is Christmas bad for us

Resi/Orange you have both stated the most important ingredients, family and sharing, the holiday season is about this but also about a time of reflection for those who do not have what so many take for granted, peace, a family, security and the basic neccesities of life and if one is able you should try and help others not just at crimbo time but all the time.

Christmas is as bad for you as you make it.

Maybe it's different when you have kids, everyone likes to make it nice for the kids, but we do go way over the top.

Some of the best christmases i've had have been when we have been skint. You put more thought into buying gifts and they don't have to cost a lot. It just depends on how much you get sucked into the commercial side of christmas.

CX.

Going slightly off post.........

Remember where the Christmas came from. YULE To celebrate the shortest day and the sun coming back and not the birth of one man who was suppose to save people.

Yule was stolen from us by the organised church.

Originally posted by RRconservative

Originally posted by magicmushroom

RR if you have food in your belly, clothes on your back and a roof over your head then you have enough, try sharing with others, one world, one people.

There you go "deciding" again.

The United States has shown the world what prosperity looks like. It is up to them to implement it. It is better to teach someone to fish, than to give them a fish.

The last person in the United States that starved to death was Terri Shiavo, and that was a court-ordered starvation.

We became prosperous because we destroyd Europe and Japan and then rebuilt them on there dime. Has NOTHING to do with how GREAT we are. In fact RR we are SO great the democracy is bleeding jobs for extra profit faster than YOU can say Merry Christmas.

Christmas is a time to remember what the Prince of Peace was all about, not about commercialistic shove it up your neither regions crap we have now.

It is actcaully not even a mid east religion it is European Pagan.

Yes RR your Christian movement is a mid-eastern religion. Mine is not.

I respect the concept though of peace on earth and good will towards men.

That is what it SHOULD be all about.

[edit on 26-12-2006 by LoneGunMan]

Over half of annual retail sales turn over at Christmas. It's become an essential focal point for perpetuating a consumer economy based on waste making and high turnover of non-essential products.

Given the toxic nature of most industry and the unsustainable use of raw resource over recylcable goods, etc., consumerism is a threat to the health of the planet. Not so much the health of the planet, as it will survive long after we are extinct, but a threat to a hospitable environment for humans.

In addition relying on corporate logos and products for validation detracts from the integrity of the spiritual aspect of being. There's a great deal of money spent of deciding how best to manipulate the consumer and it comes to a roaring head of a infected pimple at Christmas.





[edit on 26-12-2006 by clearwater]

Originally posted by clearwater

Given the toxic nature of most industry and the unsustainable use of raw resource over recylcable goods, etc., consumerism is a threat to the health of the planet. Not so much the health of the planet, as it will survive long after we are extinct, but a threat to a hospitable environment for humans.

In addition relying on corporate logos and products for validation detracts from the integrity of the spiritual aspect of being. There's a great deal of money spent of deciding how best to manipulate the consumer and it comes to a roaring head of a infected pimple at Christmas.

You have voted clearwater for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have used all of your votes for this month.

Good post. My thoughts that I forgot to think about!!

Christmas can be a time of great consumerism. It can also be a time of a charitable heart. There are so many charities that help out the less fortunate at this time of year. Whether you actually celebrate the day or not, it is a good time to feed your soul by helping others. Check with your county human resources department or local welfare department. You can donate food, toys for children or cash. You can also volunteer to help with deliveries, etc.

Don’t let the realities of others’ selfishness daunt or depress you. Give from your heart. You’ll be amazed at how uplifting the experience can be.

Have you given up Christmas ...in order to save the planet to habitability for humans???

Curious about this!!??

Thanks,
Orangetom

My question is this… What is too much? Between my daughters, my wife & I we spent about $1000.00 on Christmas. This includes the feast I cooked & the gifts we bought. In the estimation of the self righteous complaining here - is that too much for one family? I suspect that most families of our income spent about the same.

From the time we got up until dinner time we were all for the most part together in the main part of the home. We played, laughed and ate together and created some great memories.

In my estimation it is no different than going on one of those vacations I suspect the self righteous anti-Christmas complainers here go one once or twice a year.

I find it laughable and hypocritical that you people would even begin to find something wrong with the very same thing you do in mid-summer or whenever but just give it a different name and call it a deserved rest. I’ll bet you spend a heck of a lot more on a one person vacation than we did on a family of four enjoying Christmas! LOL whatever….

Your post does not apply to me. I did not celebrate christmas nor did I take a vacation this year.

None the less they are not the same thing. Apples and Oranges.

I remind you ...according to many of the posters in here ..Christmas is more than just numbers...or vacations.

