Society & Culture The Grinch thread - what is Christmas?

[Rotayjay]

In recent years I've started reflecting and I've come to the conclusion that - in my opinion that most people will not share - Christmas is dumb. Think about it:

1. It's got nothing to do with Jesus anymore. Ask any historian and they will tell you we have no clue of when Jesus of Nazareth (a real historical person) was born, and the late-December holiday was borrowed from other religions for convenience.

2. Feeling obligated to come up with a gift idea, then find the time to buy it, and you might not really be in a position to afford all the gifts, and the recipient might not like it one bit anyway. What a waste of society's resources.

3. Christmas lunches and dinners and feeling obligated to eat too much and then 'work it off' in a new year's resolution. What a waste of food and cooking time.

4. Lying to children that there is a figure who monitors their behaviour and delivers gifts, not their hard-working parents. There is a lot of associated rigmarole of making sure a kid who believes in Santa doesn't find out from adults or other kids. And then they have to find out eventually. And then we wonder why kids have trust issues and don't listen to their parents.

5. How some people are only able to take time off work at Christmas, and the whole country shutting down for weeks on end. Why not make it easier for people to take annual leave throughout the year and not shut the whole show down for two weeks or a month? It's unbalanced, inconvenient when operations are reduced or nil, and leads to a lot of preventable stress in the lead-up to Christmas.

I get that it boosts the retail economy temporarily, but what about the enormous dead weight of the difference between what the gift-givers paid and what the receivers would have paid for the goods? Every other benefit that Christmas brings (giving gifts, seeing loved ones, making kids happy and eating food) can happen on any other day of the year. Putting it all in one holiday period is unbalanced and silly.

I don't hate Christmas per se. I think we can observe a nice Christmas festival without all the dumb aspects outlined above. But if Christmas completely died out as a custom in Australia, I honestly would not miss it one bit.

 

[Hawk Dork]

I just had a really good one
First and possibly the last time the family was all together.( we are scattered and some are old)
I did the cooking ,it turned out well
Others bought stuff to add booze, pav salads, fruit.
No gifts (wife and I havent given each other gifts for well over a decade)
1 kid got spoiled but he is only 2 (surprisingly his favourite toy was the one we got for free and just added as an after thought)
Just tokens, no pressure if you forgot or didnt have any.
Everyone got on well and had a good time.

and we arent religious just use the date as a starting point to get together

 

[Hank Scorpion]

Most cultures would have a big get-together/feast type of celebration. I still think that it's worth keeping, even though the religious purpose of Christmas is increasingly detached.

The excessive commercialism and gift-giving of hundreds, even thousands of dollars, can get stuffed though.

 

[Simon_Says]

I have no reservation about saying i am a Grinch around this time of the year

I specifically hate the commercialisation of the ned of the year.
Making it less about family and friends and people and more about what your spending your oney on.

The last four Christmas's my family has been boycotting buying gifts
Instead we put a charity/ cause in a hat and draw it out randomly.
Between 3 familys on one side of my family, all nominate a charity to donate to (Royal Childrens Hosp. Because i spent a significant amount of time their when i was younger, Royal Woman;'s because my newphew was 11 weeks premie, Peter Mac, "Buy a Bail" ect. you get it)
Said Charity is the winner and we all donate money towards the cause.

The only execption to buying anything is when there are grandkids/Nephews and nieces in our household

I am not religous either to any great degree. More of an athiest that anything
I work Hospo so I certainly dont get to sopend chirstmas at home with family. (This last Christmas gone i worked form 11am to 11pm, didnt even count this years xmas)

 

[JW Frogen]

Christmas to me has always been just a big wanking festival.

New Years day, that is the big one.

How much have you ****ed up your life in the past year and what are you going to do about?

Or * it up again?

 

[Scotland]

It's the magical time of year where a largely non-religious people in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate the birth of a religious figure with Northern Hemisphere traditions.

 

[SwampCreature]

Christmas to me has always been just a big wanking festival.

Like... around the table with the family? Unsure if want tbh

 

[revo333]

It's the magical time of year where a largely non-religious people in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate the birth of a religious figure with Northern Hemisphere traditions.

I always remind a few of my atheists mates how pathetic they look around that time of year.

 

[FRUMPY]

I always remind a few of my atheists mates how pathetic they look around that time of year.

Not really pathetic, things like Marriage, Christmas and Easter are (for atheist) no longer celebrated for the religious aspect but more just tradition. The fact we get paid to do it (Christmas public holiday) is the cream on the cake.

 

[Scotland]

I don't really get the 'cultural celebration' of Christmas and Easter. What are you celebrating exactly?

I get that families just get together and eat and exchange gifts etc. because it's tradition, but it's still odd. We should go back to the pagan holidays.

I always remind a few of my atheists mates how pathetic they look around that time of year.

Atheists (hi) are people and people are full of s**t. Atheists will happily celebrate the birth and death of someone who didn't exist (at least as depicted), Christians will happily pick and choose which parts of the 'word of God' are important and which aren't. Welcome to Earth.