[Closed] Do you think Christmas has lost its traditional meaning?

If you see Muslims handing over £20 notes to the Homeless at the end of summer it's for Eid.

Only when Eid falls at the end of the summer, I assume?

Shops wouldn't stock Christmas stuff if it wasn't selling - clearly a lot of people want to "buy early".

That's two-way traffic. People are buying early cos the shops are prompting them to do it. Shops don't like the seasonal peak, they'd rather it was spread out, so they try and do it. That's why they've adopted Black Friday.

mefty - Member
The only decent thing to come out of Christianity is Christmas presents and Easter eggs
Education clearly passed you by.

I think youve missed the sarcasm there mefty

xmas is xmas

humans have been having a midwinter pissup since we started generating surplusses of food so at least 20,000+ years of agriculture, cultures all over the world have been carrying it on ever since, saturnalia, yule, whatever you wanna call it
5000 years ago the former inhabitants of britain moved 25 tonne rocks 25k just so they could have a proper winter orgy of indulgence.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/dec/20/stonehenge-animal-bones-solstice-feast

we are creatures of habit

xmas is xmas

surely it's xmas [i]means[/i] xmas....

TBH I think if I was christian I'd find the whole thing pretty offensive, you can't tell me Jesus would approve.

But christmas is nice, and the further away it gets from any one religion the better imo, more inclusive. I like that the saudi embassy can send us christmas cards without a trace of irony or weirdness, and I like that atheist me my dad and my brothers, my midly christian mum, my brother's jewish girlfriend and anyone else who feels like it can all take part in the all important Giving Of Stuff and Fighting Over Monopoly. And I will read under the tree and not give a crap about whether it's christian or not

I wonder if some Christians are happy to dissociate secular Christmas activities from religious ones?

I like that atheist me my dad and my brothers, my midly christian mum, my brother's jewish girlfriend and anyone else who feels like it can all take part in the all important Giving Of Stuff and Fighting Over Monopoly.

Some people are apparently offended that the Tesco Christmas ad features Muslims because they don't celebrate Christmas, and I guess they are upset because of the insinuation that Christmas is the normal default and differences are not being respected.

Except that they are clearly shown to be arriving at someone else's house, which gives it context. After all, if you were good friends with some Muslims and they invited you to their Eid feast in the spirit of multiculturalist inclusion, you would hardly refuse, would you? So why not the other way round?

For me it sunk to new depths with the advent (see what I did there) of 'gift' advent calendars. My daughters asked this morning if we could get them Smiggle ones at £25 a pop. I said absolutely no way.

with a badly broken spine..

Is there another sort?

I think it's more about celebrating getting over the shortest day of the year than ever before. There's just more presents now.

I'm glad that Jesus fad seems to have passed.

I have been hanging on desperately to the thought that I might start to feel festive soon (I feel zero about it right now yet I normally love it). Still nothing though.

TBH I think if I was christian I'd find the whole thing pretty offensive

Which could be argued sums up why you are not one, the most common view is that it is a shame others are missing out on the more important aspects.

Some people are apparently offended that the Tesco Christmas ad features Muslims

I think some were angry that the inclusion of Muslims was tokenism since Tesco don't sell a halal turkey.

Some people are apparently offended that the Tesco Christmas ad features Muslims

Trump was livid apparently...

Time off work, playing with the kids, walking, riding, going to the pub, nice food, seeing family and friends.

Yeah, sounds awful.

prawny - Member
I think it's more about celebrating getting over the shortest day of the year than ever before. There's just more presents now.

I'm glad that Jesus fad seems to have passed.

this!

christianity bit is an irrelevance weve been doing it since long b4 jesus was a thing and we'll be doing it long after christianity has joined the ranks of other dead religions

TBH I think if I was christian I'd find the whole thing pretty offensive

I am sure there are very few countries who have accepted the gradual erosion of native tradition that us Brits seem quite happy with. We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions. Changing the names we use for things, banning religious wear... I think it's a travesty.

I'm not interested in the simple comments from "Christian-bashers", especially as it seems so in-vogue from people on this forum! I'm not making a pro-Christian point (if you think that, you've misunderstood my point).

Also, if Britain holds a long-standing christian basis for our version of Christmas, then that IS where we should look to for a traditional version of the celebration.

I've happily avoided the worst of winter consumerism by being abroad for the last fifteen years or so.

its not mentioned nearly so much elsewhere.

