Reader Jeanette writes;
As a non-practising Christian I have never displayed a nativity scene in my home, mostly out of principal and respect for those for whom the Christmas story is meaningful. I don’t believe in being a “Sunday Christian”, or even a “Christmas Christian”.
That was until recently, when I started to realize that in doing so I am silently condoning the demise of our Judeo-Christian culture. For me being a “secular Christian” is now a political statement against those liberal forces that are causing us to say “Happy Holidays” and Holiday tree” etc.
So this year I decided to add a Nativity scene to my Christmas decorations and I needed to go out and buy one. In previous years they have abounded at all the major retailers throughout the Christmas season and in the post Christmas sale period. To my shock there wasn’t a single nativity scene for sale at Walmart in Regina nor at Costco! I have yet to check out Zellers and Canadian Tire. Is that because they are sold out, or not bringing them in for sale?
Do I think it’s a conspiracy, No! But is it more evidence that the liberal movement to destroy our Christian culture? It could be. Perhaps this could be a discussion on SDA.
Merry Christmas Kate, and Happy New Year
Comments open for your feedback…
If Christians started boycotting these stores they would soon get the message. When people say Happy Holidays to me I tell them I don’t have any stinking holidays. When they wish Season Greeting, I ask them do they say the same in the fall season or summer season? Then I wish them a Merry Christmas.
By way of contrast, I live in La Paz Mexico after 60 years in Canada. My first Christmas here I was amazed at the number of nativity scenes here. Virtually every public building is decorated with lights along with large nativity scenes, many with life size figures and animals. Even the local prison has a scene in the front courtyard. Same with schools and stores. You can buy the small home size nativities here year round. A Mexican friend told me, “We might not go to church anymore, but they are still part of our culture”.
We’ve only been able to find nativity scenes in specialty house decor shops that are not “big box.” Jeanette might want to go truly “shopping,” or buy online.
I am intrigued by Jeanette’s opening statement, for I have never really considered respect as the motive for not displaying a Judeo-Christian Christmas sign of some sort, though it makes perfect sense. Why would someone who doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only begotten Son of God the Father, born of a virgin through immaculate conception, display a nativity scene? Why would someone who doesn’t believe the Bible display a Christian Christmas scene? It’s worth thinking about.
As for workers not being “allowed” to say “Merry Christmas,” or the lack of nativity scenes for purchase at big box stores, there is little doubt that Christ is being pushed out of the front and center view as the reason for the season. But the bigger question centers again around motive. Why is this the case? What motivates this shift? Similar to Jeanette’s personal story, is it corporate respect for views not their own? Or is it something more insidious or malicious, a concerted effort to force a neo-liberal PC or secular code onto what has been a markedly Christian celebration for centuries?
Personally, I think it’s more the latter; I think secularists have been pushing to exclude Christ for decades, if not for centuries. It’s natural for humans, if you believe the Biblical narrative of our history in relation to God.
Jeanette’s declared motive gives me pause for thought though. While there is a consistent, strong anti-Christ force always being applied around Christmas, not everyone and perhaps not every corp is as malicious in their intent as I might think.
Thanks for posting this message from Jeanette, Kate. Something to ponder over the weekend.
I haven’t really looked for one this year as I already have one, but there is a store in Saskatoon at the Centre Mall on 8th St. called Ten Thousand Villages, they have plenty of them in all sizes, all handcrafted in the Middle East, mostly the West Bank..The items are stamped with place of origin on the tag….On another note, I attended my daughter’s public school “holiday program” and not one song included reference to Christmas, unless you include “Rudolph, the RNR” and at the end, the principal took great pains not to say “Merry Christmas”
I once made a conscious decision to not buy from stores that had no mention of Christmas. That is becoming harder to do as the years go by. When I do buy from such a story and an employee gives me the “happy holidays” treatment I simply say something like “No thanks for that – if you can’t wish me a MERRY CHRISTMAS, don’t say anything at all”.
