What do YOU celebrate this time of year?
- Thread starter MandyPug
- Start date
Christmas---religious, as well as Santa, Rudolph, decorated tree and everything else that goes with it!
I grew up that way, but DH's family didn't do much tree decorating or any of the 'fun' traditions. I should say his PARENTS were the fun suckers.......his aunts, uncles, and grandparents celebrated the same as we do now.
Also, I learned something new in this thread! Not much of a Reader's Digest reader, so I'm not familiar with the inventor of Festivus Dan O'keefe........I was never a seinfeld fan, so I have never heard of Festivus that way either! LOL I had to Wikipedia the word, hehe. I'm sure I've heard the word, but never knew it was celebrated as an actual holiday!
Anyone actually do the unadorned aluminum pole and other "traditions" that go with Festivus?
Learning new stuff is fun
I grew up that way, but DH's family didn't do much tree decorating or any of the 'fun' traditions. I should say his PARENTS were the fun suckers.......his aunts, uncles, and grandparents celebrated the same as we do now.
Also, I learned something new in this thread! Not much of a Reader's Digest reader, so I'm not familiar with the inventor of Festivus Dan O'keefe........I was never a seinfeld fan, so I have never heard of Festivus that way either! LOL I had to Wikipedia the word, hehe. I'm sure I've heard the word, but never knew it was celebrated as an actual holiday!
Anyone actually do the unadorned aluminum pole and other "traditions" that go with Festivus?
Learning new stuff is fun
I am trying to word this so it doesnt sound judgemental or rude as I truly do not mean it that way.
For those who celebrate a totally secular Christmas, is there a reason you still call it Christmas? I do at times, mainly because its family tradition but I am trying to pull away from it as I almost feel its rude to call it the same. The tree, the lights, the presents, etc all have mulitple sources and are not really related to the religious aspects (but can be).
For those who celebrate a totally secular Christmas, is there a reason you still call it Christmas? I do at times, mainly because its family tradition but I am trying to pull away from it as I almost feel its rude to call it the same. The tree, the lights, the presents, etc all have mulitple sources and are not really related to the religious aspects (but can be).
Mostly because Christmas is a mishmash of Roman, pagan and other celebrations and traditions (winter solstice and all). Christmas as it is in this country has little mention of religion at all in all it's commercial wonder (the trees, presents, carols, cookies, santa, sales, etc...etc..) The tree, if anything, is a pagan tradition, and the rest of them are recent American traditions
Like it or not from where I'm standing.. Christmas is basically a secular holiday these days.
I mean, it walks like a secular holiday, it sounds like a duck, it looks like a duck.. it's a duck lol
same goes for valentines day. I mean, I love the story of saint valentine as much as the next girl but come on now..calling it anything but a secular holiday would be quite odd.
As much as I would like to so call it something else, just in the name of word association... as it is, the term is what it is and is already heavily featured everywhere in carols, songs, and other secular things so frankly, I don't mind it.
Plainly..the word muffin top having the word muffin in it does not make it a snack food. That's not it's definition and that's not what I think of when I hear the term.
So for me, same policy goes for christmas.
Like it or not from where I'm standing.. Christmas is basically a secular holiday these days.
I mean, it walks like a secular holiday, it sounds like a duck, it looks like a duck.. it's a duck lol
same goes for valentines day. I mean, I love the story of saint valentine as much as the next girl but come on now..calling it anything but a secular holiday would be quite odd.
As much as I would like to so call it something else, just in the name of word association... as it is, the term is what it is and is already heavily featured everywhere in carols, songs, and other secular things so frankly, I don't mind it.
Plainly..the word muffin top having the word muffin in it does not make it a snack food. That's not it's definition and that's not what I think of when I hear the term.
So for me, same policy goes for christmas.
We call it Christmas because that's what our family has called this holiday for many generations, and that's the name in all the songs and stuff, too. ;]
It might also be that we're not spiritual at all, as well as being non-religious, and so it'd be odd to use a different belief system's phrasing, since we don't believe in that either. At least we have a cultural tie to this one.
It might also be that we're not spiritual at all, as well as being non-religious, and so it'd be odd to use a different belief system's phrasing, since we don't believe in that either. At least we have a cultural tie to this one.
Well and this is kind of my point, even though I use the term Christmas exactly because of the above, I feel weird about it. Several of my friends have just started using Solstice instead (as that is secular, the pagan celebration of the solstice is Yule).
As a Pagan, I feel VERY comfortable with the traditional trappings and celebrations of the secular version...I just dont know if I like the idea of keeping the name the same for me (not for anyone else!) Its a tradition and a "normal" for me, I just question why I use it
As a Pagan, I feel VERY comfortable with the traditional trappings and celebrations of the secular version...I just dont know if I like the idea of keeping the name the same for me (not for anyone else!) Its a tradition and a "normal" for me, I just question why I use it
Well and this is kind of my point, even though I use the term Christmas exactly because of the above, I feel weird about it. Several of my friends have just started using Solstice instead (as that is secular, the pagan celebration of the solstice is Yule).