I did nearly kill myself eating a family sized M&S panacotta last year though 😆

if Britain holds a long-standing christian basis for our version of Christmas, then that IS where we should look to for a traditional version of the celebration.

Define long standing? You know Jesus wasn't born in Budleigh Salterton don't you? I don't think John the Baptist was really called John either.

The Spirit of Christmas begins with the office parties in November, when the number of A&E x-rays annotated with "Query Glass In Wound" starts to rise.

We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions.

What the hell is that?

What has changed since I was a kid? Nothing. No-one has banned Christmas. Put down the Daily Mail.

glasgowdan - Member

I am sure there are very few countries who have accepted the gradual erosion of native tradition that us Brits seem quite happy with.

Yep, it's really weird the way we've adopted this imported "christmas" thing and abandoned our native traditions

I am sure there are very few countries who have accepted the gradual erosion of native tradition that us Brits seem quite happy with.

We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions.

Changing the names we use for things, banning religious wear... I think it's a travesty.

I'm not interested in the simple comments from "Christian-bashers", especially as it seems so in-vogue from people on this forum!

I'm not making a pro-Christian point (if you think that, you've misunderstood my point).

Also, if Britain holds a long-standing christian basis for our version of Christmas, then that IS where we should look to for a traditional version of the celebration.

TBH Why dont christians go and celebrate it how they like and not make the rest of us join in with their version, its not like i think you should all eat a vegan meal, not drink and make donations to third world charities.

You should definitely go for a bike ride early doors though 😉

This old chestnut.

Roasting on an open fire?

I bloody love Christmas; I enjoy treating the people I love, having some time off, spending time with the people I love. I even do an annual week of charity work.....I mean FFS I really dislike the unfortunate 51 weeks of the year, but once a year I'm in such a good mood I'll even tolerate them. Then there's the mince pies, the booze, mulled booze, lonely single women and the cheese....Jesus h Christ the cheese!!!

It's all what you want to make of it. There so much to enjoy about it, why bother to get a grump on about it. Who cares if it's traditional whatever that means, make it something you want to enjoy! It's a bloody good excuse to enjoy yourself.

I have a beer advent calendar, pretty sure traditional christmas is fine at my house 🙂

the booze, mulled booze, lonely single women and the cheese..

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Yes.

Try to ignore the advertising.

It's nice to have a week off work.
It's nice to have a chance to laze around with family.
It's nice to give a present or two to people I care about.

On a personal note, I will be staying up late on the day before the midwinter celebration, sacrificing a few inanimate objects to head pagan god chap Woden*.

* I believe he particularly likes ale and pie. Sacrificed by means of human consumption.

I'm not interested in the simple comments from "Christian-bashers", especially as it seems so in-vogue from people on this forum! I'm not making a pro-Christian point (if you think that, you've misunderstood my point).

I had noticed that references to Christianity is snubbed or almost sneered at.

As always, lots of different opinions. Maybe i should relax a bit more and not get bogged down with the advertising, commercialism and general excess and do my own thing!

general excess

That is literally the point of Christmas originally. Early Christians decided to co-opt the existing festival as Jesus birthday, because there is no consensus on when he was actually born. The European mid winter feast has existed in various forms for 1000s of years.

I'm technically a Christian, but I'm not blind to the fact that there was a world before the bible.

As with some others, I’m anticipating the shortest day and the return (bloody gradually) of the light and warmth.

Could not give a shite about the 25th and all of the nonsense that leads up to it. This year is going to be particularly difficult as it’s the first one for my lads since I left their Mum. Will have to make the best of it. Probably end up going fishing with them on the day (new rods/reels) and off to a Boxing Day football match.

Don’t get me started on New Year’s Eve. 🙂

I am sure there are very few countries who have accepted the gradual erosion of native tradition that us Brits seem quite happy with. We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions. Changing the names we use for things, banning religious wear... I think it's a travesty.

What stone did you just crawl out from under?

It's called a tolerant and open society!

We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions. Changing the names we use for things, banning religious wear... I think it's a travesty.

I am sure there are very few countries who have accepted the gradual erosion of native tradition that us Brits seem quite happy with. We would rather change our ways to suit people of non-British origin than encourage them to accept our traditions. Changing the names we use for things, banning religious wear... I think it's a travesty.

Virtually everything that we think of as a British traditional Christmas was imported from Germany by the Victorians, and pretty much everything else predates Christianity.

As others have said, stop reading the Daily Mail.