FUCK CHRISTMAS

author=nurvuss
My farmer grandma once sent me a card with a $1 bill in it, and a pebble from her yard. The card said "I found this rock and it reminded me of you."

This is a woman to cherish, oh my god! Hahaha

I'm going to surprise everyone and say I love Christmas. The movies could have a better effect on me if my family didn't watch them all year round, but hey whatever floats their boat. I do have problems getting into the spirit on Christmas Day specifically because a long time ago some idiot convinced me certain things, including Christmas, are for children. And yeah, I guess some things are meant for children but I give approximately zero craps. I wanna have fun darn it! I get happier during the general Christmas season.

It also helps that I don't hate anyone.

I'm going to walk down to the store and buy some shit while wearing my santa hat, because it's officially December and I won't look like a complete loon doing so. It's the only time of year I get this chance.

I never really thought about what Christmas 'meant' to me until I started seriously dating my girlfriend.

I grew up in a lower class, weird odd family who never really had a lot of money for gifts and festivities and all that, so Christmas was cool as a kid and all, but as I grew up it mattered less and less because I wasn't really in a position to enjoy it.

However my girlfriend grew up upper middle class in a stable nuclear family yadda yadda which basically means 'celebrate every holiday to the max', which means that I'm already expecting to go Christmas tree holiday shopping for our apartment and I already know she's getting my gifts, so if I don't want to be a piece of shit boyfriend I pretty much gotta get gifts for her too.

I don't mind actually having a reason to get festive after never really caring about Christmas, but it's a change of pace!

author=LockeZ
I don't know why people who aren't Christian even bother with Christmas. You don't have to become Jewish to skip out on it, you can just be like, "I don't celebrate Christmas."

Once again, rituals, man. My parents were not religious in the slightest, but they enjoyed the holiday and it was celebrated in our house. When you grow up with that as a yearly tradition, you learn to appreciate it and make it your own. (unless you've just been having a really horrible time every year!)

It's not just that. Christmas (Yule) doesn't even originate with Christianity, and there are still people who celebrate the ancient rites. Christmas couldn't be stopped and was illegal throughout Europe for many centuries. Christianity and Christmas are just labels put on a much older Pagan festival that European descendants have never stopped celebrating. The real end was that Catholicism adopted the festival as one of their rites.

(Christian name open and pagan name in parenthesis)Easter (Oestara), Halloween (Samhain, Hallow E'en, All Hallow's Eve), Candlemas (Imbolc), May Day or Roodmas (Beltaine), there is no Christian version of (Lughnasadh)(Litha) or (Mabon). The significance of each: there are two Equinoxes--Easter and Mabon--two Solstices--Yule (which falls between Dec. 21-23rd) and Litha (June 21st), and festivals timed between each, the most important being Samhain, which is the third and final harvest of the year. Holidays were breaks at the end of each work period, work actually being the job of growing food and preparing the community for winter each year.

Even with the advent and spread of Christianity, the church couldn't seem to stop people from celebrating the festivals, so they adopted them as their own. Easter (actually the name of a goddess: Easter is a corruption of Ostara) became the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. Yule (also closely related to Rome's Saturnalia, and actually now falling on the last day of Saturnalia, Brumalia on Dec. 25th...Saturnalia lasting for 12 days. Ever wonder why there's 12 days of Christmas?) became his birthday, even though the least educated of Bible readers could probably guess that based on the conditions described in the Bible, he was born in the summer. Samhain, or All Hallows Day became All Saints Day, though even converted to Christianity everyone remembered that All Hallows Evening or E'en was the most important day of the festival (this being the day in which Death holds no sway on the spirits of the dead and we must disguise ourselves so vengeful spirits might mistake us for another spirit).

So seriously, the "Christmas is only for Christians" position is kind of silly, and easily debunked with five minutes of research.

I fucking love Christmas.

This is the only time of the year where I can watch the live-action version of The Grinch three times in a row without being judged for it, so that's what I'll be doing some time next week.

While I appreciate the season, I think it's a shame that we can't be more "brotherly" throughout the year. Pinning it all on one month (or day) really kills it, doesn't it?

While I may not be much of a fan of all that ever-changing cold weather and all that wonderful black ice that’s on the road and the sidewalks (nobody seems to like to shovel their driveways around here anymore), I do like going down to other people’s homes and businesses, seeing all those twinkly Christmas lights and decorations put up while listening to all those old nostalgia Christmas tunes blasted all over the radio while shopping in the meantime for presents for yourself and others and seeing them all just smile with those happy faces when you buy them something that they actually like. Plus, getting together with the whole family and all your friends is really the best part of Christmas for me. Because now that I’m an adult and since some of my old friends and family have moved away from here (because this place is too god damn expensive), it’s just a bit extra special now to have them all together for that one special day.

Also looking forward to eating my aunt’s marvelous stuffing is also giving me just cause to look forward to Christmas coming along (nom, nom). Oh, and the time off as well. I mean, you can’t beat that.

I think the only thing that I don’t like is how some workplaces won’t allow its employees to say “Merry Christmas” anymore because it offends some people and just say “Happy Holidays” instead. Well, whatever, screw that – I still say it whenever I’m at work. I don't care. Come at me, bros!