As a Pagan, I feel VERY comfortable with the traditional trappings and celebrations of the secular version...I just dont know if I like the idea of keeping the name the same for me (not for anyone else!) Its a tradition and a "normal" for me, I just question why I use it
As a Pagan, I feel VERY comfortable with the traditional trappings and celebrations of the secular version...I just dont know if I like the idea of keeping the name the same for me (not for anyone else!) Its a tradition and a "normal" for me, I just question why I use it
then again, I'm the kind of atheist who drops religious bombs all the time anyway. I mean, I'll go ahead and blame a lifetime of catholic school but I'm pretty sure I can't be the only atheist who when stubs her toe on a chair or something screams something like..
"JESUS MARY JOSEPH HOLY DONKEY JESUS CHRIST!!"
I once attended an entire mass for the free t-shirt and pizza.
I say "Oh my god!".. all the time.
I say bless you when someone sneezes.
I mean, I guess the root of the issue for me is to me god doesn't exist soooo who cares? lol religion isn't part of my life at all so I don't worry about it and just do what I like and what comes naturally.
And for me, the word christmas comes naturally so I just go with it.
I call it Christmas because that's what it is to me. It's what I've grown up with. Up until the last probably 7 years or so, when suddenly saying "Merry Christmas" became wrong, I'd barely heard of the Christmas season being called anything else regardless of religious reasons. Even in school we had Christmas crafts, Christmas concerts, Christmas assemblies, people always said "have a Merry Christmas!". That's just how it was. We learned about other holidays, but Christmas was the most commonly referred to one.
My immediate family and myself are not religious at all, but aunts and uncles are, and I think my grandparents (all of them) think of themselves as being Christian, although none of them really practice it except for my one Grandma who goes to church on occassion. So I guess that could be another reason we call it Christmas, because we do celebrate it with people who celebrate the religious parts of it.
I don't feel bad calling it Christmas at all, because to me that's what the season is. And nobody ever seems to be offended by it.
My immediate family and myself are not religious at all, but aunts and uncles are, and I think my grandparents (all of them) think of themselves as being Christian, although none of them really practice it except for my one Grandma who goes to church on occassion. So I guess that could be another reason we call it Christmas, because we do celebrate it with people who celebrate the religious parts of it.
I don't feel bad calling it Christmas at all, because to me that's what the season is. And nobody ever seems to be offended by it.
Christmas - but in a secular way. We are not religious, apart from my grandmother who is a practicing Catholic.
Our Christmas generally consists of a small family get together (usually just immediate family, but we have had the odd relative turn up over the years). We do exchange gifts, but to me the most important part of the day is the lovely food and time with the family. We tend to do the same thing every year - which I love.
The period from Christmas to New Year is a very relaxing time. We try to keep it low-key. It's usually really hot for us here, so we are really just doing what we wish we could do the whole of summer - active in the mornings and evenings and totally vegging during the heat of the day (if not working). Although I will be working Boxing day and up until New Year's, I am lucky enough to have Christmas Eve and Day off.
Our Christmas generally consists of a small family get together (usually just immediate family, but we have had the odd relative turn up over the years). We do exchange gifts, but to me the most important part of the day is the lovely food and time with the family. We tend to do the same thing every year - which I love.
The period from Christmas to New Year is a very relaxing time. We try to keep it low-key. It's usually really hot for us here, so we are really just doing what we wish we could do the whole of summer - active in the mornings and evenings and totally vegging during the heat of the day (if not working). Although I will be working Boxing day and up until New Year's, I am lucky enough to have Christmas Eve and Day off.
Christmas day is always the same for us too We get up, Hannah opens her gifts from Santa and then we watch Mickeys Very merry Christmas parade on TV and Brian makes a delicious breakfast, we relax a bit and Hannah plays with her new toys. this year my mom and step dad will be here so that is going to be so exciting in the afternoon we go to the big family gathering with the uncles, aunts and cousins and have a delicious dinner and the adults talk and laugh while the kids run around and play together. Then we come home and watch Christmas movies and relax the rest of the night.
It's glorious.
We get up, Hannah opens her gifts from Santa and then we watch Mickeys Very merry Christmas parade on TV and Brian makes a delicious breakfast, we relax a bit and Hannah plays with her new toys. this year my mom and step dad will be here so that is going to be so exciting in the afternoon we go to the big family gathering with the uncles, aunts and cousins and have a delicious dinner and the adults talk and laugh while the kids run around and play together. Then we come home and watch Christmas movies and relax the rest of the night.It's glorious.