How do you guys feel about Christmas in a secular sense? Do any of you celebrate?
Normally my husband and I visit extended family and not do anything at home. However, this year our three-year-old came home from daycare talking about Santa. One thing led to another and now we have a tree with presents under it.
My husband assembled the artificial tree in our daughter’s bedroom a few days ago, and she proceeded to decorate it with hair bows and headbands. It looked kind of cool so we just went with it. It’s not like we had many ornaments anyway.
I usually hate this time of year. My threshold for annoying Christmas crap is pretty low, but it is cute to see my daughter excited.
I guess Santa’s okay, but if my daughter comes home from daycare talking about Jesus, then we’ll have a problem.
It’s a good excuse for getting together with loved ones and celebrating surviving another winter, so why not just go with it?
No special xmas celebration for me any more, the kiddies in my immediate family be all growed up and no grand kiddies have appeared. Just a quiet day with my partner of the last 32 years, and a few treats to nibble.
Until we had kids Christmas wasn’t a huge deal. Now they totally make it worth it. They love it and it’s great to watch them opening gifts and having fun. Getting in the “Christmas spirit” with some eggnog and watching christmas movies in the evening. What’s not to like. No Jesus required!
Also I don’t see any reason to exclude them from something that most of their friends will be taking part in. They would likely feel left out when their friends go back to school talking about what they got for Christmas and I don’t see any benefit in excluding them from it.
Like WMDKitty said: a solstice is something *real* and worth marking. Gifts, special food, music, friends, family making efforts to be together to celebrate the nights not getting longer any more. That’s what it’s been for me for years. But I have a baby son now…. And his latest word is “Santa”. So… I feel your conflict.
I hate December because it has all the triggers and is basically a month of me providing mental healthcare to the other members of my family.
I would wipe it from the calendar if I could, even though (or perhaps especially because) it also contains my birthday. Everyone one in my family would be all the happier for it.
I’m fine with secular Christmas, but I am less patient than ever with the commercialism, and I do wonder how much of secular Christmas would actually be left without it.
Living in Taiwan, I barely notice it. I’ll be going to work next Wednesday and enjoy it. The percentage of people practicing christianity (because they can never get it right, ba-dum-BAM!) is barely 2%, including foreigners. Aside from occasional decorations or school events, there’s nothing, no music in the stores. On the other side of it, I had to do a visa run to Manila the last few days (long story) and it was everywhere, you couldn’t get away from the crappy “music” or noise and light pollution. The commercialism was as bad as anywhere.
Back in Canada (until I left in 2001), my biggest annoyance with “christmas” was the waste of time. Everything was closed – no stores, no libraries, no sports facilities, nothing. Unless you were involved “christmas” activities or going out into nature (at -30C? no thanks) you were a prisoner in your own home with nothing on TV. Remember, this is web 1.5 with no youtube and blogging was in its infancy.
Coming from an abusive family, the last thing I wanted pressure to associate with them while there was nowhere else to go. I actually enjoyed going to work as a security guard during the early 1990s because it meant I was getting out of the house, and getting paid double time.