I spoke to someone the other day that didn’t like a particular Christmas card. What was on the offending Christmas card? Jesus. That’s right, the card referenced Jesus… for which the holiday is named, by the way.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s my southern baptist upbringing, but I found it odd that someone could really enjoy celebrating Christmas without understanding that we wouldn’t have the holiday at all without Jesus. The two things are tied together in a way that I can’t imagine separating.<\/p>\n
That said… Jesus was a nice guy, but I no longer worship at that altar. I don’t have a problem with people that believe. And since I’m somewhat of a non-believer, I don’t have a problem with non-believers either. <\/p>\n
However, I do find it disturbing that someone could celebrate Christmas without acknowledging its origins (and yes the non-Christian origins of the Christmas tree and other customs should be noted too). The holiday is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. That’s a fact. That’s what it is. Santa Claus is the commercial part of the holiday… and there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s what you’re into. Just remember, that Christmas = Jesus.<\/p>\n
Now… why should you care about all of this? If you’re a believer then go ahead and celebrate. Enjoy the holiday, it’s the reason why show up to church every Sunday. (You do show up to church every Sunday don’t you, because if you don’t then you’re a piss poor believer.)<\/p>\n
If you’re not a believer, like me, then you should really be asking yourself, Why the fuck am I celebrating something that I don’t believe<\/i>. If your answer goes something like… “I enjoy having this time to visit my family and friends and to show them how much I appreciate them with good wishes (and gifts).”<\/i> Well then you’re not celebrating Christmas. You’re celebrating your family and friends. You’re celebrating the bond you have between you and another human being. And you’re most assuredly not celebrating Christmas. Not that true believers don’t also celebrate those things during Christmas, but if you’re not a believer, then the Christmas label simply doesn’t apply to you. Call it something else, but don’t call it Christmas.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, don’t be offended when people reference Jesus when talking about Christmas. What the fuck do you care about it. It’s his holiday, not yours.<\/p>\n
One other thing… If you wish me a Merry Christmas, I’ll wish you one back. There is no war on Christmas here. I’m not offended by the words or the customs. In fact, I find joy in people celebrating their beliefs whether those beliefs include Christmas or Saturnalia. Just wanted to make that clear. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
OK, now that I have that out of my system… What should we call this family and friends get-together that we have at the end of the year? Winter Solstice, Festivus, Chriswanzukah, Giftmas, HumanLight? I’m open to suggestions. Throw them at me.<\/p>\n
With love and respect…
\n–sam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I spoke to someone the other day that didn’t like a particular Christmas card. What was on the offending Christmas card? Jesus. That’s right, the card referenced Jesus… for which the holiday is named, by the way. Maybe it’s my southern baptist upbringing, but I found it odd that someone could really enjoy celebrating Christmas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalato.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}