Edric 64, I don't mind you being a bigot, I'll spare a thought for you when I'm in church.
hatter - MemberTim Minchin puts it quite eloquently:
That bloke is not funny at all ...
Give me Dad's Army any day and they much more funny then him.
🙄
give your mum Dad's Army any day
Why did you mention snow?
Just for people who get a bit funny about stuff like that. There was a thread yesterday where nobody had mentioned snow but some folk didn't understand.
The church is where minds are poisoned and lots of nastiness springs from
There was a thread yesterday where nobody had mentioned snow but some folk didn't understand.
Have you checked?
I checked the OP lots and there was no mention of snow.
Anyway, enough about snow, have you heard there's a new season of Breaking Bad being filmed? No really, seems legit...
yunki - Membergive your mum Dad's Army any day
😆 How about your mum? Dad's Army as well?
What does your mum like?
Christmas feeds the system.
It's all about commercialism and capitalism, whilst giving the masses something to get all excited about and feel/think that the system works for them. Controlled dopamine and serotonin release.
Unfortunately, that's an illusion.
Take some of the current TV ads for Sainsbury's, John Lewis et al. Emotional guilt trips aplenty, encouraging the populous to spend money they haven't got on stuff that none of us need, creating bigger debt and more interest income for the lenders, more products sold by the retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and more profit. Paying their employees, so they can return it back into the system at multiple levels.
Christmas cards also feed this guilt factor and we are pressed to send cards to people because everyone else does. Do we just think about these people only at this time of year?
It's all about using up resources as though we live on an infinite resource. It's all about the need for continuous growth and profit and dividends that is the fundamentals of the system within which we live.
It is, quite frankly an elaborate illusion of delusion, created by the system.
Better to be of the system than in the system in my world.
But we all make our own worlds and if Christmas is in yours, then have an enjoyable one.
i really struggle with christmas.
its the time of year when i am feeling least social (seasonal depression) and am earning the least money (outdoor, weather dependant job)
i try really hard to pull myself together and put a smile on so as not to bring everyone down but i do find it really difficult. ive just been to the shops to buy gifts for my mother and brothers (i dont have kids) and burst into tears when i got back to the van.
SA - good job that we have the free will to see though all this additional BS. Not everyone swallows it. And some even have an excuse (!) to look well beyond for deeper meanings and value - that is a free gift for all and a free choice to accept. Wonderful. In the end it has nothing to do with commercialism or capitalism.
Sorry to hear that Jonah. Can be a really tough time too. Best wishes.
Bugger all actually.
to look well beyond for deeper meanings and value - that is a free gift for all and a free choice to accept
It means having to listen to sanctimonious god botherering crap like that
Pass me the sick bucket will you
THM - be of it, not in it.
if your belief is that it has nothing to do with commercialism and capitalism, then that's fine.
We make our own worlds.
We do indeed SA, that's the beauty of it.
Time off work, family punch up, getting so pissed i damage my own property and getting some socks to replace the ones with holes in.
Hate it.
Wouldnt miss it if it was never forced on me again.
Far too much effort and forced joviality.
The pressure of finding the 'perfect' gift , I mean wgaf really . If i want something I save up and buy it. If I cant afford it ( Pivot Mach 429c) I dont buy it.
Kids get so much high value stuff at an age where they do not appreciate the value of money and gifts not worthy are ignored.
Best xmas I have had was skiing m in a flat with a bunch of strangers getting hammered .
That bloke is not funny at all ...
I didn't post it because it was funny, I posted it because it was poignant and explained rather well how a grumpy non-believer such as myself can still apreciate certain aspects of Christmas.
Oh.
Pass the bucket JY please.
Hoping to do the presents stuff on Christmas eve this year (as is done in a bunch of countries) so that Christmas day will be spent going to church, having friends round for lunch, drinks, chats, laughs and no doubt post sprout farting. Excellent day all round. Lots of folks I know are reducing their present spend rather than increasing over the last few years so that is getting better as well
I wouldn't drink it SA - enjoy the cynical version of the next 48 hours anyway. Merry day 358 and day 359 - quite Orwellian really.
