I'd like to defend Christmas.

[_Bgood]

I'm not saying everyone must love it as I do. But I think there's nothing wrong with enjoying every bit of it to the fullest. I've loved it every year I've been alive, including this one.

I like the decorations, the lights, some of the music, the food, and the hustle bustle.

I like having a tree all decked out in the living room. My grand kids spent two nights with us and did much of the work. I've cut back to a real looking fake tree now. It's easier than taking a saw and tramping through the cold and it's easier than dragging a real one from the top of the car, cheaper too. I won't miss crawling under it to water or vacuuming the needles. Still, I don't see this as a huge change. I still feel festive and still enjoy the fun.

Every on of my hundreds of ornaments carry a memory. Some of them were gifts from tiny students. They'd be surprised that I still treasure their little construction paper creations. I have many ornaments my own children made many years ago and ornaments from special friends, some who have since passed away. It warms my heart to unwrap and hang them each year.

I can certainly understand why many don't want to jump into the holidays and I can understand it's hard to face traffic and parking problems. It's also difficult to spend if finances are limited. I had lunch with a friend who gives tiny gifts, hot sauce to her son and chocolate mix to her daughter. The cost isn't important. It truly is the thought that counts. A phone call or a note from my kids or grand kids would certainly be special and enough for me. Even though I do get to open gifts every year, that isn'tmy main focus. I just like the holiday and remembering all of the years I loved celebrating it.

I think I'd still like it if I was confined to a bed with no one close still with me. Still, the day would hold meaning for me and I'm sure there would be a tree and some nice music on TV or a radio.

I just don't want to give it up, not yet at any rate.

Does anyone else like Christmas? If so, which traditions are the most fun or meaningful?

[_SteelHead]

Defend Christmas?

From what?

[_Some Schmo]

I'd love to know the details on the supposed war on xmas. I don't see the holiday struggling to survive.

This atheist family celebrates Christmas every year with enthusiasm. It has nothing to do with the religious implications - if anything, that's a distraction from the true meaning of the holiday, which is generosity and family. I like the decorations too.

I say Merry Christmas all the time. I have never received backlash for doing so. The whole topic of a war on Christmas is silly, likely because it's politically motivated (idiotically). There's enough to be concerned about in this country without getting whipped up over how people celebrate a holiday.

[_subgenius]

the true meaning of the holiday, which is generosity and family.

CFR (even though this coward likely has me on ignore, because 'snowflake')

[_canpakes]

the true meaning of the holiday, which is generosity and family.

CFR (even though this coward likely has me on ignore, because 'snowflake')

I'd think that strictly interpreting the event in the modern day as being solely about Christ's 'birthday' would be better served by picking a date closer to his actual date of birth. : )

[_Chap]

I shall probably be celebrating Christmas with a bunch of atheist Jews.

And we love it!

So?

[_Kevin Graham]

the true meaning of the holiday, which is generosity and family.

CFR (even though this coward likely has me on ignore, because 'snowflake')

Wiki has a pretty good background history on the celebrations of Christmas over time. Christmas can really mean anything you want it to. Whether it should be mostly a "religious" holiday has been an issue of contention for several hundred years now and what blew me away is that today idiots like Bill O'Reilly talk about a war on Christmas when in reality, the early Americans fought against it. It only became part of American culture through time as more and more Europeans immigrated here and brought their customs. Much of what Republican morons are fighting for today is the resurrection of Dickens. From Wiki:

Following the Protestant Reformation, many of the new denominations, including the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, continued to celebrate Christmas. In 1629, the Anglican poet John Milton penned On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide. Donald Heinz, a professor at California State University, states that Martin Luther "inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America."Among the congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church, Christmas was celebrated as one of the principal evangelical feasts.

However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans, strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery" or the "rags of the Beast". In contrast, the established Anglican Church "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party. The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity. Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647.

Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing.

The Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 ended the ban, but many Calvinist clergymen still disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant. The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days". It was not until 1958 that Christmas again became a Scottish public holiday.

Following the Restoration of Charles II, Poor Robin's Almanack contained the lines: "Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no." The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years.

In Colonial America, the Pilgrims of New England shared radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas. The Plymouth Pilgrims put their loathing for the day into practice in 1620 when they spent their first Christmas Day in the New World working – thus demonstrating their complete contempt for the day. Non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England. Christmas observance was outlawed in Boston in 1659. The ban by the Puritans was revoked in 1681 by English governor Edmund Andros, however it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.

At the same time, Christian residents of Virginia and New York observed the holiday freely. Pennsylvania German Settlers, pre-eminently the Moravian settlers of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia Settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes. Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom. George Washington attacked Hessian (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time.

With the atheistic Cult of Reason in power during the era of Revolutionary France, Christian Christmas religious services were banned and the three kings cake was renamed the "equality cake" under anticlerical government policies.

