The holiday season

[Jazzy]

What annoys you the most about the holiday season?

 

[Lamb]

It annoys me that there are SO many different Christmas movies but that channels keep playing the same ones over and over!!

 

[1689Dave]

What annoys you the most about the holiday season?

Commercialization and materialism. But it helps keep Jesus' name in lights.

 

[1689Dave]

It annoys me that there are SO many different Christmas movies but that channels keep playing the same ones over and over!!

We have many DVD favorites we watch each year. Die Hard with Bruce Willis is "white knuckle" and good anytime.

 

[Lamb]

We have many DVD favorites we watch each year. Die Hard with Bruce Willis is "white knuckle" and good anytime.

Die Hard is on about every week where I live! LOL I love the movie but I can only watch it so many times.

I wish the Charlie Brown Christmas special would be on multiple times, but wow it mentions Jesus so that can't happen!

 

[Albion]

Die Hard is on about every week where I live! LOL I love the movie but I can only watch it so many times.

I say that of "Sweet Home Alabama" and a couple of others.

I wonder what accounts for this. Are these films scheduled all the time because there is a demand? That's not likely. Are they, for some reason, cheap to rent?

It wouldn't be that these were terrible films and lost money at the box office, meaning that this is where such films to go die. But it's a mystery.

 

[Josiah]

When it's called "Holiday" rather than "Christmas."



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[tango]

When it's called "Holiday" rather than "Christmas."



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Referring to the holiday season makes sense because there are a few of them rather than just Christmas. It's pretty sad when people feel the need to act offended because you wished them well for the wrong holiday though. If someone wished me a happy Hanukkah I wouldn't be offended because I don't celebrate it, I'd thank them for the good wishes.

 

[tango]

What bugs me about the season is the endless marketing of the same old junk but presenting it as "the perfect gift". You must surely know someone who would just love this - er - whatever it is. And it's only $80!

Throw in canned Christmas muzak everywhere you go and it's all the reason I need to not go shopping at all. Thankfully my wife and I generally only exchange token gifts with a small number of people with a focus more on something funny than anything else, so it's easy to get a lot of stuff locally.

I sometimes wonder whether churches overdo things at Christmas. Sometimes it seems some do a Christmas Eve carol service, then a Christmas Eve midnght service, then a Christmas Day service, as well as the usual Sunday stuff. It's nice to have a few options to take but can feel overwhelming if you end up with something to do to make all those services actually happen, not to mention the increased potential for conflict in families where only one member attends church but feels expected (or is needed) to attend everything they do.

 

[Albion]

Referring to the holiday season makes sense because there are a few of them rather than just Christmas.

Yes, but the purpose behind downplaying Christmas is the same one that works to erase as many references to America's majority religion as possible, across the board.

The claim that this particular change is warranted for the reason that a minor Jewish holiday and a secular "holiday" (Kwanzaa) that was recently invented by one man deserve equal treatment with Christmas is just an excuse.

And one way that we notice the reality of it is through looking for the visual display of references to those other holidays. They are scant.

Meanwhile, however, Christmas trees or manger scenes on government buildings' lawns, famous movies featuring Christmas, and even Santa Claus in the malls for kiddies to visit are fast disappearing.

 

[tango]

Yes, but the purpose behind downplaying Christmas is the same one that works to erase as many references to America's majority religion as possible.

The claim that this particular change is warranted only because a minor Jewish holiday and a "holiday" (Kwanzaa) that was recently invented by one man need to be placed on the level of Christmas is just an excuse.

And one way that we notice the reality of it is through looking for the visual display of references to those other holidays. They are scant.

Meanwhile, however, Christmas trees or manger scenes on government buildings' lawns, famous movies featuring Christmas, and even Santa Claus in the malls for kiddies to visit are fast disappearing.

There's certainly some merit to this argument - Kwanzaa seems to have been created just so the poor downtrodden black folks could have their own holiday (because obviously a black Christian couldn't celebrate Christmas with everyone else).

I guess I'm also thinking of the years when this time of year also features Diwali and Eid, even if that doesn't happen every year.

I still don't get why people feel the need to be offended by things just because they don't happen to commemorate them, or want to think of others who might not commemorate them. If someone feels unsafe because there's a decoration specific to some festival that you don't happen to celebrate in a government building that probably says more about them than it does about the decoration, or the person who placed the decoration. Perish the thought someone might try to brighten the place up a little, right?

 

[Albion]

I still don't get why people feel the need to be offended by things just because they don't happen to commemorate them, or want to think of others who might not commemorate them. If someone feels unsafe because there's a decoration specific to some festival that you don't happen to celebrate in a government building that probably says more about them than it does about the decoration, or the person who placed the decoration. Perish the thought someone might try to brighten the place up a little, right?

Amen, brother.