a response to the "war on christmas" cretins

[niyad]

"If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" Ebeneezer Scrooge


I think I am going to make up little flyers of this, and hand them out to all the "merry christmas" cretins I run into in this incredibly fundie village. (no, NOT the retail clerks, they are not part of the problem) I actually had someone say yesterday that "happy holidays" just wasn't special enough. Until that moment, I had given this person credit for normal intelligence.

[mbperrin]

1. The Puritans actually banned Christmas. Fined people for observing it.

http://www.apuritansmind.com/Christmas/DankoChristmasBanned.htm

"For preventing disorders, arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county."

From the records of the General Court,
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 11, 1659


So if we want to do what the Founding Fathers did, the "war" on Christmas is entirely appropriate. Share that with some freeper idyots and watch their heads explode!

[Obamanaut]

15. Inasmuch as most people consider the "Founding Fathers" as having

been several decades after the Puritans of May, 1659, did the Founding Fathers hold the same view as the earlier Puritans of the Bay Colony?

http://www.foundingfathers.info/

[mbperrin]

16. Well, here's how they felt about Christmas trees.

http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html

The Puritans banned Christmas in New England. Even as late as 1851, a Cleveland minister nearly lost his job because he allowed a tree in his church. Schools in Boston stayed open on Christmas Day through 1870, and sometimes expelled students who stayed home.

The Christmas tree market was born in 1851 when Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds of evergreens into New York City and sold them all. By 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree, and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.


Certainly New England has to be figured geographically with Founding Dudes, doesn't it?

[Obamanaut]

17. New England most certainly does figure geographically with the

Founding Dudes, but the Dudes and the Bay Colony folks who banned things are not in the same decade, so I don't know how whatever the Dudes thought Christmas, if anything at all, coincides with the banning if the mid 1600's.

Pagans decorated trees in winter for a long time prior to Mark Carr and his oxen.

[mbperrin]

19. Yes, the point exactly. Pagans.

In the US, trees caught on after 1870.

[bluestateguy]

2. My cousin sends her kids to a Christian school

They are very in you face about how the winter break is to be called "Christmas Vacation". That is their right, but it does seem that the school is very in your face about it, calling it "Christmas break" at every opportunity, so as to make a political point.

She is pulling them out of there at the end of the semester, btw.

[Nye Bevan]

6. So what's the problem? It's a Christian school.

I would think most yeshivas would be somewhat "in your face" about the break for Yom Kippur, etc.

[bluestateguy]

7. I have not disputed that

But they seem to bring up "Christmas break" much more than a public school brings up "Winter Break" that you start wondering if they are trying to make a cheap political point.

In any case my cousin is pulling her kids out of there in a few weeks. The final straw for her was when the school chose to totally ignore the President of the United States' address to schoolchildren in September.

[rurallib]

3. I was thinking about the term "holiday" yesterday

Holiday is an amalgamation of 'holy day.' Ergo, if I ran the world we should have at least an alternative to both 'christmas' and 'holiday.'
I am looking for suggestions. One thought that crossed my mind was 'happy celebrations.'
Funny, I sure have come a long way from a kid who wanted to be a priest.

[timtom]

18. How about "Season's Greetings"?

And "holiday" in Great Britain, I think, means "vacation".

I've been known to approach a woman during the holiday time and blurt out, "Season's greetings, toots."

Never had a bad reaction yet.

[rurallib]

20. Holiday equates to vacation but the derivation is from 'holy day.'

"Season's Greetings" would do it well.

[gratuitous]

4. Sometimes . . .

Sometimes the only reasonable response is a blank, slightly agape stare, followed by the slightest head shake. The alternative is a week's worth of explanation, which probably won't help anyway.

[Nye Bevan]

5. When someone wishes me a happy holiday that I don't celebrate

I generally smile and say "thanks, you too!" rather than throw a hissyfit, give a pompous lecture, or call the person a "cretin".

But that's just me.

[niyad]

12. you obviously are lucky enough not to have them in your face. a dose of their own medicine makes

me feel vastly amused.

[ItNerd4life]

8. So, are you saying you are like scrooge?

It sure sounds like it. He didn't like people saying Merry Christmas and neither do you. hmm.

[Dr. Strange]

9. And on that night...

niyad was visited by the ghosts of threads past, threads present, and threads future. And his role was played by Jim Carrey.

[niyad]

11. honestly, some people just don't get it. I have no problem with "merry christmas"-- I have a proble

with the assholes who are trying to shove it down everyone's throat. or, as I delight in pointing out to these cretins (as I said, I live in fundieville) they STOLE our holiday, and have no right to be upset if someone wants to wish them "happy holidays" or "blessed solstice" or whatever.

until this whole ridiculous "war on christmas" started, most of us tried to be inclusive.

[Obamanaut]

10. Is it possible, just barely possible, that the folks who are wishing a

'Merry Christmas' are genuinely happy people? They may or may not believe in anything at all, no religious belief whatsoever, but enjoy the festivities surrounding this solstice period.

Let them have their happiness. If you don't want to share in it, that's fine, and tomorrow they will have forgotten all about you. In the over-all scheme of things, one grumpy person more or less doesn't really matter.

I am a non-believer, and it is so easy to say cheerfully "Right back atcha" or something similar.

[niyad]

14. okay, let's try this again. it struck me watching "christmas carol" this morning that scrooge's

comment is exactly the right thing for the oh-so-pious, holier-than=thou cretins and fundies who inhabit this community. I know them far too well (as, for example, the guy who walks around with his rosary in his hand at all times (one might think he was praying, except his hand never moves off one of the beads. should suggest that singing rosary thin somebody posted here last week)

the people who are genuine don't bother me in the least. my friends wish "merry christmas", "blessed solstice" "happy yule" "happy holidays" and other variations on a theme. doesn't bother any of us in the least.

[Earth_First]

13. Merry Christmas, niyad!

:hide:

[niyad]

21. and a very merry christmas to you!!