How PC has Christmas become where you live?

[ssiguy]

Christmas is a cultural holiday not a very religious one anymore.

Christmas wasn't even celebrated when Christianity began but rather was developed over time. By the alignment of the stars it is generally acknowledged by most that Jesus was actually born in September.

The ONLY reason Christmas began to be celebrated was due to the dictates of the early churches was to convert Pagans to Christianity. This is why Christmas is celebrated Dec 25..........it is close to the Pagans most important day of the year, the Winter Solstice. This is why things like having a Christmas tree, lighting of candles {which eventually became lights},songs, and presents underneath a tree where also brought in because they are very Pagan in rituals in nature and hence it was thought that all these things would help sway Pagans over to Christianity in the early church.

I can't stand it when schools have "Winter Celebrations" as Christmas is a national holiday. I never say Happy Holidays but always Merry Christmas and have never had anyone not respond accordingly regardless of their obvious religious or ethnic background.

[logan5]

Oh Jesus...

[koops65]

Merry Christmas to all... and a happy new year... Xmas to me is about Santa Claus, and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, and has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Let free markets, corporate greed, and capitalism triumph!

[MonkeyRonin]

Christmas could be a holiday about anal fisting for all I care, so long as it has eggnog I'm good.

[MonkeyRonin]

Mmmmmmm



http://www.therooster.ca/food-and-dr...for-christmas/

[Black Star]

Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ......

Christmas is Santa....

Christmas is gifts......

Christmas is Family Friends and food....

Christmas is Will Ferrell in Alf.....

[SignalHillHiker]

No, Christmas is when Santa died for our sins.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Outside of the US, I agree, and that includes Canada.

What I find interesting in this thread is that everyone who has made a comment about Christmas becoming watered down with political correctness is the parent of a school-aged child. For the rest of us childless types, Christmas seems, more or less, unchanged.

This makes me wonder whether the "attack" on Christmas isn't being done in the name of religion, or even multiculturalism, but is part of that general trend of being over-protective of children.

In this case, they are "protecting" children whose families are not going to take part in the usual rituals of Christmas, not only because of their religion/belief/culture, but because the family may not be well off or the family might be dysfunctional.

I'm not sure if overprotective parenting/schooling counts as political correctness. The usual PC tactics can be used for those ends, though.

That's actually a pretty good point.

I can tell you now regardless of how christian my future wife and I are, we will not be giving gifts at christmas.

I'm very much anti consumerist.

Ironic when you think of it.


I was raised so catholic we use to spend parts of christmas eve making fun of all the catholics that couldn't make it to church the other 52 weeks a year


That being said I have an open view of celebration as an adult. I don't care if it's pride, Christmas, Hannuka, dewali, the super bowl, the world cup, halloween valentines. If people are celebrating you should be somewhat polite about the deal.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

Christmas is a cultural holiday not a very religious one anymore.

Christmas wasn't even celebrated when Christianity began but rather was developed over time. By the alignment of the stars it is generally acknowledged by most that Jesus was actually born in September.

The ONLY reason Christmas began to be celebrated was due to the dictates of the early churches was to convert Pagans to Christianity. This is why Christmas is celebrated Dec 25..........it is close to the Pagans most important day of the year, the Winter Solstice. This is why things like having a Christmas tree, lighting of candles {which eventually became lights},songs, and presents underneath a tree where also brought in because they are very Pagan in rituals in nature and hence it was thought that all these things would help sway Pagans over to Christianity in the early church.

I can't stand it when schools have "Winter Celebrations" as Christmas is a national holiday. I never say Happy Holidays but always Merry Christmas and have never had anyone not respond accordingly regardless of their obvious religious or ethnic background.

Yeah it's just a very logical time of year to celebrate.

I think of christmas starting on the winter solstice until a week or so later at new years.


If the days are dark, and the economy is slumping for the winter, it just makes sense to have a final blowout before months of cold and darkness.

[saffronleaf]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I admit to wondering about this lately. I wonder if we will ever get there though.

It's a lot more complicated than what you are making it out to be. Common holidays aren't just about everyday work, they are use to determine dates to be avoided for events like conferences, stuff like when parliament is in session, etc. Also think of the education calendar.

Well, I mean, there are multicultural societies out there that we may be able to look at.

India, for example, has holidays for Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh holy days.

Employers complain it's too many holidays and they need to just have a set of 5-10 religious/cultural/spiritual days for employees. I think that's the best route to go.

