I’m annoyed by how Christians have tried to steal Christmas from everyone else.
What is Christian about Christmas?
We decorate our houses with lights.
We exchange presents.
We put up a tree in our houses.
A fat dude in a red suit gives kids gifts.
There’s nothing about Christ in any of this. If anything it’s a celebration of consumerism.
We don’t know when Jesus was born, so it’s not His birthday.
Discuss.
I blame it all on those Maji. They gave gifts, they followed a light, they traveled in a daily parade, one of them was a black guy named Friday,…
Christmas is a Christian holiday. I don’t celebrate Christmas as a Jew. It’s annoying when I’m told it’s a secular holiday that I must celebrate. Fuck that.
At least christmas had christ in the name, even if coca cola managed to replace jesus with their santa clause.
(in english) easter is named after a germanic goddess of spring.
100% secular. It’s pretty much another thanksgiving here. It used to be a christian thing, but isn’t anymore.
Arguing that it’s not to be celebrated because it’s christian is about the same as christians not celebrating halloween because it’s about devils or something. Again, wrong. Halloween is about kids+community, and well, just another fun celebration.
To be clear, I’m annoyed with Christians for trying to claim the Roman winter solstice as their own Holiday. Stick to Easter where a bunny hides chocolate to celebrate Jesus coming back to life.
This never made sense to me at all. All Hallows Eve is simply the day before All Saints Day. Certainly Christian, no clue why some Christians find it bad to celebrate.
I have no objection to non-Christians joining in the fun, but the holiday’s origin is undeniably Christian. Moreso that Christmas, I’d argue.
BTW, I’m having flashbacks of my ex-husband explaining to me that there was no connection between Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. 
True. Some Christians call Easter Resurrection Sunday. I should refer to it that way more too. Easter is a dumb name for the most important day of the year and the entire basis of Christianity.
As for whether Christmas is or isn’t a Christian holiday… the comparison to Halloween is apt. It’s Christian in origin, has specific meaning to most (but not all) Christians, but lots of non-Christians join in the fun and I don’t think anybody does or should mind.
It’s really a much less important holiday than any of Maundy/Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday, or even Pentecost.
Disagree. Halloween is secular. Christmas is a christian holiday.
There’s a stronger case for Halloween being Christian than Christmas IMO.
December 25 was a pagan holiday that the church usurped for its own purpose and decided that a birthday party for Jesus would be fun and since we don’t know exactly when he was born but we want to compete with the pagans… hey let’s use the date of their holiday.
Whereas All Saints Day, originally called All Hallows’ Day, is a totally Christian holiday. Most churches will honor the dead on November 1, or in Protestant churches the Sunday immediately afterwards if November 1 doesn’t fall on a Sunday. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church… one of only 8 or 10 I believe, signifying its importance. Meaning that all Catholics are expected to attend mass on All Saints Day, regardless of what day of the week it falls on.
Typically the names of the members who have died since the last All Saints Day are read aloud, nowadays their pictures are probably displayed in some fashion, special prayers are said in their remembrance and for their souls, special songs are sung (usually “For All The Saints” and one or two others).
In the early church, all-night vigils would be held on the eves of the major feast days. The vigil on the eve of Christmas was, of course, Christmas Eve and the vigil on the eve of All Hallows’ Day was Hallows Eve which over the years became Halloween.
Part of Allhallowtide, Catholics also celebrate All Souls Day, which is on November 2. It’s also referred to as the Day of the Dead or Dia de Los Muertos… it’s a very big deal in (heavily Catholic) Latin America in particular.
Saints = deceased and in heaven
Souls = deceased and in purgatory
Protestant churches mostly do not do much, if anything, for All Souls Day… mostly lumping everything into All Saints Day. Regardless, unquestionably Christian.
Too many people want to dictate what other people should think or do, imo. If you want Christian Christmas, great. If you want secular Christmas, great. If you want no Christmas, great. If you want everyone else to want your Christian or secular or no Christmas, I’ve got a problem with that. Mind your own business.
As I said, I don’t mind non-Christians joining in the fun… but I do mind non-Christians saying that they aren’t Christian holidays. Of course they are.
If you don’t care about the Christian stuff that’s your decision, but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t exist / isn’t the reason for the holiday in the first place.
There’s a Christian holiday that was plopped atop the traditional celebration of a pagan holiday. Like Muslims tend to build mosques on top of previous holy sites, Christians have tended to invent holidays on top of previous celebrations.
I feel like we have two concurrent holidays on December 25th. There’s a Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth, and there’s a secular celebration that we’ve reached midwinter. (An awful lot of cultures celebrate on or near the winter solstice by lighting a lot of lights and throwing a party.) A friend refers to the secular holiday as “Shopping”.
The Christian stuff is certainly important to Christians, but it’s hardly “the reason” people celebrate then. As evidenced by all the non-Christians who celebrated before Christians planted their holiday on the day, and all the non-Christians around the world who celebrate Shopping.
My parents visited Turkey shortly before Christmas, and saw a lot of people selling rugs that featured “Baba Claus”. That really wasn’t about Christ. It was a bunch of Muslims celebrating Shopping.
That’s nice, but I don’t think you can put a holiday celebrated by one person in the same category as a holiday celebrated by 2.3 billion Christians plus a whole lot of non-Christians as well.
Sounds like a slightly different name for Santa Claus, aka St. Nicholas, aka the Christian bishop and later a saint. He is patron saint of children (and a bunch of others) who was born in present-day Turkey and known for giving gifts in secret, sneaking them into people’s homes at night.
We could go into a whole thing on the connection between St. Nicholas and Christmas, but I think it’s safe to say that at a minimum Baba Claus is about a Christian saint.
Do we really want to argue about everything?
That’s the way it used to be. Things changed.
The only time you’ll see a manger or baby Jesus in Canada is at a church. Everyone else celebrates Christmas in a non secular fashion. Heck even most Christians celebrate it in a nonsecular fashion.
I agree with what you wrote, but perhaps not what you intended to say. Freudian slip?
Inflammable. English, who knew?