It's Christmas time (or is it?)

[pne]

I wonder how many of those people who profess to celebrate Christmas will be celebrating something else instead... focussing on giving and receiving presents or maybe on spending time with their family or having charitable thoughts, but relegating Christ to an extremely minor position in the whole context of their revels. I know it's something I'm apt to do if I don't make a particular effort to remember exactly what the point of Christmas is supposed to be.

Don't get me wrong: I think giving gifts and getting together with your family, decorating the house, and singing carols are a nice thing to do. I'm mostly curious about who (a) does all that compared to who (b) does all that and sets aside time to think about Jesus.

Or to put it a bit differently, I don't expect everyone to think about Jesus at this time of the year (that would be rather silly); I'm more curious about how many do and how many have secular celebrations. It's not a judgmental thing, just curiosity.

So, have a little poll.

[Poll #634142]

Comments

[asciident]

No one in my immediate family, and no one in Karl's immediate family, are religious. So we celebrate a "secular Christmas", which is really just Giftmas. (Although last year my family didn't exchange any gifts... we almost repeated it again this year, but my mom missed the gifts too much.)

[asciident]

Also, I seriously dislike Christmas/Giftmas/whatever you want to call it. Strongly.

[leora.livejournal.com]

New Year's is one of the few holidays I truly celebrate. There is an annual party I try to go to and see several friends I only see once a year these days. Alas, I can't go this year - we couldn't afford the plane tickets. But normally I would go to a New Year's eve party.

My family celebrates Chanukah, but I'm not entirely sure why. It has been somewhat secularized both in being more focused on gift-giving and because instead of giving cash to children, as was the tradition, we tend to give chocolate coins. It bothers me that they took the one holiday where it is appropriate, traditional, and historical to give money as a gift and turned it into candy. There's a whole story behind it and everything. We do also celebrate Passover, which makes more sense as it is a major holiday whereas Chanukah is one of the really minor ones. I sometimes celebrate Christmas, if I am going to my lothario's mother's house, but we're not doing so this year. As I'm not Christian, I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus.

[kamara.livejournal.com]

The phrase "Giftmas" is one of those words that instantly turns me into a psychopathic deranged woman who wants to hurt everyone in a 50 mile radius of the person who said it.

It's just... I like Christmas. And yes, it is commercialised and whatnot. But for gods sake go pee on someone elses fun damnit.

I mostly see it coming from the mouths of very very very bitter and cynical people. And yes, okay, it may not be fun for you or whatever. But god. Let me have a week or so of fun and relaxation with friends, family and the cats.

(Where values of you do not equal YOU, but you as in people in general that say the G word)

This irrational rant brought to you by 10 o clock in the morning, the hour kama didn't want to see today.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Eep.

I mostly see it coming from the mouths of very very very bitter and cynical people. And yes, okay, it may not be fun for you or whatever.

I tend to enjoy it.

I'm sorry I offended you; I was trying to use it as a word for "the nice bits of Christmas that do not include Christ"; for me, it's a fairly positive word and connotes giving and receiving gifts, feeling happy, spending time with your family, and other such things. Christmas carols and decorations, too, if that's what someone likes. Basically Christmas with the explicitly religious bits taken out.

Let me have a week or so of fun and relaxation with friends, family and the cats.

By all means do so.

[kamara.livejournal.com]

Oops. I should clarify, you specifically didn't offend me even though you used "The phrase". It's sort of... when it's used in a certain *way* that bothers me. When it's said in a bitter and cynical way, that's when it really starts to tweak me out.

But no, you didn't offend me or anything. Apologies for making you think otherwise *grin*

[pne.livejournal.com]

I'll forgive you.

I was mostly shocked and wondered where the heck for gods sake go pee on someone elses fun damnit came from.

when it's used in a certain *way* that bothers me. When it's said in a bitter and cynical way, that's when it really starts to tweak me out.

I think I can understand that. Perhaps the choice of words was inappropriate and/or I'm not familiar with how some people use those words.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I know *exactly* what she's getting at. Maybe you've had the good fortune to encountre "Giftmas" in positive contexts, but I can only recall hearing it from people who are annoyed at feeling obligated to buy gifts for a bunch of people.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thanks!

