The Reason For The Season?

Last Updated on: 22nd November 2012, 09:55 pm

For a number of reasons, I’m not at all what you’d call religious. I do, however, do my best to embrace the holiday spirit even if sometimes it isn’t the easiest thing to do. I enjoy spending time with friends and family, exchanging gifts, watching Christmas specials, sipping cider (hard or regular) while sitting by a warm fire,and on and on and on. I can’t handle most of the music anymore, but I pin a good bit of that on department stores and the media. Everybody and their brother’s shitty Christmas album isn’t blameless of course, but let’s face it, it would be much easier to stomach that stuff if we didn’t have to start hearing it before Halloween was over.

But Steve, if you’re not a Christian, how can you like Christmas? How can you even celebrate it? Jesus is the reason for the season, after all. No Jesus, no Christmas. You can’t have it both ways, you fool.

First of all, I prefer to think that reminding ourselves to be kind to our fellow man and making sure those we love know we love and appreciate them are the reasons for the season. We should be doing that stuff all year, but it never hurts to set a few days aside to make sure we do a little extra.

But since I know my nice sentiment won’t be enough for some of the defenders of Jesus, the next time I find myself having this conversation, I think I’ll just give up, point the person here and move on with what hopefully is my happy holiday season.

If you still want to do the Jesus thing at Christmas, fine, go right ahead. But please, after watching this, stop telling the rest of us that we can’t have a holiday because you guys came up with it. In one way or another Christmas belongs to just about everyone, so let’s all live and let live, and enjoy it together.

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3 Comments

  1. I am a Christian. I quit celebrating Christmas, except to the extent I am forced to by family and society, several years ago when I learned it was just the Roman winter solstice festival dressed up in Christian garb. Instead I celebrate Boxing Day, buying presents for family and people who have helped me out with things over the year. I also look at Christmas parties as a way to look back on the year’s accomplishments.

    All the best in 2013.

    1. That’s very interesting as it’s something I’ve never heard a Christian say. In my experience, discovering something like that is the kind of thing that is more easily ignored than confronted. When you learned it, did it come as a shock? Was it hard to deal with? Do you find yourself in a lot of disagreements over it?

      All the best of the season and the new year to you too.

  2. It was quite a shock when I first learned about the pagan origins of Christmas. I did find it quite hard to accept at first, but I eventually did. I haven’t really gotten in any disagreements over it. Most Christians I’ve talked to about it either ignore what I’ve said or agree in deference to not wanting to confront the issue. The most response I’ve ever really gotten was being asked, “Will you be offended if I wish you merry Christmas?”

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