I assume that you are boycotting TV (mind those adverts), cards and other forms of communication, and any form of commercial/capitalist excess. So no patronising the exploitative supermarkets with their zero hours contracts etc. I guess biking is a bit in that category too - more bloody capitalism. Are you going for a nice long walk on Thursday? Sounds almost spiritual!
Enjoy it whatever!
Better wash up now after celebrating such a revolting concept with the neighbours.
I love it because the excitement my kids show, takes me back to being their age again. And everyone seems to be nice to each other, even if it's just for one day.
After the latest outpouring can I have it back please SA?
Thanks THM for breaking up your evenings entertainment to beat us to death with a sanctimonious straw man. Its definitely what Jesus would do and he thanks you for being a beacon of the true face of christianity at this time.
Your argument is bobbins and its possible to object to the excesses of capitalism without having to return to the stone age and a barter system.
Here is a christian making that point 😉
Can't stand it to be honest.
It was hell at work today, full of folks expecting to walk into an empty shop and get served straight away only to find that all the other sheep had turned up at the same time. Who'd of thought it.! 🙄
I live round the corner from my folks so I see them on a regular basis anyway. I go through the motions for my daughter but I have never decorated the house, not because I am making a stand or owt I just cant be arsed and we always go round to my parents for the dinner so don't see the point.
My face book feed is (extra) unbearable at the moment.
Humbug.
Christmas cards, a credit card bill, pressure all for one day 'because its expected and tradition' and worrying about my job in the New Year... that's the not so good bit...
Catching up with family and friends, time off work and getting a bit squiffy and riding bikes with my mates... that's the good bit and what I'm looking forward to.
Had to drive to Aberdeen again to sit watching You've Been Framed and Emmerdale with the inlaws.
But... the weather's looking nice on Christmas day so for us two it will be smoked salmon and scrambled egg followed by a bike ride and dinner with lashings of booze.
Oh God. I married the wrong person, didn't I?
Ho ho ho !
I'm actually Father Christmas and I set this simple test up to see who has been good and most of you passed so you'll get presents from me 😀
In answer to the question what am I doing on Christmas Day, we'll be celebrating my nieces birthday and spending time with my brother who's ill ( her dad)... Because of the situation with my brother we will be making the day as good as can be...Christmas or not !
On that note happy Christmas to you all enjoy whatever the day brings it clearly means something different to all of us.
I think I can hear some sheep.
I can understand people pretending it is about winter solstice to justify their strange behaviours.
December the 25th is a religious celebration, consider it like racist words that perhaps originally had different meanings; we know racists have taken ownership of those words so they become something unpleasant.
Has Hitler been mentioned yet? If not WHY NOT????????????
Would you peeps still celebrate a day called 'Hitlers parade' just because it was a jolly time with the family or lined up with the solstice?
Religious nutjobs have taken ownership of a date near the winter solstice so we have to accept that date is just for cracker jacks. Just move your family celebration to the 31st December if you like stuffing your fat greedy faces.
Hope you all have a good 2015.
Does it really matter what it means to everyone else?
I know what it means to me (and I suppose by exception, what it doesn't), and that's enough.
I hope you all enjoy your own Christmas day, and get to do with it whatever you like, but I don't really care TBH...
Carry on...
Still... I've got a massive amount of food in the fridge and huge quantities of booze, so on some level I will enjoy it.
At this time of year, it's important to remember that Christmas is all about the baby cheeses.
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Religious nutjobs have taken ownership of a date near the winter solstice
No they haven't!
Oh YES they have! Panto season too.
You can pretend they haven't if you like so you can justify your strange Crassmass day celebrations but it ain't the winter Solstice on the 25th.
Christmas means a £10 five bird roast, from those Iceland people.
There's no part of Christmas that I don't detest. On the other hand Hogmanay is great and probably my favourite time of year.