If we all said something like “Season’s Greetings??? Well, we got a problem here, because you see, I am CHRISTMAS shopping. So I had better have a refund for all of this merchandise.” If enough people did that, the idiocy would end soon enough.
What does Odin in a red suit have to do with the birth of Christ? Or a tree? Or a yule log?
Dec 25 was a date chosen by Papal decree, because it coincided with various popular pagan winter solstice festivals.
I like Christ, but Christmas is nothing but a pagan/consumerist debauch. A festival honouring “St Gimme”, with insipid jingles guilt-ing you into spending more on people you don’t particularly like. There’s little if any room in that frightful mess for the Prince of Peace…it’s just as well as he probably doesn’t appreciate having his name besmirched.
Jeannette, I’m in Regina too, and I collect nativity scenes . . . I have one that came from Walmart a few years ago, and a new Playmobile one from Helping Hands, next to Book and Briar on Albert. My favorite came from Blessings, but it is gone now. You might try Burns-Hanley, which is a Catholic church supply shop on 13th. The nicest, for my money, are Fontanini ones, and those you can get online . . . beautiful and collectible — I think you can build an entire Bethlehem, probably more fully populated than the original Bethlehem. For various multi-culti versions, Ten Thousand Villages is a pretty good source — I have a couple from there in addition to the ones my mother has brought me from South America.
It never ceases to amaze me how the season brings out the exact opposite that it professes to promote. Wishing someone a happy holiday does not remove christmas from the greeting, it merely opens the doors to others who may have a different celebration at this time of year (chanukay, kwanza, or mereley a secular celebration of friends, family and time off from work)
I also enjoy the shot at the public schools that do not have any reference to christmas in their holiday concert. My daughter attends a school where last year every winter holiday received a reference of some kind in the program and it was both fulfilling for those who didn’t celebrate christmas as well as educaitonal for those who did.
As for the nativity scenes that started the whole thing off, the large stores sold out of these months ago. Costco had them on their floor in september and october and many other places have already sold out of their stock.
Perhaps we need to look a bit at the bigger picture rather than rail against “they are taking christmas away from me”
Our Costco was selling nativity scenes as of a week or so ago. A very nice one actually, for about $100
Check their website, it may have one as well.
“I like Christ, but Christmas is nothing but a pagan/consumerist debauch.”
Perhaps to you.
But to millions, it is, at the very least, a reminder that a full stomach and exhausted genitals are not the only things worthy of consideration.
Jeannette,
I used to work at Burns-Hanley in Regina (many years ago). They should still carry a very nice collection of Italian-made nativity scenes. It’s funny, because I bought a nativity scene at Walmart a couple years back and was pretty excited that they were carrying such nice ones (for Walmart, anyway).
I got my first and only e-Christmas card of the year the other day. It was a very nice card that wished me a “Merry Christmas” not “Happy Holidays” or other generic sentiments. What made it even nicer is that it came from a Muslim gentleman that I used to work with. He’s a wonderful man with a wonderful family and seems to have no problem recognizing a Christian holiday. Why is it then, that we do???
As an outsider (atheist) it seems to me that it is PC christians that are doing the most dammage to christmas.
I once heard someone say that “merry christmas & happy new year” is backwards. The explaination being that happyness came from within and merryness came from others.
So from a non-believer who enjoys christmas
!!!!!MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Tired,
isn’t consdieration for someone else’s beliefs a wonderful thing. I wonder how you would have felt if your jewish friend had sent you a happy chanukah card? Did you happen to send your moslem friend good wishes for an easy fast on Ramadan?
just throwing that out there for thought
I finally drove From Kelowna to richmond b.c. over the mtns to buy a nativity scene. We don’t have to do refunds etc. We do need to tell the managers of these stores to smarten up and live up to the wishes to the vast majority of Canadians. With pride and determination tell these Jesus neutral people…Merry Christmas
The true and only legacy of Christmas is the birth of baby Jesus.
Getting sick of Christmas being replaced with “holiday” at my workplace. It is actually offensive to me when people twist themselves into pretzels to avoid saying the word Christmas.
