Please select the category that most closely reflects your concern about this content,
so that we can review it and determine whether it violates Civility 101 or isn't
appropriate for some other reason.
Abusing this feature is also a violation of Civility 101.
Explanation:
It’s that time of year again: houses are brightly lit, trees are sparkling with tinsel and parents are battling for the last remaining Elmo. In recent years, though, we’ve been hearing more about a “war” on Christmas, as public displays become increasingly scarce and “Merry Christmas” becomes “Happy Holidays.” Are Scrooges stealing your holiday, or are times changing for the better?
Biweekly updates on new debates and experts
Please check your email to confirm your subscription.
© 2008-2010 Opposing Views, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Opposing Views, Inc. is not responsible for the content posted on this website. Please view full disclaimer under Terms
Why Christmas Should Be More Commercial
- From Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights
By Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights - Advancing Objectivism
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.
The commercialism HURTS people!
A few years ago on a Womens Board on the internet there was a poster that happily proclaimed that she had told everyone she knew that they "werent getting anything from her and her family this year for Christmas and instead she had booked a luxury Christmas Vacation to Hawai'i for her and her hubby and 3 kids "
I remember some of the other posters being offended at the thought that SOMEONE would actually not give gifts to their extended family, friends and co- workers at Christmas...
"That isnt CHRISTIAN!"
"You need to buy them something!"
"That is selfish!"
"Dont you want anything in return?"
It was as if a sacred cow was slaughtered in the middle of Mumbai and fried up right there and eaten.
Secretly I think they were all jealous at such a radical stand against such a supposedly spiritual tradition.
Years earlier I had bought a book called "Hundred Dollar Holiday" By Bill McKibben where the author details that all of the symbols of Christs Birthday that we hold dear are actually Pagan symbols. During the crusades when the Christians stormed through Europe and the UK raping and killing and pillaging to convert the then Pagan populace to the new Christian religion , they decided that it would be easier to convert them if they chose December 25th for Christs birthday AND rename and Christianize their Pagan symbols. December 25th is the same day as the Pagan holiday of Yule or Winter Solstice. Christs real birthday was sometime in the spring.
Aside from the fact that its offensive to know that a supposedly peaceful religion has raped, pillaged and killed to bring people into the flock. It is also offensive to realize that Christians are celebrating Gods son 's birthday on the wrong day and with another religions symbols (breaking the 1st & 2nd Commandments at once) and have made it the most evil of all holidays in the supposed Christian Calendar by worshipping the dollar and making CHRISTS Birthday all about MONEY and COMMERCIALSM!
Anyway after the woman on the Womans Board said she was going to Hawai'i for Christmas eschewing gift giving and after the others were offended I applauded the Hawai'i goers decision. I told her that she was celebrating the correct way by being minimalistic and Joyful just to be with her husband and kids.
I then told them about the book I read (above) and that I made a few other comments they suddenly ganged up on me over, such as:
1) How are you celebrating Christs birthday by going to your office's Christmas party and getting drunk and Xeroxing your ass?
2) How are you celebrating Christs birthday by stampeding and trampling over other people for a stupid 40 inch LCD TV?
3) How are you celebrating Christs birthday by buying your kids the latest Grand Theft Auto or Doom or Halo shoot em up game for the Xbox 360?
4) How are you celebrating Christs birthday by FORCING youself to buy a stale readymade "cheese/crackers/summersausage gift pak from the "gift aisle" at Walmart for your friend Hal, just so HE buys YOU something?
It was then that I was heavily attacked...
"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK CHRISTMAS!?"
I think Christmas has been under attack by money hungry companies for years! Even back in the days of the Crusades. You dont think ALL those Crusaders wanted to CONVERT ALLLL those Pagans to Christianity just to save their souls do you? NO! The fact was that the Crusaders lusted after all the FUTURE Tithings they could get from all the NEW Christian converts! Converting the Pagans holidays to the most commercial holiday on earth was the icing on the cake for them.
Food for thought and some questions:
Do you REALLY enjoy the stuff you get from people?
Does gift giving, other than to your kids, not make you happy or does it leave you feeling dirty?
Does it feel meaningless?
Do you do it just cause you have to?
Do you really like the people you give gifts to or do you just feel obligated to do it?
Do you feel let down after Christmas?
What could YOU do as a person that would give you happiness and sustain it year round?
- Preesi
December 5, 2009 7:49AM
Reply to this Recommend
(0)
Side: No
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.
Been there, done that
Take the Christ out of Christmas...that already happened. We ended up with X-mas. But, of course, that wasnt enough. Now all we have is Winter Solstice or Winter break. That means a whole lot, doesnt it, since you dubbed it to mean nothing?
'Christmas' should be more commercial...like people need to run up the debt on their credit cards . And where has that gotten this nation to? How many houses have been foreclosed? Ahhh...'if they are going to die then they had better do it, and decrease the surplus poplulation'?
And I suppose that Tiny Tim died of whatever ailed him...so there is no need to fund Cancer research, or AIDS research?
If, after all, there is going to be some Peace on Earth, Good will towards men, then we need some men to stand up for it rather than wish it away. As for me, I put the Christ back in to Christmas in my own heart. Perfect I am not, but neither is this nation or its many people. Tell you what, you 'celebrate' 'Christmas' in your own way; let me celebrate it in mine.
- TB3
December 21, 2009 6:36PM
Reply to this Recommend
(0)
Side: Yes
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.
commercialism
To Preesi:
Your arguments are very odd and historically doubtful. Here are some questions for you:
Why is money bad? What reasons can you give for your assertion that buying things is equivalent to "worshiping" the dollar? Why do you presume that buying gifts doesn't make people happy? Wouldn't people stop buying gifts if they felt "dirty" in doing so? Why do you think buying a vacation to Hawaii is different, on principle, than buying individual gifts? Are not both these actions forms of so-called "commercialism", in that they involve "buying"?
To TB3:
Why do you feel the need to link gift-buying during Christmas to houses foreclosing? By this logic, shouldn't we convert society to be entirely anti-capitalist, in that you've linked small elements of commercialism (gift-buying) to large purported "failures" of capitalism ? What is good about Christ?
- etanheller
January 5, 2010 5:56PM
Reply to this Recommend
(0)
Side: Uncommitted
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.