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You can pretend they haven't if you like so you can justify your strange Crassmass day celebrations but it ain't the winter Solstice on the 25th.
So they moved it a few days. Look carefully and you can see most of the secular Christmas is just a midwinter feast, that predates Christianity. Got a Christmas tree? Holly or mistletoe in your decorations? Lights up? Giving gifts*, eating and drinking lots? None of these things are anything to do with Christianity.
* gift giving has been retrospectively aligned with that Turkish saint, but it's still not a Christian thing what with Jesus being anti-materialistic and all.
Spot on molegrips.
Hence my post ^ 😀
:0) Yes I have heard it all before.. once upon a time it was just about blah blah blah
You are cherry picking information that helps you justify following the sheep. We live in the present and Christmas day is a religious day. As soon as we move the day of celebrating and change the name it forces religion further from our society but the bloody sheep can't be bothered to stand up for their own modern EDUCATED views.
Why not celebrate and enjoy your feasting on the actual day of Solstice or on a day that hasn't been turned into something unpleasant? For convenience you will call the start of your celebrations CHRIST MASS.. How very odd but I suppose that's the way sheep roll!
Enjoy your day friend.
You are cherry picking information that helps you justify following the sheep
You are also cherry picking. Nothing Christian in our house, by choice.
There might be some people who go through some religious motions out of a sense of tradition, but not in our house. This is our EDUCATED view.
And you cam ****.off with your sheep comments you total ****. You have no idea what you are talking about.
I did not celebrate on the solstice because I am not celebrating the solstice, and I was at work.
You is angry dude. [img] https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRMQ-0Go86JOWn5Zc90teMMgqoSHPBP49XiCmmDY7bqDGVAHobB [/img]
Yeah I get angry being called a sheep by someone who doesn't know me, when I put a great deal of effort into thinking objectively.
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You could quite happily drop all elements of religion from crimbo (can even give it a new name, fatmass if you like) and it'd make **** all difference.
At least to my little world, it's just a fancy holiday. Like New Years with less vomit. Although I'm aware of the hypocrisy/irony whatever of the religious element, I ain't complaining coz its a time off work.
Incarnation. Although i don't subscribe to the orthodox stories. Mark and John summed up all i need to know about Christmas.
If you want it to be about the birth of Jesus celebrate on the 6th of January .
25 December is all about what was the winter solstice and what at the time was a much more popular religion.
Sweet FA....
Spend money on things that people don't need. Receive shit you don't want. Sit around the table eating crap you wouldn't choose to eat at any other time of the year.
Why?
Would rather be at home smoking green on the sofa.
It's the same every year....
I now have the real answer, sit round the table with your 86 year old mother and older brothers and have her tell you how material things don't matter to her after living through her house being the recipient of a "direct hit " by a German bomb . She then told me off because her bad time milk was not warm enough.
Religion-Pah.. no thanks.
Winter hibernation- the heatings barely on here in the SE.
Feasting- Too much food is just as bad in December as June.
Gifts- haven't we all already got too much.
Goodwill to all- its ok to be **** for the rest of the year then?
Booze- as per feasting.
Get togethers- combine with booze, for more trouble.
TV- you are battered with ads.
I quite like the idea of a mutual holiday, but would like to get rid of all the Christmas nonsense so we can get straight into enjoying the time off work.
crankboy - Member
I now have the real answer, sit round the table with your [b]86 year old mother [/b]and older brothers and have her tell you how material things don't matter to her after living through her house being the recipient of a "direct hit " by a German bomb . [b]She then told me off because her [i]bad [/i]time milk was not warm enough.[/b]
Errrrr what? 😯
Spend money on things that people don't need. Receive shit you don't want. Sit around the table eating crap
I didn't do any of those things 🙂 They aren't mandatory.
Loneliness! Well this year anyway.
Oldboy
+1
Peace and goodwill
Enjoyed the company of those present and missed those missing
Wonderful organ and choral music, food and wine
(And a bonus "short break" thrown in too 😉 )