Edward- That’ all true, but…
Jeanette’s feelings are very close to mine. I just feel I’ve been forced to choose between us and them. I haven’t been a practising Christian for decades, but I won’t hesitate to stand up for Christian values. I realize that Christmas is not a time of true Christian values, but it’s still a symbol that needs to be protected.
Two years ago there was an incident in my hometown that really hardened my resolve. A local businessman said Merry Christmas to a young boy who happened to be muslim. The boy’s father came back to the store and tried to hit the man with a shovel. This sort of thing isn’t tolerated in my town. If they get away with it once, we’ll end up cowering like people in Toronto every time someone complains about his culture being ignored.
There is a “Ten Thousand Villages” in Regina in the Southeast end. West Landing Mall at Quance and University Pk Dr.
This year, coincident with this thread, I have taken to saying “Merry Christmas”. It is a part of who I was growing up.
The reason for pushing the Bible/Christianity out of Western Culture is far more insidious and deeper than most people think. I am not religious, do not attend church, and I am vicious in my defence of the Christian religion because it is the foundation of our civilization. It is where true equality comes from, where the basis for treating women with respect comes from, it created the Magna Carta, our legal system, our constitutions, and basically our entire civilization. If the Bible/Christianity did not exist, we would need to invent something else that is based in absolutes to keep us from going of the path of reality and eventually snuffing ourselves out. This is usually what happens to societies that don’t recognize absolutes.
The Bible is based in absolutes, whereas Humanism (the religion of Socialism – Man’s “spirit” is god, which has allowed Socialist governments to murder over 100 million people in the past 90 years), is based firmly in relativity. The Bible is written in black and white. This all changed when Hegel identified the dialectic, and created the “relative truth.” Marx then went further and noted that there ARE absolutes, but, if he turned Hegel’s dialectic “upside down,” he could create arguments that would target and destroy those absolutes, and hence, he figured that through evolution, he could then create a form of man that would actually become gods themselves.
This is why there is such a battle over evolution vs. intelligent design. It is based purely on philosophy.
According to the theory of evolution, what was true yesterday is no longer true today… and therefore, what is true today is not necessarily true tomorrow. This is THE basis for all of the sick social engineering programs that the lefties endorse. They believe that they can force an evolutionary direction upon mankind (via totalitarianism) in which he will lose all of his negative trappings. (And who decides which is negative and which isn’t, eh?). This is pure relativism. The truth can be whatever one wishes it to be, and since it is relative, who is to say that your truth is any better than my truth?
The Bible, on the other hand, is the EXACT anti-thesis, and cannot even exist in the same space as relativism. God is the Truth (It is the ONLY thing that he definitively describes himself as – the absolute truth). God/Absolute Truth exists even if we don’t understand it. It is the beginning and the end. It is what it is – completely separate from humans and out of human control. The Absolute Truth was here before us, and it will be here after us. Therefore, mankind has to work WITHIN the bounds of these absolutes, and the first step is accepting that such absolutes exist.
The two philosophies are eachother’s anti-thesis, and cannot possible co-exist.
Take away the Bible, and you take away Western Civilization – something which the leftist camp despises and attacks daily. The constitution disappears, the legal system disappears, the Magna Carta disappears, the educational system becomes a tool to “evolve” humans towards a Utopian society that is decided by (whose truth? – certainly not mine).
Of course, anyone with half a brain realizes that there are BOTH kinds of truths all around us – BUT, if you have that half a brain, you will also realize that the Absolute Truth MUST lead the Relative Truth. It just must.
The idea of Socialism is to replace Christianity (Absolutism) with a religion of science (Humanism). And, they don’t want to use science that is based in absolutes either, like mathematics. Rather, they wish to make “soft science” to become the new religion, and make psychologists and sociologists into the new priests that teach us to worship and sacrifice for “the human spirit.” Of course psychology and sociology are such wishy washy “sciences” that they can be manipulated in any direction one wishes. Note how many of our social programs are based on the false assumptions of these “sciences.” It is just a new religion, and a very sinister one at that.
