My Problem With Christmas
Why do I have a problem with Christmas? The obvious reason is that I’m not a Christian, and I have no desire to celebrate the supposed birthday of the supposed messiah.
When I mention that to people, I usually get the response that Christmas isn’t about religion. It’s completely secular, and it’s just about giving, sharing and fun. It’s just a celebration in the dead of Winter intended to perk us all up. Banks are closed, there’s no mail picked up or delivered, no government work is done. It’s a national holiday, not a religious holiday. Sure, it started as a religious holiday, but that’s pretty much been filtered out of it, so it’s not a valid point to refuse to celebrate it on the grounds that you’re not a Christian.
Even observant Jews celebrate it, putting up “Chanukah bushes” in their yards so they won’t miss out. Chanukah itself is a nothing holiday, but American Jews chose to give it more importance just so their kids wouldn’t feel left out of the celebration. Add in Kwanzaa and Diwali and just about everybody in the country has something to do around this time of year so that they can participate, and it all gets mushed together into this obviously-no-longer Christian national holiday.
Well, in my view, that fits in quite nicely with how the holiday came about in the first place. Early Christians, looking to increase their numbers, made little alterations in their religion’s story in order to get it to fit in with traditions that were already in place among other groups. Of course Jesus wasn’t born in December; we all know that. But the Winter Solstice was a big enough deal to enough people that the Christians knew they’d be better able to proselytize folks by pointing out their faith’s similarities with the beliefs and traditions people already had.
No matter how secular, how all-inclusive Christmas may become, no matter how many people say “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas,” it’s still a religious holiday in my book.
On top of that, the fact that it’s been as secularized as it has allows the Christians to have it both ways. They’ve got just about everybody celebrating the birth of Jesus, whether they’re Christian or not, and they always get to turn around and preach that this national holiday, this secular celebration has a “true meaning.” That gives them the opportunity to give us all their messianic miraculous claptrap about the birth of the one and only true savior.
Well, if that’s what they want, that’s what they should insist upon. If Christmas is about the birth of the son of god, the man who is the personification of the Christian faith, then it’s not for Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, or members of any other religions, and it’s certainly not for atheists. And if that’s the case, then it’s not a reason to shut down the whole country. And you absolutely should not expect anyone who isn’t a practicing member of your religion to participate in it, promote it, decorate for it, or wish you a happy it. It’s yours, not ours.
Hell, if I were a member of your little club and someone who I knew disagreed with our tenets wished me a merry Christmas, I’d probably thank them, but the question “what do you know about it?” would be echoing in my head. Christians cheapen their faith when they expect non-believers to play along.
So please, Christians, pick one or the other. If you want Christmas to be about Jesus, then dump Santa Claus, get serious about this messiah of yours, and leave the rest of us out of it. If you want the day to be a celebration for everyone, Christian and infidel alike, then shut up about its “true meaning” because we don’t want to hear it. You can celebrate Jesus’ birth on his real birthday, whenever that is.
Tags: Holidays, Marketing, Propaganda, Religion
Category: Holidays, Marketing, Propaganda, Religion
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Comments (8)
Daniel MacGill (1 comments) on 01 Nov 2007 at 1:41 pm #
Well this post and your fucking imbecile movie was indeed the most bloody insulting piece of crap I’ve ever seen…are you happy now? Are you happy you just destroyed views of an (almost) international holiday that makes so many fucking people happy and brings, for once in a while, peace in the whole bloody world???? You happy now, you sick and perverted Muslim or Atheist or whatever you bloody are???? The feck cares if it’s a religious or a whatthehell holiday…
“Merry Christmas”…not even Christians know what it really means…the thing is only one: it’s a word that brings love and forgiveness when pronounced (if said sincerely)…so what do you care??? Why do you have to ask (yourself, dumbass) stupid, insulting questions?
You don’t want to celebrate Xmas? Ok, the feck cares! Who cares of your problems? Who cares what you think? Who cares if YOU HAVEN’T GOT ANY IDEALS or ANY BELIEVINGS?
