The True meaning of Christmas

Something I have always looked into and started believing was indeed that Christianity was created from other religions. It goes all the way back to Ancient Egypt by borrowing the stories of old and just creating a new character for the stories. Then the lovely shopping markets took advantage of it and now we are "forced" to buy gifts. What do you guys think?

Here is another video I found

It is a known fact . But the Church won't say a thing , because they make profit too .

Those in power are the creators of all world religions - er...um - control mechanisms...always were.

If you can get people to believe in an invisible man in the sky, you can get them to do anything!

S&F

This comes up every year, who cares what it means I get two weeks off of work and get to spend time with my family. It's not like people are sacrificing anything on the altar or wrapping presents in a pentagram. Enjoying some food and drinks with your family and getting them gifts to show you appreciate them is the true meaning of Christmas.

You're sure to get a 30 page debate for posting your OP, but what the hell, it's Christmas right?
Have you ever researched any on Siberian Shamans, and the creation of Christmas traditions thousands of years before Christmas? Everything from reindeer, to stockings, to decorated trees and greenery, and even the colors red and white stem from their culture. Pretty interesting stuff, though discussing Siberian Christmas Origins is a T&C violation here on ATS, so I'll direct you to do your own research off site (I've been warned before).

Paganism... the reason for the season.

Pretty interesting stuff, though discussing Siberian Christmas Origins is a T&C violation here on ATS, so I'll direct you to do your own research off site (I've been warned before).

What!!!??? You are kidding, right? What is so taboo about it? Are there drugs involved in the story or something?

On Topic: What we celebrate as "Christmas" has many origins. Catholicism, Druidism, Egyptian, Babylonian, and so on. So it's kind of a hodge podge for us in the states. But nevermind that, we've co-opted it, and christianized it, so god is OK with it now.

reply to post by Klassified


There is some shamanic use of mushrooms involved, which is, I'm guessing, the source of their gripe with the subject.

Back on subject, and not specifically directed at you, Klassified (though you may find this interesting as well), my son was watching "Little Bear" this morning and they were celebrating Winter Solstice, which I thought was pretty cool, and apparently on "Blue's Clues" they (Blue and his owner, Steve) were following more paganistic traditions for the holiday and even had to be told by a neighbor what Christmas was, also learning about Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa from various other neighbors as well.

Apparently Nickelodeon is all about the paganistic arts.

I found this... hilarious:

Blue's Clues Promoting Paganism

Originally posted by FugitiveSoul
You're sure to get a 30 page debate for posting your OP, but what the hell, it's Christmas right?
Have you ever researched any on Siberian Shamans, and the creation of Christmas traditions thousands of years before Christmas? Everything from reindeer, to stockings, to decorated trees and greenery, and even the colors red and white stem from their culture. Pretty interesting stuff, though discussing Siberian Christmas Origins is a T&C violation here on ATS, so I'll direct you to do your own research off site (I've been warned before).

Paganism... the reason for the season.

Wow no I have never heard of the Siberian Shamans before. I do remember reading something about Santa Claus though. In Germany's black forest, before Christianity came to the place, they had a legend about creatures called tomtin. These were wholly evil little dwarf-like creatures, who wore red (the color of blood). They would band together, pull a traveler to the ground and beat him.

The tomtin had a leader, though. He was known as Nacht Rupert. Nacht Rupert would sometimes come into villages taking a small army of tomtin with him, and could sometimes be seen peering into windows. He would often kill those he was watching, unless the people inside were keeping to the old faiths, in which case he would give gifts.

When the Catholic faith made it to the area, they were appalled at such a thing, and decided to replace the notion with a saint, who happened to be St. Nicholas. At first, though, this did not erase his sinister reputation. For some time, he was known as 'Buller Claus' (translates to 'Belled 'Nicholas') because of the chains and bells that he carried. When he approached a house, the tomtin went ahead to rouse sleeping children, drag them from their beds, and ask them questions on the Christian catechism. If they could not answer or answered incorrectly, the tomtin beat them with sharp sticks and chains while St. Nicholas pelted them with hard coal until they bled and the tomtin licked the blood from their wounds. If they were able to answer correctly, they were (grudgingly) rewarded with an apple or sweetmeat. Luckily, St. Nicholas would only come once a year, on a certain day in winter.

Later, the image of the tomtin softened, and they became 'Santa's little helpers' or 'Christmas Elves'. Also, things changed around a bit, and now it is Santa who wears the red (color of blood) suit.

reply to post by Irish614


I believe I've heard something similar, though I didn't recall ever hearing their name before. "Santa's little helpers."
Kinda paints them in a new light, doesn't it. Better not be naughty kids, or Santa's elves are going to beat the $h!t out of you.

Yeah Yeah Yeah. Christmas is a pagan holiday blah blah. Like we don't already know that. I don't celebrate christmas. Why i do not celebrate christmas? Because it has nothing to do with Jesus at all. Jesus was not born on december 25th, he was born in the spring. I also told my wife when we have kids we will not lie to them and say santa claus is real. God has already said that everything on this world he made and everything comes from him. We give glory to God and we give him our thanks, not some fake fat guy in a red suit.

I think the only thing more annoying than this topic is people pretending that it is some sort of secret. It has been public knowledge for OVER 1000 YEARS