I do plan to take a short holiday to the mountains this coming year. I will not however be celebrating Christmas.

Intresting technique you use. Are you a politician??


Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
Going slightly off post.........

Remember where the Christmas came from. YULE To celebrate the shortest day and the sun coming back and not the birth of one man who was suppose to save people.

Yule was stolen from us by the organised church.

YOu are quite correct in this of your post. I first learned of this relationship of Christmas to other religions when reading

THe Two Babylons (Circa 1912)

by Alexander Hislop

In this intresting book they illustrated the relationship of the Christmas celebration to the Pagan Solstice and also to the European Pagan custom of the Yule or Yule Log. Nothing Christian about it. I was stunned when I first read of this history. Why had all this been kept from my knowlege??
How had this tradition of men been inserted into the Christian Church.

A intresting side effect of this is that I live close to Colonial Williamsburg here in Virginia. One evening when watching the news on the boob tube there was a interview with the historian at Colonial Williamsburg. As the Yule season was approaching the question came up in the interview..."Can you tell us as a Historian how the early Colonialists decorated their homes for Christmas." THe Historian replied..." We dont have any records of how the early Colonialists decorated thier homes for Christmas....but we think they would have decorated like this." And then the program went on to show how today the Colonial part of Williamsburg is decorated for Christmas.

When I saw this ...butt naked... in front of me I realized that they didnt have any records of how the Early Colonialists decorated their homes because they didnt celebrate Christmas. THe Historian had to cover this fact to keep up Christmas visitors coming to Colonial Williamsburg and bring in the bucks.
There is no way George Washington could have gotten the Colonialist Army to cross the Deleware River to attack the British and Hessians on December 24th if they in fact celebrated Christmas. THe Hessians and British were sleeping and drunken on the other side of the river. The Hessians particularly kept the Yule celebration....Germans.

Since this time I have often been surprised to learn what is deliberately missing from our historical knowlege in order to keep us on the treadmill..controlled by someone else. Even in Christianity. It is a intresting study.
I am often given to declaring the abominable ignorance of history of my fellow Christians...even Biblical History. But then again..so too was I for years..and years.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Although I am not a big practitioner or the celebration of Christmas as most people consider it. I still try to do my part for others. For instance, I hung lighted decorations in the two windows of my apartment that face the parking lot. It is to promote a cheerful feeling that one experiences when seeing Christmas light.

My husband and I do not exchange gifts, but we bought some for a few families who were unable to provide presents for their children due to the fact that they are single parent families and most of their money goes to paying the outrageous prices that Corpus Christi requires for utilities and auto insurance.

Our Christmas dinner consisted of the Senior Pot Roast at IHOP. Speaking of Christmas dinner, I’ve never seen so many FAMILIES celebrating Christmas dinner at restaurants in my life. IHOP is one of the few restaurants open on Christmas day. Traditionally, you would only see older couples or perhaps single people in a restaurant on Christmas day. But this place was packed with large families with small children. The place was packed without a lull and with long lines for three hours.

How much is too much? My husband and I asked ourselves the same question a few years back. He has no family, whereas I come from a very large one. I have two children and six grandchildren. It cost more money to send packages to them than it does for the presents. They get enough stuff from their families that our one or two gifts don’t register anyway. They’re happier that Nanny and Papa remembered to call and say Merry Christmas and let them go on about all the stuff they got than they would be about another present to open.

Christmas, although named for Christ, is mostly a package of pagan practices and has less and less to do about Christ than it does about human selfishness. To those who make it about spending time with family and helping other, I commend you. You cannot put a price tag on that.

My last vacation was January and February of 2006, I stood by the bedsides of both parents as they spent their last days with their children. Then later as we stood by their graves to remember the love that they passed on to us, we grew closer to each other. OK, not really a vacation, but it was spent with family.

The point is, Christmas is what you make it. Years from now when the toys and other high price items are sitting in some landfill, what will you and your family remember? Will it be the stuff or the dynamics of family and love?

Originally posted by darkelf

Christmas, although named for Christ, is mostly a package of pagan practices and has less and less to do about Christ than it does about human selfishness. To those who make it about spending time with family and helping other, I commend you. You cannot put a price tag on that.

Very Very well said here. I agree. Well done and needs to be reinforced among many of us.

Also I did not know that expenses were so high in and around Corpus Christi. News to me. I will file that away for future reference. I would have thought that far south it would be the opposite of what you quote. It is becoming that way here too on the Chesapeak Bay of Virginia.

THank you for your well stated post,
Orangetom