First the Flag and now Christmas

[radfringe]

looks like the Reich-wing have taken control of Christmas

It's no longer a religious holiday nor a secular one - it's a political one and only Reich-winger are allowed to participate. God and Jesus are republicans.

Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice et al. celebrators are no-longer relevant or valid. Wishing someone a happy holiday or seasons greetings is a punishable offense resulting in having a stake of holly driven into your heart. NOT donating money to the salvation army may find you being boiled in a large pot of plum pudding.

With Christmas only a week away, and many of have probably already done our shopping, it's most likely too late to suggest this -- but keep it in mind for next year -- don't celebrate Christmas, don't go out and buy gifts, don't decorate your house, don't send out Christmas cards -- it's no longer YOUR holiday, it belongs to the Reich-wing.

[demnan]

1. Screw that

I'm not going to let them control the agenda for these things. I'll fly a flag and celebrate Christmas if I want to!

[Dangerman]

2. I will never celebrate Christmas for the next four years...

As long as B*sh and his bastards are in the White House!

[Sara Beverley]

3. I haven't bought one gift and don't intend to. Nor will I spend any more

of money on anything I don't need to survive. No more discretionary spending for me. I will not feed the bear!

[TWiley]

4. Don't forget how they "protected" the holy institution of marriage.

That one probably belongs on the list also.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

5. Bull crap

It's a celebration of Christ and I will celebrate it.

If the right has tried to capture Christmas, many here are helping them by heaping abuse on religion and those who have faith.

[zeemike]

11. That is what it should to be

But it has become a celebration of materialism.
Which is ironic sense Jesus was not a materialistic person.
But when you celebrate someones birthday, what do you do, give presents to other people or to the one that was born on that day?
So I wonder what Jesus would like for his birthday? A new car with a big red bow on the top? Or would he rather have some junk plastic toy that will wind up in the dump before the year is out?
My guess is that he would have us love one another, giving hugs and kisses instead of junk. And that we mend our fences with those that we have had a falling out with. I think that would please Jesus more than anything, and it would honor his life and teachings as well.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

12. There are religious components and secular ones to the holiday

I know many non-Christians who celebrate it. So, you expect me not to give gifts to my children for Christmas?

No, I will give them the gifts of love. I will take them to mass. I will urge them to contribute to charity as I do. But I have worked too hard in the last few months to afford a Christmas. I won't ignore it just because some here hate the holiday.

Merry Christmas!

[zeemike]

15. I know, Christmas is fun

And I am not saying that we should not have fun, but that we should not say we are doing it for Jesus the Christ sake.
We all have fond memories of Christmas as kids, with Santa Clause coming down the chimney and all the mythical things of Christmas.And the thrill of getting up o Christmas morning to see what we got.
But let's not confuse that with Jesus the Christ and the recolonization of his day of birth.

[tx_dem41]

16. So you are saying that Democrats that are Christians shouldn't...

celebrate Christmas for the sake of Jesus Christ?

[zeemike]

42. I am not dictating anything

I think that each of us should follow his or her own conscious, but recognize the things that are Cesar's and the things that are Gods.
Jesus and his name should not be confused with Santa Claus and the celebration of the life and death of the man.

[Bridget Burke]

22. Only here a month & you know we're all Christ-hating liberals...

Sorry, you're wrong. Quite a few DU'ers are Christian. I'm now agnostic/atheist but have nothing against Jesus.

Quite a few of us will continue to celebrate the holiday as we prefer.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

26. I think you need to reread my post

I said "some" which is far from your statement. If I thought everyone here hated religion, I would leave.

[noiretextatique]

33. peope hate the commercialization of the holiday

and the comments from some chrisitan supremacists have made about other religious and cultural celebrations of late.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

34. The commercialization is part of the secular side of the holiday

Christian, Islamic, Jewish or atheist supremacists all have problems.

[noiretextatique]

35. our problem in this country

is with christian supremacists. no one is suggesting that passages from the koran be carved into public buildings. and pat robertson, a christian, recently declared kwanzaa unacceptable.
none of this has anything to do with true chrisitanity or the people who practice it, would you agree?

[AliciaKeyedUp]

41. I think the Islamic supremacists blew up thousands of people here

So we have a problem with them. And here, the backlash against Christians and people of faith comes from atheist supremacists.

I have no problem with Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Hanukkah, or any other holiday. Personally, I celebrate Christmas, which is far and away the most popular of all in our society, but not mandatory by any means.

[noiretextatique]

52. who blew up what? that still is a question

but it is christian supremacists who have taken over the republican party, and who helped passed anti-gay legislation in 11 states. to deny that in some faux defense of christianity is just insane. atheists, right...yeah there are legions of athiests persecuting christians all over the country, passing lawa against religion, etc. not so...and you know it. what you believe is not in question...it's what the religious right is pushing as religion that is.