I don’t attend church, but I 100% support Christianity over this new sick and dangerous philosophy the left is constantly shoving down our throats.
To “Edward Teach”
As a devout Christian, I cannot agree with your position pouring cold water on the joyful celebration of Christmas. If God Himself saw fit to mark the birth of Christ with spectacular lighting and the hearty singing of celebrating angels, why shouldn’t all of us share in the festivities?
I recognize that even many Christians have become embarrassed to proclaim an unabashed appreciation for this holiday. Goodness knows, among evangelicals I see enough so called Christmas pageants that actually ignore the incarnation in favor of the ressurection, and are much better suited, in their seriousness, for Good Friday or Easter. And certainly, the secular (and religious) marketing machines have done their bit to obfuscate the real meaning of the holiday and make cynics of us all.
But I propose that the answer is not to abandon the feast to the secular, commercial world and its excesses, but to reclaim Christmas by embracing the feast, with all its decorations. Who better to celebrate Christmas than those who take the name of Christ?
Does it matter that the decorations come from and reflect a world wide selection of cultures? No. I do not believe that trees,and candles, and playful tributes to Santa Claus have the power to diminish the truth of Christmas. The proclamation of the angels was not only to believers, but “Joy to the World”. Let the people of the world’s cultures enjoy the light of this miracle at least for one day in the year. And as Christians, let’s not restrict that light to solemn spiritual observances, (though this truth does inspire awe!) but recognize that God’s insertion of Himself into the sphere of our often sad existence signals hope and redemption for every aspect of human experience, the material and the simple as well as the spiritually profound. Relationships, families, music, songs, precious gifts, tables laden for the feast, are suitably brought into service for the acknowledgment of the One born to be King over all.
As believers, we claim a personal understanding of the meaning of this incarnation. So then, it is time for Christians to reclaim Christmas, by celebrating it, with all its trimmings, more than anyone else.
The bible is the set of absolute rules that included the keeping of slaves and the abhorant treatment of women.
wait.. the absolute following of a religious tract.. sounds a lot like what everyone rails against in some of those countries ‘over there’
I’m not a Christian. I lean strongly towards Judaism, to be honest. That being said, the sign up in my store window denoting my holiday hours wishes my customers “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year”. Anyone fragile enough that they can’t handle being wished a Merry Christmas is probably so much of a pussy that I’m better off not having them as a customer.
Sean,
Just to text the axiom. Will you be putting up Merry ramamdan sign? or a happy Rosh Hashana sign anytime this year?
Sean,
Just to text the axiom. Will you be putting up Merry ramamdan sign? or a happy Rosh Hashana sign anytime this year?
I would be interested to see the reaction of your customers to those signs. Would you be refering to those customers as pussies who were offended by those?
well I haven’t checked out if my local COSCTO has any nativity scenes, but they were sold out of those fabulous little meatballs that we inhale over the Christmas season.
How can you feel likes it Christmas without COSTCO meatballs.
Maybe I’ll have to buy a tray of those little lamb chops, the ones already seasoned and covered in a rosemary sprig and fire up the BBQ.
I know, lamb is for Easter, but when you can’t get the meatballs . . . .
The latest Tim Horton’s commercial is all about getting Tim Horton’s cups for “the holidays”.
“Look what I got for the holidays”. How stupid – why do they think we have “this day that we all buy gifts for one another and celebrate with family and stock our stores to the rafters right after labour day so that we can make a profit”…..it’s called Christmas – if we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t do any of the above.
Albera girl,
are the stores the stupid ones or are the consumers.
Just out of curiousity, does the amount of money the average chritian spends on celebrating the Christmas come anywhere near the amount of money they spend on celebrating Christ?
We should imprison anyone who refuses to say Merry Christmas.
Marx would be proud. Sure, rather than getting there by revolution, it’s being accomplished by slow devolution,
but he sure would be pleased with the results.