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

I agree with kamara; I don't particularly like the word "Giftmas." I wasn't at all offended by your use, though -- and I suppose "offended" is the wrong term, anyway. Most of the time when I hear it used, it's by a) evangelical Christians who disapprove of my giving gifts if I'm not also celebrating the birth of Christ or b) people who hate Christmas and think it should be abolished, because it's too commercial.

The "too commercial" thing seems odd to me -- I enjoy Christmas, and buying and giving Christmas gifts, and making cookies, and all the trimmings (despite the fact that I'm not Christian). I know there's a lot of pressure on people who don't want to celebrate to do so anyway, but many people seem determined to spoil everyone else's fun. And I don't think it is "too commercial" -- the most important thing about Christmas for me is spending time with my family.

I didn't mean to leave such a long comment, but I suppose it's been building up for a while! This comes up a lot around this time of year.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Most of the time when I hear it used, it's by a) evangelical Christians who disapprove of my giving gifts if I'm not also celebrating the birth of Christ or b) people who hate Christmas and think it should be abolished, because it's too commercial.

Ah.

I didn't mean to leave such a long comment

That wasn't long! Thanks for explaining your thoughts a bit for me.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Just because the most important thing to you is spending time with family doesn't mean that Christmas isn't too commercial in general - I certainly find it so (at least, in America - I don't know how commercialized it's gotten in other countries). This year Christmas commercials appeared on TV even before Thanksgiving. When people trample each other to get into malls and stores, there's too much pressure on The Perfect Gift and not enough on fun.

It's great that you enjoy the more sedater sides of Christmas. I'm agnostic, but I do enjoy the cookies/family/gift stuff too. I think that Christmas has gotten to the point where it's a cultural celebration, not a religious one - there's just a lot of overlap. There are definitely people who get way too bent out of shape about making everything absolutely perfect about it, though - and they're the "Giftmas" type.

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

There are certainly people who get out of hand, I agree, but I'd say that they're the ones who are too commercial -- it's not necessarily the holiday itself. (A lot of people seem to blame it on the stores, and as an ex-retail employee, that gets irritating.) Which I guess isn't a disagreement with you, necessarily.

(Re: other countries: I'm currently in the UK, where Christmas decorations went up directly after Halloween.)

I agree, it has become largely a cultural celebration rather than a religious one (at least for me) -- I have Jewish and Hindu friends who celebrate Christmas, albeit normally not with their families. I think that's kinda neat. =)

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

I do think the commercialization is certainly at least partly blameable upon the stores. Not the employees, of course - being ex-retail myself I understand that cashiers are not actually in charge of the corporations they represent - but the head honcho guys who start the Christmas hype way earlier than it deserves, and make commercials that imply that love is founded upon what you choose to get somebody for Christmas.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I agree, it has become largely a cultural celebration rather than a religious one

That's the impression I have, too. (Even among some self-designated Christians.)

Which need not be a bad thing; it's just a point of observation.

[schnurble.livejournal.com]

Neither me nor my family is religious, so we ignore the religious parts of Christmas. But we don't do a Giftmas either, there's an agreement in my family that we don't give gifts to each other (except small things like some self-made christmas cookies), only the children get presents.

For me, Christmas is more a chance to spend some time with my family, who lives too far away to see them often. Actually, my mother invited all of her children and their families to go bowling on Boxing Day. Not very X-massy, but a lot of fun with the family :o)

And after Xmas until New Year I'll spend a week of vacation with friends who I also never see anymore but this one week a year.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I eat Chinese food on the 24th. Why do you ask about the 25th in particular?

Chinese food on the 25th

[pne.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that in America, it's traditional in some (Jewish?) families to eat Chinese food on the 25th, since typically most restaurants close on Christmas Day, but apparently, Chinese restaurants typically don't.

So if you treat the day as just another day but want to go grab food, apparently, Chinese is a good choice.

I don't remember the details, though.

[robnorth.livejournal.com]

Dunno how prevalent this is in The Rest Of The World, but you missed:

[ ] Line up outside a store very early on Boxing Day morning freezing your ass off hoping to score an LCD monitor for $100 or something equally outrageous

Popular Canadian tradition. I'd like an LCD monitor, and my computer's TV card is starting to futz up, so I'll be repeating the tradition this year. (Skipped it last year 'cause Boxing Day was on a Sunday, and I was trying to be a Good Mormon Boy and not shop on Sunday. I'll be back with a vengeance this year, by gum!)