[jmowreader]

24. Jesus would probably like some new sandals...

and a Katydyn water filter.

Jesus was not a materialistic person, but he wore out sandals and got dysentery from drinking polluted water just like everyone else did 2000 years ago. (There is a reason everyone drank wine, and why His turning the water into wine was such a big deal: the water wasn't potable back then.)

I think the whole gift thing came about as a display of sacrifice--giving away everything you had at the end of the year in a show of love. This doesn't explain "give diamonds this year," though.

[zeemike]

45. He did speak of the value of gifts

When he said of the woman that anointed his feet with an expensive oil; He said; "This woman has given out of the abundance of her heart and it is grater than others"

[heretheycome]

30. very nice

may I add, Jesus would want peace on earth. That used to mean something

[zeemike]

44. And if all of them that say they believe in him

Would do as he said, it is very likely that peace on earth would break out all over the world.

[whitemale]

6. I actually feel afraid to say merry Xmas

[AliciaKeyedUp]

7. I don't

Merry Christmas!

[whitemale]

10. Merry X-Mas!!

[blondeatlast]

14. Why, cause it might get you

TOMBSTONED?!

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

[arwalden]

27. You Do? Wow!

I'm afraid NOT to say it. :eyes:

[tabasco]

40. Buck up there little trooper !

Afraid to say Merry Christmas .......LMAO.

[dolo amber]

8. I say Happy Holidays...

I've not noticed anyone looking at me oddly. :shrug:

Perhaps it's just where I live (Milwaukee, and a heavily leftie area at that) but things seem pretty business as usual here.

[blondeatlast]

17. I live in a deep red state and have done it for years.

It's a RadRight diversionary tactic and I won't play into it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, dammit! And HAPPY DAMN HOLIDAYS, while we're at it!

[Zomby Woof]

28. correction

You live in a deep red county.

I, on the other hand, live in a county which went 65% for Kerry. Same state, different world.

Maricopa county is what drags us down.

[blondeatlast]

32. True that, and even the rest of Maricopa tends blue. It's just the

dimwits in the city that mess everything up (myself, AZDemDist6, and Catshrink, among others, excluded).

[seabeyond]

9. so basically you are suggesting

that the repugs have taken christmas and suggest dems are not allowed nor want to participate in htis holiday. bad repugs. so we as dems should not participate in christmas to show them

kinda like dems arent christians, so we reject our christianity to show them

sorry, no one is going to convince me to reject christmas. i love it so. my children, family, nieces and nephews love it so. repugs dont get to tell me to deny self. kinda like cut off nose to spite face

i ma going to go around saying happy holidays for the next week though to see if i have any takers, wink

[blondeatlast]

18. I fly a bigger flag than ever, and I'll continue to celebrate

with my family and friends.

Maybe I will put the lights up outside again...

Hmm...

[seabeyond]

23. and you can darn well bet,

every repug family member that comes to my house to celebrate christmas, and as i am out and about, i will say somethinng to them about their audacity to suggest i dont get to participate in christmas cause they deem it their holiday exclusively. gives me a week to mess with their minds

[blondeatlast]

25. Fortunately, I'm a 4th gen yellow dog, so I'm not faced with that

problem.

Go with God, SB!

Oh, and dammit--MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[tx_dem41]

13. Anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas as they normally do....

religiously or secularly, to make some political point...is really playing right into the RWers hands.

On edit: Corrected grammar

[blondeatlast]

19. Exactly. nt

[nostamj]

20. be sure to read Frank Rich's article

<snip>

In the latest and most bizarre twist on this theme, even Christmas is now said to be a target of the anti-Christian mob. "Are we going to abolish the word Christmas?" asked Newt Gingrich, warning that "it absolutely can happen here." Among those courageously leading the fight to save the holiday from its enemies is Bill O'Reilly, who has taken to calling the Anti-Defamation League "an extremist group" and put the threat this way: "Remember, more than 90 percent of American homes celebrate Christmas. But the small minority that is trying to impose its will on the majority is so vicious, so dishonest — and has to be dealt with."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/arts/19rich.html?8hpib

[janx]

21. Merry Christmas!

Nobody can take control of Christmas. And if they claim they do or can, they're not telling the truth.

I'm off to do some Christmas errands.

Again, Merry Christmas! :toast:

[Blue Diadem]

29. I'm not letting them win

They are not stealing Christmas like they stole the presidency, they don't own God, they don't own this country and they don't own our flag PERIOD!

Sorry..had to rant there for a minute. :)

[Piperay]

39. TOTALLY agree

I'm not into the Christmas spirit this year (personal reasons) it is not because I am letting them intimidate me out of Christmas.

