Christmas: Jesus and Santa Claus

[emptym]

Was asked to write something for a Christmas fair that cared about "conscious consumerism." Imo, spiritual things needn't be opposed to material/economic things. So this was my best attempt to express what Christmas means to me in the both/and tradition:

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed one of God,
born to begin a healing of the world and a re-uniting of all things with God.
More than anything, Jesus called on us to love. Our love is to know no bounds: We are called
not merely to love ourselves, not merely to love our families, or our friends, but all people, even our enemies.

And love is best expressed in deeds.

So this holiday season, let our gift-giving flow from a love for all people, indeed all of God's creation.
Let us think not simply about how our gifts will affect our wallets or our friend's happiness,
but also how it will affect the quality of life of those who produce what we consume
and earth from which these gifts come.

What does Christmas mean to you?

 

[shamuboa]

Christmas to me is a pirated version of Saturnalia. Similar to how Louis Vuitton is pirated, if it looks the same as the original, people hope no one will notice.

 

[mafoofan Jr.]

Christmas to me is a period of reflection, where I've been and where I'm headed in life. Most of my families are not here with me this Christmas so I'm a little more lonely than usual. Jesus, Santa Claus, and Rudolph the reindeer all play a part in the celebration but I believe that Christmas is about the individual person, of which Christ is believed to be part of, and whether he or she will stop and reflect on things of the past to make more informed decisions in the coming new year's. It's true that wisdom comes through the graceful act of suffering (Aeschylus) and this is also why many people tend to die in December. I've lost a few relatives just past week. Perhaps, this is God's way of telling the living that he's here with us.

Originally Posted by emptym

Was asked to write something for a Christmas fair that cared about "conscious consumerism." Imo, spiritual things needn't be opposed to material/economic things. So this was my best attempt to express what Christmas means to me in the both/and tradition:




What does Christmas mean to you?

 

[emptym]

Originally Posted by shamuboa

Christmas to me is a pirated version of Saturnalia. Similar to how Louis Vuitton is pirated, if it looks the same as the original, people hope no one will notice.

I knew this would be one of the first responses. I almost used it as an example. I agree that the timing and some festivities are based loosely on Saturnalia and more closely on the winter solstice. This is a great example of what I've been talking about in CE about religious mission being a two-way street. But I wouldn't call it pirated. Christmas doesn't pretend to be the Saturnalia like a knockoff LV pretends to be LV.

 

[Dragon]

What!? You mean December 25th is NOT Jesus` birthday?!

 

[awxg]

..

 

[scarphe]

nothing really special just a waste of money and time, sending gifts to famly members, clients and business associates that see some value in it. in the past years it has been time for increased training schedule as much work cannot be done

 

[AdmiralGrafSpee]

Originally Posted by emptym

I knew this would be one of the first responses. I almost used it as an example. I agree that the timing and some festivities are based loosely on Saturnalia and more closely on the winter solstice. This is a great example of what I've been talking about in CE about religious mission being a two-way street. But I wouldn't call it pirated. Christmas doesn't pretend to be the Saturnalia like a knockoff LV pretends to be LV.

I believe Christmas was set to coincide with Saturnalia in order for the Roman Catholic Church to compete with the Pagans.

 

[emptym]

^Could be. I've heard it was coordinated w/ Saturnalia so that Christians could celebrate w/o anyone getting suspicious and killing them.

Originally Posted by mafoofan Jr.

Christmas to me is a period of reflection, where I've been and where I'm headed in life. Most of my families are not here with me this Christmas so I'm a little more lonely than usual. Jesus, Santa Claus, and Rudolph the reindeer all play a part in the celebration but I believe that Christmas is about the individual person, of which Christ is believed to be part of, and whether he or she will stop and reflect on things of the past to make more informed decisions in the coming new year's. It's true that wisdom comes through the graceful act of suffering (Aeschylus) and this is also why many people tend to die in December. I've lost a few relatives just past week. Perhaps, this is God's way of telling the living that he's here with us.
Thanks for your thoughtful and heartfelt response, MJ. So sorry about your losses. Suffering definitely provides the opportunity to reflect and become wise, but I'm not sure it leads to it in all cases...

 

[Britalian]

It's highly suspicious that Jesus' birthday coincides with Christmas, and Santa Claus- another made up character who we convince our children exists.

 

[Casey]

Well, when my family came to America (from Vietnam), they just celebrated Christmas because *almost* everybody else was doing it.

So to me, Christmas means a big family party with presents.

 

[Bhowie]

Originally Posted by Britalian

It's highly suspicious that Jesus' birthday coincides with Christmas, and Santa Claus- another made up character who we convince our children exists.

To quote Kinky Friedman, an expert on everything - "We Jews believe it was Santa Clause who killed Jesus Christ."