I think workplaces and schools could definitely adapt as necessary.

Conversely, I'm totally cool with secular holidays like Canada Day or whatever.

[GlassCity]

This is gonna turn back into the Richmond signs thread, but I don't believe host countries should adapt to immigrant cultures in any ways that change the existing culture. Tolerance is vital, but if people move here they probably acknowledge that it's a different country with its own culture. Maybe that's why they immigrated here. It's not any country's duty to make immigrants feel like they're home. Respect, acceptance and inclusion is definitely needed, and I think Canada does very well in that regard. But changing around holiday greetings, days off work and other things where we weaken our own culture to include others? That's political correctness taken too far.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by saffronleaf

Well, I mean, there are multicultural societies out there that we may be able to look at.

India, for example, has holidays for Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh holy days.

Employers complain it's too many holidays and they need to just have a set of 5-10 religious/cultural/spiritual days for employees. I think that's the best route to go.

I think workplaces and schools could definitely adapt as necessary.

Conversely, I'm totally cool with secular holidays like Canada Day or whatever.

I'd rather just have all the major religious holidays become public holidays. Lord knows we could use more vacation time in this country.

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

No, Christmas is when Santa died for our sins.

lol.......

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

No, Christmas is when Santa died for our sins.

And he rose again on Boxing Day to provide us with great sales and deals at FutureShop.

[Surrealplaces]

I think the whole issue has been blown out of proportion at times. Of all the Muslims, Hindus, etc that I've known and worked with I have yet to meet one that is offended by the greeting "Merry Christmas" and why would they be? There isn't anything offensive about it, it's just an expression telling people to have a good time during the Christmas holiday period. Christmas exists, and it is what it is whether your Muslim, Jewish Atheist or whatever. I'm not offended when somebody says Inshallah (god willing) It doesn't mean anything to me.

About 5 years ago we changed our greeting at the office lobby from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" because a Lebanese lady had started work in the building. Three years later we found out that even though she was Muslim, she put up a Christmas tree at home every year.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

I think the whole issue has been blown out of proportion at times. Of all the Muslims, Hindus, etc that I've known and worked with I have yet to meet one that is offended by the greeting "Merry Christmas" and why would they be? There isn't anything offensive about it, it's just an expression telling people to have a good time during the Christmas holiday period. Christmas exists, and it is what it is whether your Muslim, Jewish Atheist or whatever. I'm not offended when somebody says Inshallah (god willing) It doesn't mean anything to me.

About 5 years ago we changed our greeting at the office lobby from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" because a Lebanese lady had started work in the building. Three years later we found out that even though she was Muslim, she put up a Christmas tree at home every year.

In my experience its usually atheists who can't stand religion(in all forms) that usually get on with this stuff. Ironically most of them are anti muslim hindu etc, except they can't openly attack them

[esquire]

Originally Posted by saffronleaf

Well, I mean, there are multicultural societies out there that we may be able to look at.

India, for example, has holidays for Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh holy days.

Employers complain it's too many holidays and they need to just have a set of 5-10 religious/cultural/spiritual days for employees. I think that's the best route to go.

I think workplaces and schools could definitely adapt as necessary.

Conversely, I'm totally cool with secular holidays like Canada Day or whatever.

The reality is that even if you are a Hitchens-quoting anti-theist, you have to concede that Christmas has a special place as the biggest holiday in our culture. There is definitely a secular element to it that anyone can enjoy. I don't see why we should get rid of it to please those who might celebrate other holidays.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Stryker

In my experience its usually atheists who can't stand religion(in all forms) that usually get on with this stuff. Ironically most of them are anti muslim hindu etc, except they can't openly attack them

That does happen for sure. I'm not a religious person myself, but I'm not anti- religion. I'm happy to go along with any cultural celebration if it's in good spirit. Regardless of whether people believe in god or Jesus doesn't matter to me. If Jesus' message was about peace and move then I'm down with that.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Ashok

OOOO! I know why they celebrate Christmas in Japan. Bloody corporations and their effective marketing campaigns! Apprently, the traditional Christmas meal in Japan is KFC, and apprently, you need to put in orders weeks in advance.

My knowledge of Japanese is extremely limited but 11月 30日is the 30th of November, so maybe that's the deadline to order your Christmas meal!!

[Bcasey25raptor]

I'm irreligious myself but god dammit, it's christmas, not the holidays.