christmas

I love, absolutely love, the Nativity story. Somewhere I have a small creche that I used to put up every year. A special baby is born into reduced circumstances and everyone, from kings to shepherds and the beasts of the fields, knows he is special. I enjoy the portents, the star, the herald...

Now that the silly season is with us once again and people all around the world prepare to celebrate the various traditional midwinter festivals of the Northern Hemisphere, most notably Christmas, I was thinking that we could put together a playlist of songs that celebrate the season without...

Was interested to see the following dissection of the origin of Christmas, specifically that it was a pagan festival co-opted by early Christians to encourage conversion... Anything to it or is it a bit of willful cherry picking ignoring the larger questions? From here: (but I don't know if...

Over in the politics forum they're discussing Rick Perry's contention that Obama has declared "War on Christmas". That's a political thing. I'm interested in what people (especially theists) think about what is happening to the Christmas celebration. Christmas hasn't changed much since my...

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8428650.stm Surely by now, they've have sussed the advantages of having another one ready as a contingency. Or maybe make it out of bricks. (Has Three Little Pigs been translated in Scandinavia?)

So being a Christian myself [at least officially "on paper"], what is your stance about all the commercial background of Christmas and the meaning of it? In other words: While I see a lot of American Christians complaining about things like Gays, Abortion etc, I didn't sense a big controversy...

I wait tables and bartend to pay for school. Around this time of year I usually bid my patrons 'Happy Holidays'. But apparently by doing so, I offend the pious Jesus followers so much that they feel compelled to call me an *******...

Link to blog post... I’m a bad, bad person. No kidding, I’m bad – really, really bad. I say this because in my physics classes today, I killed Santa Claus. Well, to be more accurate, what I did was use our knowledge of physics to kill the fantasy of Santa Claus (because it’s pretty damn hard...

My wife and 10 year old son attend the local UU church. My son has been rehearsing recently for his role in the holiday play, so I went with them to church today to see the play. It was written entirely by the middle school students in the church and acted by kids from 3 to 18. I want to...

I just saw this website (Stand for Christmas) and needed to come here for some sanity. Am I the only one who wants to hear "Happy holidays" and not be constantly reminded of religious beliefs that I don't hold?

I'm wondering about the hegemony of Christmas in which we atheists find ourselves immersed. Ironically Christmas has always been a holiday that disappoints and yet each year I strive to make it work. This year I'm having Christmas party on December 12th. PM me if you live in NYC and like to...

I don't know if this has been posted anywhere yet (or is even the right place) but I've just come across this book coming out soon: The atheist's Guide to Christmas Don't know much about it yet except the description:

Right, in another thread the claim has been made that Easter derives from both a Jewish and pagan roots - something I find extremely unlikely - it seems to me to clearly come from the Christian response to the Resurrection and the existing Jewish Passover, and I know of no pre-Christian roots...

I wrote this over on RD.net last year, but it seems a good Christmas card for the JREF - Happy Whatever everyone! "Evening! I have been meaning to write a little Christmas post, so I will. It's in lieu of cards - I have not been organized enough to send any of those in over the last decade. I...

(To the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas) Can't wish you a merry Christmas… Can't wish you a merry Christmas… Can't wish you a merry Christmas and we'll tell you why. The ACLU won't let us… The ACLU won't let us… The ACLU won't let us, so we'll just say “good bye”.

Here is an article that lists some common holiday/Christmas myths and then claims they are debunked. While I agree the "beliefs" are false, the author doesn't bother to state his sources for how all of the sited beliefs have been debunked. So, it isn't as good of an article as it could have been.

Sorry for the bad hoiday pun, but I thought the article interesting. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769 Seems funny to see that the Sugar makes kids crazy thing is an example of observational Bias.

I thought this story would be of interest among this crowd: http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/stories/ktvbn-dec0208-holiday_display.232fd607.html The encouraging part to me was that all of the believers who were interviewed for the video felt that it was fine to put the sign on display- while...

Jeremiah 10:1-5 in the Bible says the following (King James Version): [1] Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: [2] Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. [3] For...

Thought that you may want to come to this if you're UK based. Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People 21st December 2008 Hammersmith Apollo So far the confirmed speakers are Stewart Lee, Mark Thomas, Ricky Gervais, Justin Edwards, Chris Addison, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Josie Long, Jo...

So think about it... The Grinch, a character whom we have since grown to hate, was placed in our minds as the perpetrator of an event (Stealing Christmas) that forced us to fear the loss of our most prized holiday. This in the end made us appreciate it all the more. Does this not sound like...

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119820996084944523-email.html

Actually, this is for my wife and I, becuase we make a habit of this every year around this time. Each Christmas, usually on Christmas Eve or the day before, we'll go driving around looking for Christmas Light Displays on people's houses. We're not looking for the best, the brightest, the most...

I'm listening to a radio show right now that has Santa on for the kids. I disagree with the fact that someone is promising kids things that they probably won't get. They phone in, say what they want for Christmas, and he says "Look for it under your tree, I'll try and get that for you." I think...

Whenever I read threads on the war on christmas and how atheists shouldn't be celebrating christmas I feel extra lucky about being Norwegian (even though my reasons apply to other Scandinavians and possibly Finns, and Icelanders and...). For one thing we still use the name of the old...

Okay, this is a letter to the editor that appears in today's (13/12/07) Leader-Post. I'm copying it verbatim, as it's short. I hope that doesn't violate forum rules. It reads thusly: "Censoring Christmas Gillian Gibbons, a British schoolteacher, was sentenced to fifteen days in prison and...

Does having a Christmas Tree reduce or increase your carbon footprint? Are you helping or harming the environment? Would AlGore approve? I would think that any excuse to get people to plant millions of trees every year, i.e., Christmas Tree farms, would be a net benefit to the environment...

Just as with gasoline, when the price creeps up $.10-.15 over a three week period and the headlines scream about it, and this civilization-destroying "spike" leads the nightly "news"casts every night for weeks, we are reading/hearing how retail sales are "sluggish" or so low that it does not...

Begun, the Christmas Wars have: http://www.wxii12.com/money/14661906/detail.html