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Goodbye Jesus

I Still Dig Christmas Trees And Stuff


PandaPirate

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Seeing as how "Christmas" is just Saturnalia repackaged and marketed toward the heathen folk, I guess I don't see any reason not to decorate with pretty lights and candy canes. Just no Manger Scenes or any shit like that.

 

I always enjoyed decorating, but i don't (and never have) bought gifts for friends or family (except my 10 year-old-daughter) so I'm going to keep doing what makes me happy.

 

After all, it's a Festivus for the Rest of Us.

 

Is this silly of me? Do i need to get a grip? Am i just hanging on to old ways for comfort?

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I can't answer your questions because their answers are personal to you. I can say, however, that I, too, still enjoy Christmas, including listening to Handel's Messiah. It is a beautiful piece of music and the vocals are spectacular.

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Christmas is really easy to make totally secular. It's all pagan anyway. And as OF said, even the religious music is still beautiful. I gave up the dogma, not the wisdom and beauty.

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It's funny, I started to like Christmas after I deconverted from Christianity.  I couldn't really enjoy the spirit of the holidays before like others did. It was 'only supposed to be about Jesus' -- not about pagan traditions, presents, santa, etc.  I enjoy Christmas now and it makes me appreciate my deconversion.

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I have no problem with secular xmas.  I enjoy it more since deconversion, in fact.

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I love christmas too.  The pagan cerebration was hijacked by the christians.   I won't let sour christians (or anyone else) steal my fun and joy.

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Unfortunately for most Christians (and maybe us also), Christmas was hijacked long ago by corporate interests and those seeking big profits. 

 

Even when I was a Christian Christmas seemed way more secular to me than religious.  It was almost kind of a joke that Christians even made claim to it.

 

I love the lights and the tree and even the manger scenes and bad Christmas music doesn't bother me - to me it's all about family and friends and food and booze.   So I still love it.

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Agree with everyone else here. I always like the music and everything. To me, the Pentecostals with their brays and worship songs ruined an otherwise nice time.

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The winter solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years by many people around the world… taking jesus out of it is easy - because he's been forced to fit into it anyway. Trees, lights, feasts, exchanging gifts, decorations… yule logs, eggnog, mistletoe, wassailing, etc… all pagan. Santa is an almagamation of a European folk tradition and Saint Nicholas.

 

"Santa Claus, also known as Saint NicholasFather ChristmasKris Kringle and simply "Santa", is a figure withlegendary, historical and folkloric origins who, in many Western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children on 24 December, the night before Christmas Day. However, in some European countries children receive their presents on St. Nicholas' Day, 6 December.[1]

The modern figure of Santa Claus is derived from the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, whose name is a dialectal pronunciation of Saint Nicholas, the historical Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra. During the Christianization of Germanic Europe, this figure may have absorbed elements of the god Odin, who was associated with the Germanic pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky. Over time, traits of this character and the British folklore character Father Christmas merged to form the modern Santa Claus known today."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

 

*edit - the wild hunt was more than a celestial event - but we won't go into that here

 

The winter solstice may have been immensely important because communities were not certain of living through the winter, and had to be prepared during the previous nine months. Starvation was common during the first months of the winter, January to April (northern hemisphere) or July to October (southern hemisphere), also known as "the famine months". In temperate climates, the midwinter festival was the last feast celebration, before deep winter began. Most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, so it was almost the only time of year when a supply of fresh meat was available. The majority of wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking at this time. The concentration of the observances were not always on the day commencing at midnight or at dawn, but the beginning of the pre-Romanized day, which falls on the previous eve.[4]

 

Since the event is seen as the reversal of the Sun's ebbing presence in the sky, concepts of the birth or rebirth of sun gods have been common and, in cultures using winter solstice based cyclic calendars, theyear as reborn has been celebrated with regard to life-death-rebirth deities or new beginnings such asHogmanay's redding, a New Year cleaning tradition. Also reversal is yet another usual theme as in Saturnalia's slave and master reversals.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

 

 

Enjoy the season - midwinter feasts have been keeping people from going nuts through long, hard winters for a long time.

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My mom always made xmas magical, so for me, it will always be that. 

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I grew up Hindu. Sometimes we did Christmas, sometimes we didn't. But Jesus was never a part of it. I find that after deconversion from Christianity I'm able to celebrate a more enjoyable, Jesus-free Christmas. I even get to put up lights in the house this year; all I had to do was convince my wife we could reuse them for Diwali!

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Seeing as how "Christmas" is just Saturnalia repackaged and marketed toward the heathen folk, I guess I don't see any reason not to decorate with pretty lights and candy canes. Just no Manger Scenes or any shit like that.

 

I always enjoyed decorating, but i don't (and never have) bought gifts for friends or family (except my 10 year-old-daughter) so I'm going to keep doing what makes me happy.

 

After all, it's a Festivus for the Rest of Us.

 

Is this silly of me? Do i need to get a grip? Am i just hanging on to old ways for comfort?

 

Do as you will. Not as a Christian would do and not as a Christmas hater would do.

 

We put up a Christmas tree and other decorations and sometimes even sing Christmas songs. Then in January it all gets packed up and stored in the garage. :-)

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Thank you for all your replies. I appreciate it!

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I find Christmas terribly stressful, but only until I've finished the Christmas shopping - then I love it.  

 

We have a proper tree every year, and in the ten years I've now been with my OH, we've made a real tradition of buying the tree - it has to be the right one, with a personality just right for our living room.  I'm always disappointed to take it down afterwards.

 

White lights, gold and red tinsel, classy baubles (also gold and red) and of course, the annual pilgrimage to check out the latest Swarovski star.

 

I love all the daft Christmas pop songs, the much-repeated movies on TV, I love cooking for people if they're coming to us, and I love sparkly lights, even though I'm a guy.

 

Bring it on smile.png

 

 

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However, in some European countries children receive their presents on St. Nicholas' Day, 6 December.[1]

 

You mean all these years I've been getting my presents 19 days late???!!! mad.gif

 

 

In all seriousness, though, I also like some of the Christmas traditions. What I like even more, though, are some of the hard rock versions of Christmas songs (though I'm picky about it; most rocked up Christmas songs are a bit cheesy, but some are quite good).

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I never thought of it this way before but all we have to do is take Christ out of Christmas and what we're left with is the true meaning of fun and family and magic or whatever Christmas has always been about anyway. Two centuries ago the Christians got a hold of it and distorted it for their own special holiday. The hate the old traditions and scream cliches about the true meaning of Christmas and leaving Christ in Christmas. But that's new. Christmas or Yuletide or Winter Solstice used to be about Good King Wenceslaus bringing the poor man food and fire, St. Nicholaus bringing gifts to poor children, lovers making out under the holly and ivy. 

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Here's a Saturnalia card I send out sometimes.

 

saturnalia.png

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Fuego, do you get any flack for that card?

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Not so far. I haven't used it for a while since I've been undercover. I still hope to influence a couple of nieces and nephews and would not be allowed near them if the parents knew I flushed Jesus.

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PandaPirate,keep doing what makes you happy!  It sounds like you're giving your daughter a fun childhood, and you're having fun, too!

 

That's what this life is about.

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