Kill yourself and please die
from Ireland
nottelinu (4 comments) on 29 Nov 2007 at 3:41 am #
Like Christians really have control of the holiday anymore. Please think about what you’re ranting about and if it makes sense, and I mean really think about it, or don’t say anything at all. You just make yourself sound like an idiot.
qwerty (65 comments) on 29 Nov 2007 at 3:46 am #
Alright, clue me in. Who has control of the holiday?
nottelinu (4 comments) on 30 Nov 2007 at 3:48 am #
Nobody. Now it’s just a world wide holiday that exist on the calender. People choose to celebrate it, and they celebrate it how they want. Sure, it started out as a Christian holiday hundreds of years ago, but over the years people have raped it with in an inch of it’s life, and now it’s a holiday glorifying greed and a fat old pedofile in which retailers promote the crap out of to make enough money to last them through the year.
qwerty (65 comments) on 30 Nov 2007 at 3:53 am #
If that’s the way you feel about it, why would you have a problem with my points that 1) I don’t appreciate that I’m expected to participate, and 2) I find it hypocritical for people to bring up the “true meaning” of the holiday when they wouldn’t support it being treated strictly as a religious holiday?
nottelinu (4 comments) on 01 Dec 2007 at 2:23 am #
because as a christian, I can definitly tell you christians don’t have “control” over it. No one can have “control” over christmas (and even if someone did, it’s definitly not christians). Now it just is. It’s there, it’s not going anywhere, and even if they took it off the calender and made a world wide announcement denouncing christmas as a holiday, people would still celebrate it, and they would celebrate it how they want.
no one expects you to celebrate it. if you don’t want to, don’t. No one is holding a gun to your head saying “CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS OR I’LL SHOOT!” Get over yourself.
And it’s not hypocritical for someone to bring up the “true meaning” if that person actually believes in the “true meaning”. It’s only hypocritical if that person is an atheist.
qwerty (65 comments) on 01 Dec 2007 at 2:36 am #
OK, last attempt. I’m not saying that anyone is putting a gun to my head. I’m saying that people refuse to accept me excluding myself. Yes, they expect me to celebrate it, one way or another. If I don’t view it as the birth of the messiah, I am expected to participate in the secular winter festival of gift giving. When I tell people I prefer not to decorate or exchange gifts, I’m accused of attacking the religious holiday and the secular celebration.
And my point about it being hypocritical to bring up the true meaning of the day only refers to those who would have it both ways. I’m speaking specifically about the people who attack the commercialization of the day. They say it’s a religious holiday, but if one were to draw the logical conclusion that it’s therefore not a secular holiday, that’s unacceptable to them. My point was that they want it both ways, and the fact that it’s so commercialized only gives them the opportunity to get up on their soap boxes and remind us about the religious aspects. If it were strictly a religious holiday, then they wouldn’t have the whole world listening to them.
nottelinu (4 comments) on 02 Dec 2007 at 2:33 am #
nope, you still sound like an idiot. People like that are in the minority. And you to, sir, are in the minority. For someone so “opinionated” you sure let others dictate your actions. If you really truly felt as strongly as you do, you would just not celebrate it and not let others tell you otherwise. And as someone who doesn’t want others to tell you how to live your life, you wouldn’t do that to others either.
and a big huge “whatever” to religious types “getting on their soap boxes.” They won’t even play religious holiday music in retail stores. that goes to show how little power the religious aspect has anymore. Sure, Churches can talk about jesus a little more freely around the holidays, but just as many people totally ignore it and preach of the generosity of the fat man flying around the world giving presents to all the little children. Get over yourself and let the holidays be. You don’t have to participate, just tell people “I don’t do christmas” and leave it at that. I myself would much rather be around someone who just doesn’t celebrate the holidays than someone who participates but complains about it the entire time. Nobody likes a complainer. Though, I don’t see why you can’t just see it as some winter time with your family/friends. with presents. everyone likes presents. whats wrong with you? I know athiests, and strong athiests at that, who love christmas and tell me how much they are looking forward to christmas. Why are you so angry? Did the Jolly diabetic not bring that GI Joe you always wanted? Did finding out that fat man didn’t exist effect your entire life?
Like I said before, get over yourself. I stumbled upon this page by accident when I was looking for santa pictures to use on a “I’m an anti-santite” banner i was making as a joke for a message board i go to. I don’t regularly read your page (and I get the feeling not a whole lot of others do either), and if anything else on this page is like this pointless rant, then I’m glad to not have wasted my braincells.