The War On Christmas comes early - and I may fire the first salvo...

[Maiden England]

So I live in a small metropolitan area with a bunch of small towns. Every year each one puts up their own Christmas Decorations on their main drag lamp posts. Every year they use the same ones. Every small town manages to put up something non-denominational, wreaths, candles, reindeer, season greeting banners etc.

Except my town.

Every year I have to stare out my window at a crappy lit snowflake (which is NOT the problem), the problem is the banner they use on every alternate lamp post. A Banner with Mary cradling a child with a halo, proclaiming 'Joy to the World'. I have absolutely no problem with that banner per se, if they would add banners depicting 'other religion's holidays' or other sights of the season. But its not. Its just the one kind of banner. Repeated all up the main drag. I'd have no problem with it if I still lived in the UK, which is after all a 'Christian' country.

But here in my home town, in the USA, where there is supposed to be no state sponsoring of religion, it absolutely irks me no end that I have to see those freaking banners all over town. Oh and did I mention I'm Jewish. So I know, the town is not 100% Christian. I hate the whole 'war on christmas' stuff usually, mainly because it gives those who absolutely no idea what persecution is claim they are suffering it, but right now I'm thinking about how much those banners piss me off every year and wondering if there is something I should do about it, and if so, how to go about it.

Any suggestions?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Put up your own banner -

I'm thinking something like Santa cradling a reindeer, proclaiming "Joy to the world," and see how they like it.

Or maybe just a big pile of gaily-wrapped packages, and the notation, "Let's keep profit in Christmas."

Or something like that? Maybe?

I'd be pissed, too, if I were you...........................

[orpupilofnature57]

2. My wife is an atheist and loves Christmas ,as a middle of the winter reason to celebrate

as invented by pagans ,just like her.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. I'm an atheist, too, but I can

very easily worship - if only for a moment - a jolly fat bearded man in a plush red suit cuddling some little reindeer. Especially is there are presents involved................................

[orpupilofnature57]

10. Ya ,Holly Jolly ,Plush Red and Florescent White ,Pine smell and peppermint

even lame Christmas songs are cool .I do feel bad about how it accentuates depression in people on the down swing.

[IDemo]

7. Our old neighbor had a 'Santa kneeling at the manger' display

I sure am going to miss that this year! :rofl:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. THAT's the spirit!

Make your own....................

[IDemo]

11. Maybe I'll reverse it

Toddler Jesus ripping open packages under the tree. :)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. WE HAVE A HIT ON OUR HANDS!!!!

Your idea is GENIUS! I think you've got a winner there.

Brilliant, just brilliant. Talk about putting it all in perspective.

Who could find fault with THAT image?

Oh, I really love it, I do!

[jemelanson]

3. The christians, whenever someone tells them no, to something

they want to do, start claiming that they are being persecuted. So, to all the persecuted Christians, until and unless someone spends 300 years, hunting you down, trying you in court with no way to defend yourself, tortures you and then burns you at the stake because your view of what is divine is different from theirs. Or puts you th ru what the Jewish people have been subjected to. Or treated like what has been done to the native people in every place you have gone to...I really do not want to hear one whimper from you as being persecuted.

[Captain Hilts]

4. I don't need The Blessed Virgin, but I DO want a green tree!!!

Here, in DC, winters are very drab, what with no snow, so some color is appreciated.

In my 'hood, instead of a big tree we now have white, topiary-looking twirling horns. Colorless and drab. Ugh!

[Fading Captain]

5. I'm an atheist. Christian Christmas doesn't offend me at all.

My suggestion: Let it go.

[emilyg]

14. +1

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. Mary who?

[scarletwoman]

12. Take the pagan view. People have celebrated the solstice for millennia, long before Christianity.

The return of the Light, the return of the Sun -- conflated with a magical birth of a divine Son -- it's an ancient myth told in ancient symbols. The Great Mother Goddess giving birth to the Light. The Christians merely co-opted these ancient archetypes for their own ends, they do not own them.

When you look at the banners picturing a mother and her baby let your thoughts turn to the ancient human impulse to see the seasons of the year in terms of metaphors about the waning and waxing of light and life, of the passage of time and generations. An eternal line of mothers giving birth to children down through the ages.

Joy to the world is a fine wish, the world could use more joy.

sw