Do you celebrate Christmas?

[JayKeeley]

Do you think of Christmas soley as a religous holiday, or is it an excuse for decorations, santa claus, egg nog, and presents! For us it's the latter.

We put up our tree yesterday, and decorated the fireplace. And on the CD...King Diamond's "No Presents for Christmas"...

 

[IOfTheStorm]

Easter is a religious holiday the way i see it, christmas not much
Christmas rule.

 

[Hell Mike]

Christmas is not a religious holiday to me, and standard swedish celebration of it these days (Well, at least in my family) doesn't really have anything christian in it either or at least nothing I can think of now. Hell, we even have a spearhead instead of a star on top of the christmas tree.

 

[speed]

Its not even remotely religious to me. THe older I get, the more I dislike christmas. I hate the commercialism, needing to shop for others, telling them what i want- when I really dont care. Oh well, its not horrible or anyhting, just a pain in the ass.

 

[Krilons Resa]

I fucking ABHOR the season. I like the actual family get-togethers though.

But motherfuck this bullshit of a season. All it is is frustration and mobs of people pissing me off.

 

[Erik]

I don't care enough to be pissed off by the stress and frustration of the season, I buy like 5 presents for close family and so on and that's it. I like the food and chocolate and so on, the religious parts can fuck off, I don't practice any of it.

 

[Krilons Resa]

It's hard not to get pissed off when you're stuck in traffic and it takes you 2 hours to get to a destination which normnally would only take about 15 minutes.

 

[Erik]

Yeah... And this is why you shouldn't live in obnoxiously large cities

 

[MFJ]

Christmas has no meaning of religion around here anymore, its merely a gift-giving holiday and a celebration of family... and I like it that way. My house still has the tree up and everything, but its just tradition. Winter is the time for good food and good drink... Jul for me, X-Mas for my Family, and New Years for the fucking world.

 

[Erik]

The tree is probably not Christian anyway, so feel free to consider it a Heathen tradition and sacrifice to Odin or something.


"Pagan traditions: Many Pagan cultures used to cut down evergreen trees in December, moved them into the home or temple and decorated them. 7 Modern-day Pagans still do. This was to recognize the winter solstice -- the time of the year that had the shortest daylight hours, and longest night of the year. This occurs annually sometime between DEC-20 to 23. They noticed that the days were gradually getting shorter; many feared that the sun would eventually disappear forever, and everyone would freeze. But, even though deciduous trees, bushes, and crops died or hibernated for the winter, the evergreen trees remained green. They seemed to have magical powers that enabled them to withstand the rigors of winter."

 

[Hell Mike]

The tree is definately not christian but the star on top pretty obviously is, but it's not like mom thought along those lines when she got that spearhead to replace our old star anyway.

 

[MFJ]

Yeah, I read briefly about that Erik. From what I understand, Pagans in the old north used to celebrate the solstice/Jul on December 21st.

 

[Hell Mike]

Depends on which exact date the solstice is, 21st, 22nd (yay my birthday) or 23rd are the "standard" ones I think

 

[MFJ]

Interesting! My friend's family is 100% Swedish/Norwegian, and they celebrate Jul on the 21st. If you don't mind my asking, how old will you be on the 22nd?

 

[Hell Mike]

I'll be 19.
Here we always do all the celebration stuff on the 24th, your family is KRAZY AND INSANE

 

[spaffe]

A swedish article on pagan practices now associated with christmas: http://www.multiart.nu/ratatosk/artiklar/jolnerbjarke.html Though some of it feels a bit far fetched I think.

Anyway as for christmas celebrations; my family has the usual non religous practices common in Sweden - food, gifts, christmas tree etc.
One other thing though, sadly common in Sweden, that has become part of our christmas is a one hour show of Disney cartoons shown on national television every single year on the 24th of december. That horrible imported american junk has become one of the things most associated with jul/christmas nowadays. It's sad really, my family is adament about seeing it each year and it's a torture to sit through it all, which has to be done more or less, since christmas eve is not the best time to start a a great discussion about imported junk culture when all the realtives are gathered etc :{

 

[MFJ]

Omg lol, they r weird.

 

[Ayeka]

Nothing religious, but lots of indulgence. I love the way xmas is an excuse for everyone to get giddy with excitement and festive cheer. I love the chill in the air. I loved holing up at my local last year, so snug and cosy!

 

[J.]

I can't read the article, but is the giving of gifts part of the old Pagan traditions around Christmas?

 

[Demilich]

christmas is fun! i actually enjoy finding and buying christmas presents for my girlfriend and my family. finding things i know they'll like and appreciate is fun!