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Would you ban Christmas

Deleted User

if you could?

A deliberately controversial title Blush

How many people welcome Christmas with open arms, I wonder?

It's purportedly a Christian festival based upon a pagan one.

However, in the UK today (a secular society) and a lot of the West, the God being worshipped appears to be money.

When I was a child we were working class.

In those days (60s/70s) goods were far more expensive as the mass manufacturing we see today of cheap imported goods didn't happen.

Borrowing money from banks etc was far more difficult than it is today.

We didn't have much and didn't get much for Christmas.

Also, my mother became cyclically depressed every Christmas and because of all the arguments and misery during my childhood Christmases, I get depressed too.

There are other causes of the depression - bereavement, most of my life spent in deep anxiety about how I was going to pay for presents and spending time in mass gatherings I hated.

I went shopping today and the shops are mad, completely mad with people rushing around buying stuff that the recipients may not even want.

This is what Mind says:

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/christmas-and-mental-health/christmas-and-mental-health/

What do you think?

Does it cause more misery than happiness?

Parents

  • Christmas is meant to be a celebration of Christ’s birth and his teachings. To respond to human need through love and service. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence and to pursue peace and reconciliation. To safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. To teach these things to others. To love one another.

    Why would anyone want to ban that?

    What is has become is not what it should be, but banning isn’t the answer, in my opinion.

Reply

  • Christmas is meant to be a celebration of Christ’s birth and his teachings. To respond to human need through love and service. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence and to pursue peace and reconciliation. To safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. To teach these things to others. To love one another.

    Why would anyone want to ban that?

    What is has become is not what it should be, but banning isn’t the answer, in my opinion.

Children
  • in reply to Arise

    As a traditional Catholic, I totally agree with and support these ideals 

  • in reply to Arise
    Arise said:
    Christmas is meant to be a celebration of Christ’s birth and his teachings. 

    There are 2 issues I see around this statement.

    1 - the bible (ie the source of stories about Christ) was mostly written between 50 and 90 years after he died.

    Even if the eyewitnesses were 20 at the time he died, then they would be between 70 and 110 years old when their memories were written down. Do you think people of this age bracket are likely to have an accurate and unbiassed account of events?

    When I speak with elderly aquantancies then they tend to give a very selective edit of events from their side that tells it how they want it to come across. I highly doubt there is much accuracy in these tales.

    2 - the stories have been edited by committee countless times over the millenia. Lots of problematic parts have been edited out through the years (see the King James edits for an idea of how much was modified to suit the agenda of the time) and much of the earlier fire and brimstone prose has been softened by the church to make it more appealing.

    While the values preached are noble in intent, I think they are much better taken in a non-denomenational context and the religion removed completely.