[Nobody]

31. Jesus was not a Republican. He wasn't a Roman citizen

He wasn't a Democrat, either. Not Athenian. Whether Paul was a Republican is open to debate, after all he was a Roman citizen.

Around my neighborhood, unless you know what holiday people are celebrating, it's just safest to say "Happy Holidays" no matter how generically hokey it sounds.

My neighbors celebrate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Eid al-Fitr, Christmas, The Season of Greed (not to be confused with Christmas, mainly observed by the whiniest retailers), Solstice, and a lot of others I'm not personally aware of. You can't assume anything around here, because there's a lot of different religions and cultural observances.

[SmokingJacket]

36. Then they win!

I love my secular version of the holiday: Bing on the hi-fi, gingerbread in the oven. I'm an atheist, but I love the smell of a Christmas tree and the paper snowflakes my kids make to decorate it.

I'm not spending much money this year -- don't have it, don't want to prop up the Bush economy -- but damned if I'm going to let some neck-vein-popping asshats on cable TV tell me THEY OWN the frikkin holiday.

Read the Frank Rich essay in the Times for a VERY enlightening explanation of what the RWers and trying to do with this siege on Christmas baloney.

[Royal Observer]

37. Who said...

"Christmas is a humbug."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. They're welcome to both.

I'm neither a "patriot" or a compulsive shopper. Xmas has about as much to do with Christ's teachings as compassion has to do with Bush.

[GodHelpUsAll2]

47. I disagree

I keep heraing the same complaints. Christmas is too commercial (which I agree, it has become that way), Christmas has nothing to do anymore with Christ ( I agree on that point also). So what, you ask, am I disagreeing with? Christmas, not unlike life it's self, is what you make it. Sure the department stores have gotten out of control with their ads to spend spend spend. Sure a lot of the public has become blind shop aholics. But if everyone decided that Christmas has become too commercial we need to just stop celebrating it then we have not been robbed of Christmas we have given it up. If we use some of the things we are comlaining about as examples of what it is not them I believe it can be turned around.

To me, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus. Christmas is baking a pie and taking it to your elderly neighbor that can no longer cook. Christmas is taking my own children on Christmas eve to the shelter and working the serving line so they learn to be grateful for everything they have been blessed with and to feel compassion for those who are less fortunate. Christmas is seeing the joy and excitement on a small childs face early Christmas morning because my own child donated some of his things to those who would have otherwise had nothing. It's hearing your 95 year old grandmother rave on about the fuzzy jammies you gave her as if they were the only ones on the face of the earth like them. It's that warm feeling of giving and not being concerned with receiving. It's wishes of peace on earth and good will.

I for one am not willing to give that up for anything. I will, until the time that I take my last breath continue to teach those same things to my children, and their children and so on until I am no longer here to do so. But, I feel rather confident that when I am long gone, those same wonderful things will be carried on because I have passed it to my children. And I am certain they will continue.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

51. I do much the same.

We give "gifts" of contributions to charitable organizations (Oxfam, Amnesty International, The Heifer Project", etc) in the name of family or friends.

It is done in the spirit of Christ, though I'm an agnostic and my wife is a recent convert to UU (after being a Roman Catholic for all her life).

What I was attempting to say in my post, is to let the faux "patriots" have the flag and the "Christians" who ignore the teachings of Jesus have the trappings of Xmas, because they sure as hell don't have the spirit of what Christ stood for.

[Sleepysage]

43. Every adult in the country needs to read...

..."The Battle for Christmas" by Stephen Nissenbaum. Christmas is an invention, almost from whole cloth. Appeals to tradition and the "sanctity" of the holiday are inappropriate.

That doesn't mean its meaning can't be celebrated for any number of reasons and any number of ways. It just means that sanctimonious Bible-thumping is misplaced.

[Swamp Rat]

46. Glückliches Weihnachten!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid mich lehren.


Glückliches Weihnachten DU!!!

[jellybelly]

48. ...false...

No it doesn't, it belongs to Christians. These bitches aren't Christian.

[vetwife]

49. Christmas

Christmas belongs as a celebration of Christ's birth. I will never ever stop celebrating Christmas ! People have commercialized it but I have been guilty of that too. I still believe in Christmas. I want to celebrate Christmas.
Merry Christmas !

[FreedomAngel82]

50. I remember reading

on another board someone say that a governor of some state call the Christmas tree a "holiday tree" and people got in an uproar over it. :eyes: People, I think, take things too seriously. Try telling them this is the wrong time of the year to celebrate Jesus' birth. I've done some studying on this and in the Bible there is no mention of his date of birth and from events of his birth and from Biblical schoalrs he would have been born in the warmer months since you can't graze sheep in the middle of winter. Doy.