Today’s “progressive” left – destroying our judeo-christian based society, one intolerant human rights complaint at a time.
My culture includes Christianity. Its funny how the “tolerant” can accept everything but.
And actor from 10:25, have you read those rules? While being a historical account as well as spiritual guidance, the bible “rules” as you call them tell it’s adherants to release their “slaves” from their duties in the jubilee year. This is very unlike any definition of slavery that we commonly use today and far different from what was practiced by the secular world at the time.
Jeanette, at the risk of seeming like a poopy head, why would you -buy- a Nativity Scene? You want to drive a nail into Mammon’s forehead, make one.
Real Christian culture is inconvenient at times.
“The bible is the set of absolute rules that included the keeping of slaves and the abhorant treatment of women.”
Actor, please try to understand things before you post comments that only show how ignorant you are.
The ancient world’s system of slavery, and its abhorrent treatment of women existed long before the Christianity spread the Bible around the world.
The elevation of women, and the fact that slavery has ceased to exist in most parts of this world is directily attributable to the influence of the Bible, and the efforts of those who believe in it – nothing else.
You will notice, if you care to look, that the places on our planet where slavery still thrives, and where women are most horribly oppressed are exactly the places where the Bible, Christianity, (and Judaism) are the least tolerated.
Feel free to continue fantasizing about what what the society you live in would be like without the Bible. But pray you will never actually have to live in such a world.
As a misserable old SOB I take great joy in reminding people who say Happy Holidays that “you mean Merry Christmas,don’t you”. I also enjoy e-mailing companies to let them know. I just contacted Slingbox to tell them I was considering a slingbox for my son for Christmas but their offensive ad AGAINST even saying Merry Christmas turned me off. And I let store managers/salemen know that I am looking for Christmas gifts but they only seem to sell holiday gifts and I don’t need those.
For those who want to make it secular I would remind you that the Christmas season is to celebrate the birth of Christ so if you don’t want to recognize that then don’t. But also don’t forget to forgo the other trappings of Christmas-the Christmas bonus, the added days off etc.
Incidently, I remember writing an essay about putting Christ back into Christmas-when I was in school 55 years ago.
Horny Toad
Sam at 10:20, very well spoken. actor of all trades: Islam recognizes Jesus Christ as a prophet as well.
Actor of all trades, you claim the Bible promotes the “abhorant treatment of women”.
So the passage that commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, is promoting women to be treated abhorently?
BTW Christ loved the church so much he gave up his life for it is some pretty serious love.
The truth is, western society was built on Christian morales and values. The fact that people can hate on Christians and get away with it is a Christian value.
What other countries in this world have the degree of freedoms we enjoy in Canada and the US that where built on Islam or communism or any other religion?
Tolerance is the new greatest virtue, but dont tolerate Christians.
Leave man to himself and his own ideas of right and wrong and soon there is nothing left.
To Sam:
With all appreciation for your staunch defence of Christianity, proposing the Bible and Christianity as some sort of abstract philosophy, or code of behaviour is totally missing the point of the entire scriptural teaching.
The power of Bible and Christianity that changed Western Civilization, is not only that it gives ideas of how men should live, but in the solution it provides to transform men so that they can live them. It is not enough to have an absolute truth as an impersonal foundation for society; it is necessary that that Truth becomes the foundation on which our own personal lives are founded. The Absolute truth that we need to know, and accept, is the God so loved the World, that He gave His only Son, so that we might believe, and find life in Him.
Conceiving Christianity as just the leading contender among several competing philosophies, diminishes it. Contrary to the position of philosophers, politicians and potentates, the world is not saved by great ideas, and grand schemes and idealistic movements, (which history shows more often than not support tyranny) but by the transformation of individual men and women, who live as citizens of heaven while on earth. That, despite all its visible flaws, is the Church, both universal, and local. And it is the Church, when all the great systems and powers and governments of this world have fallen into dust, that will emerge victorious at the end.
