where we integrate our earth religions/faiths practices into it - always gets assumed as a 'Christian thing'. Theirs is Easter. Ours is Christmas.

[JustAnotherGen]

59. P.S.

We (UU's) have become a little eh? Humbuggy! :rotfl:
Here's the Ghosts of Unitarian Christmas. . . .http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/124481.shtml

An update to the Unitarian Classic - A Christmas Carol.

A little piece from it:


************************************************************
In later months, when Ben looked back on the dreams he had on Christmas Eve (because they were dreams, obviously; what else could they be?), he usually blamed them on the pressures of his job—the cuts, the downsizing, the constant need to do more with less.

Except, once in a while, when he recalled them in more detail, he blamed himself and how insensitive he had been to the clerk at the discount store. It had been so out of character (because he wasn’t a rude person, really, most of the time) that he had felt guilty about it almost immediately. Pressure, guilt—he knew that’s where strange dreams came from. Occam’s razor easily sliced up any more elaborate explanations.

Ben hadn’t even meant to be in the discount store, or any store for that matter. It was Christmas Eve, after all, a time when any sensible person stays safe in his house with a good book. He knew the streets would be full of people who were foolish enough to (1) celebrate a holiday whose only real purpose was to sell the junk multinational corporations manufacture in China, and (2) put off buying their share of the junk until the last minute. Ben had no patience for large mobs of stupid people.

But then his reading lamp’s bulb had burned out, and he couldn’t find a spare anywhere. So there he was: parked on the grass at the extreme edge of the lot, then sonically assaulted by “Jingle Bell Rock” as he entered the too-bright store, then jostled by panicked shoppers looking for whatever can’t-miss toy the store had sold out of two weeks ago. Bulbs—good, sensible, energy-efficient bulbs, not colored or flashing or suitable for the nose socket of a plastic reindeer—were hard to find. Then he waited in an endless checkout line behind a woman whose two children wouldn’t stop nagging for more and better presents. And then, just when he thought the whole ordeal was almost over, the clerk (an obviously exhausted young woman with a fake smile on her face) had the gall to wish him “Merry Christmas.”

That was the last straw.

“Christmas?” he snapped. “Did I say I was a Christian? Don’t make assumptions about my religion!” :rofl:

“Happy Hanukkah?” she ventured, but Ben just glared at her. “Glad Yule? . . . Something-or-other Kwanzaa?”

Ben made an inarticulate, dismissive noise that probably came out sounding like “bah!” then went on the attack. “Is there a law that says I have to celebrate something? Can’t I just enjoy life? Why can’t all you people just leave me alone?”

The fake smile stayed in place. “Have a nice evening,” she said weakly, probably knowing that she’d be fired if she responded in kind. Ben was starting to feel like a bully, but having come this far he couldn’t back down. He turned and stomped dramatically out of the store.
**********************************


I thought about it after I posted - am i being just like Ben. I'm sorry. ;-)

[BlueJazz]

57. I celebrate it the way people did before the church took it over.

:)

[BlueJazz]

58. .delete error

[jgraz]

61. no gifts, no cards -- just friends, family and lots of good food

and booze.

[Goldstein1984]

62. We're Freethinkers

We celebrate Winter Solstice--It can be quantified.

We exchange a few small gifts.

We have family time.

We celebrate the return of the Sun (A big deal in Alaska).

[Blasphemer]

63. No, I'm not Christian and I've grown weary of the secular trappings.. nt

[cynatnite]

65. I'm a flaming atheist and I love commercialized Christmas!

It's about the only time of the year we can afford to recloth the kid and spoil him all at the same time.

Not only that, I bought board games and nerf guns this year. We will celebrate the holiday in the snow with nerf guns! :evilgrin:

[Nikki Stone1]

66. I spend Christmas talking to relatives who drive me nuts & eating food that will make me gain 10 lbs

I guess that's celebrating.

[FreeState]

68. Im Buddhist but I celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah in non-religous ways n/t

[Dulcinea]

73. Yes.

I put up a tree because I like Christmas trees, plus I have kids. I buy gifts & bake cookies & gingerbread. My family is getting together, which is by far the best part of Christmas since we're scattered all over the map.

But the religious aspect? Not really. I'll probably attend Midnight Mass to remind myself why I gave up on Catholicism a long time ago.

[OnionPatch]

74. I celebrate as a Christian, however

I also celebrate it as a winter break, the solstice, etc. I have no desire at all to force others to celebrate the birth of Christ. If you want to celebrate the solstice or just the arrival of Santa Claus, that's A-OK with me. I don't need anyone else to prop up my religion for me. (I call it "taking personal responsibility" for my own spirituality, lol.)

Have a good holiday!!

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Igel]

78. No good option for me.

Christian--at least I try on my better days--but don't do anything this time of year because I celebrate other holidays.

It's not like all Christians celebrate the season to be heathen.

Be restless merry gentleman,
and be ye led astray
Remember Sol Invictus rises
new for Xmas day. . .

So on and so forth.

However, my wife--a self-avowed, albeit not militant atheist--is really into it. It makes for a fair amount of tension.

[AndrewP]

79. I'm an atheist, and it's just a Friday off for me

Nothing against those who wish to celebrate it though. :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

86. I do the fun stuff, and nominally participate in the religious stuff. (Although I did

run the younger kids' pageant at church this year. But on the day of I don't really do much religiously speaking.)

[tinrobot]

87. You separated out the "fun" stuff from the religious stuff?

I celebrate it as a Christian holiday, but I do the fun stuff too.
...
...
I celebrate as a Christian holiday and I don't do the fun stuff.

---

I'm not a Christian, so I can't speak to the "fun" content of Christmas mass, but I'd imagine there might be someone out there who thinks it's "fun"