19th century

Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present. From Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, 1843.
In the UK, Christmas Day became a bank holiday in 1834, Boxing Day was added in 1871.

In the early-19th century, writers imagined Tudor Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol that helped revive the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal merriment. Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion.

Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking "worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation." Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy", Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit. A prominent phrase from the tale, "Merry Christmas", was popularized following the appearance of the story. This coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances.

In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the early 19th century following the personal union with the Kingdom of Hanover by Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III. In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain.

In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories.

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas). The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance. This also started the cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book The First Christmas in New England, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a character who complains that the true meaning of Christmas was lost in a shopping spree.

While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so." In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth."

The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, "although of genuine Puritan stock", was 'preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864. By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday. In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called the "father of the American Christmas card". On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I love Christmas, too. We put up some minimalist decorations outside that are cute, but understated. They offer up a warm sheen of soft white light at night. My wife and I have a tiny tree atop an end table with ornaments that are meaninful to us. I love it at night when the xmas lights bath our living room in their glow.

- Doc

[_MeDotOrg]

I'm no longer a Christian, but I still love Christmas. My family is actually known for singing on Christmas, and I love caroling. I too have favorite ornaments I remember from childhood, as well as my Christmas Stocking.

I still embrace the feeling, the warmth, the sense of family, of coming together. I love the smells of pine, nutmeg, cinnamon and Christmas candles. My family did real hot chocolate with baked apples and whipped cream for Christmas breakfast. And I love Christmas carols and hymns.

My best friend is Jewish, and I always kid her: What do you have? Fried potato pancakes and apple sauce? Gefilte Fish out of a jar? Bitter herbs? No wonder the Jews have no converts! Believe in Jesus and get a present on his birthday!

Sometimes my friend retorts with "I got 5 grand at my Bot Mitzvah. How much did you get at your confirmation?"

Touché

[_Jersey Girl]

I can honestly say that I've never liked even one of your posts until now, Bgood.

Does anyone else like Christmas?

No, I don't like Christmas.

I LOVE it and I've loved it my whole life. Christmas is my favorite of all holidays. I slog my way through Thanksgiving with a fake smile and an attitude of "are we done yet?" just to get to Christmas.

Like you said, it's not about presents. It's about everything that surrounds it and my people. It starts when the weather flips to winter here. I live in a forest in the Rocky Mountains. This place is simply astounding at Christmas time. There are no street lights where I live but on Thanksgiving night, this forest lights up. People outline wagons, wagon wheels, tractors, trees, and their homes in lights. Some have every type of lighted Christmas thing in their "yards" that you can imagine to the point of spectacular.

The nights are crisp and quiet, and it gives a sense of solitude that I adore and the moonlight makes the snow sparkle.

I love my house at Christmas. It's the one time where everything looks like this rustic house fully belongs here inside and out. Some years I put up tons of decorations, others not so much. Near the front door is usually an old wooden sled, wreath, and lights if the weather cooperates. I have more than one Christmas tree--all artificial--there are 4 going up this year and only one is large. I have more ornaments than I could ever possibly use every year and I still cannot pass up a new ornament or decoration or two each year. Okay, so I'm a well known hoarder of Christmas décor. I have about half store bought and half home made. I have ornaments from my childhood, my children's childhoods, from Germany and just boxes and boxes of decorations. I could decorate every room and hallway in the house, but I only do the main living areas--great room, kitchen, small bath, kitchen and our loft. Our trees are filled with memories.

Some of us attend Christmas Eve candlelight service at the Lutheran Church (Catholic lite) and some of us would rather opt out of church going. When the children were little, we always ate our Christmas dinner by candlelight in our pajamas. Now we all drive across town in our pajamas on Christmas mid-morning for brunch at one of our kid's house. I'm the one who buys the pajamas for everyone, a carry over from my own childhood when my mother always made sure I had brand new pj's for Christmas. If you haven't done Christmas Day in your pajamas, I highly recommend it. It's easy, you can be comfortable all day, stuff yourself silly and go to bed! Or like we did last year when the tribe was here at the house. We ate, gave gifts, ate, everyone found a place to nap pugs included, got up and ate again--well you get the idea!

I think what I love most about the season is the preparation-- I love to bake for my people, I love making homemade ornaments, love decorating, and I love being together. Even in the hardest of times, we've still managed to pull off Christmas together even when we cried our way through it and we all didn't know quite how to handle it.

I love the music! I change my radio station right after Thanksgiving to a 24/7 Christmas station. I love the old movies. I start binge watching them in late November.

I love tomorrow! I just came back from a short trip so that's when I'll start decorating in earnest and you can bet that my brand new hand painted tongue depressor snowflakes are going out first!