Meanwhile, at my child’s “holiday of lights” concert where one of the first lines was: “Not everybody celebrates Christmas at this time of year, you know!” (not a word of a lie)
which was then followed by a long procession of various cultural winter celebrations,
leading one to think that NO ONE celebrated christmas this time of year.
The majority culture may offend a few various minorities after all, so they simply did away with the majority culture altogether.
Oh, but we did manage to celebrate KWANSA. Oh how that brought back fond childhood memories of sitting around the dinner table this time of year reciting Louis Farrakan and Malcom X as we gazed upon our paper mache scene depicting our pent up anger and resentment towards the repressive dominant “white” culture.
peter o’keefe
“But to millions, it is, at the very least, a reminder that a full stomach and exhausted genitals are not the only things worthy of consideration.”
ROFLMAO. Great comment. 😀
You’re too late to get them at Costco. The Costco in Ottawa had some in October & early November, but most of the good/popular Christmas items sell out before December. Canadian tire had them as well, Walmart also, haven’t looked for them in the last month though.
The same cycle repeats for most of the other major holidays. In this case, don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by market forces.
What would change a lot of this “change” in attitude toward Christmas?
If there were to occur a serious, ground-swell move to remove Christmas as a national holiday in the US, so that EVERYONE in the private AND public sectors had to work on December 25th (or the weekday of celebration if December 25th falls on a weekend) the change in presented attitude would take a dramatic shift. I don’t mean their real attitude, but their presented attitude.
Hypocrisy would be rampant.
Also, the retailers would be screaming “Merry Christmas” at the top of their lungs!
I had occasion in November to visit Chicago for a conference with a non-religious theme. I was surprised at the amount of references to God by the various speakers and the frequent invocation of prayer.
Christianity has indeed been all but expunged in Canada. Like the Walmart shopper I too have found myself festooning my home with decorations and my door with a Merry Christmas. Perhaps it is the tempestuous times or perhaps, finding grace in the simplest of things.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Even to those who bear ill-will towards us.
Well put Sam.
All: If you wish to frame this in the context of a culture war, then that’s a different matter.
It is obvious that Western culture and civilization, which is based on the tenets of Christendom, is under attack, by marxist/socialists, secular humanists, and by the adherents of non-christian religions.
Note that I say “Christendom” and not “Christianity” to make an important point: That the the Churches have deviated from Biblical Christianity substantially. In fact most “Christians” (even those who attend Church regularly) today display a woeful ignorance of the contents of their own holy book.
Therein is one of the root causes of the current clash of cultures. The Churches themselves have been grossly reprehensible. They have allowed themselves to become kingmakers and power brokers when their primary focus should have been spiritual instruction and enlightenment. This failure has actually contributed to the attack on Western civilization as it has given the marxist/humanist/non-christian hordes much ammunition to use in their efforts to bring down Western culture.
The Costco here in Kelowna had beautiful nativity scenes for sale last week, maybe the Regina store was sold out, or the city is less Christian than Kelowna. 😉
Sounds to me like someone was a little late doing their shopping. Retailers are interested in one thing: Profit. If there’s a demand for a product, they stock it. If demand increases, they stock more. If demand decreases, they stock less. It’s quite simple, and doesn’t involve conspiracy theories at all.
Phantom asks: “… at the risk of seeming like a poopy head, why would you -buy- a Nativity Scene?”
Answer: To remind myself of how lucky I am to have been born into a 20th century Christian country, and that there is a source for my values and beliefs.
Some of the best reading on the topic of Christian culture is the Hinges of History series by Thomas Cahill, especially the books “Gifts of the Jews” and “Desire of the Everlasting Hills” One of these books would make a great Christmas present to someone who thinks about these things.
website link: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/cahill/
I was shopping at the Costco in Sudbury, Ontario
yesterday. They had Nativity scenes on sale there.
Say whatever you want. None of it bothers me.
I do scratch my head at stores and institutions that see fit to omit references to Christmas so as to avoid offending those with other beliefs, and then post messages during Ramadan (for example) to show inclusiveness.
It’s Christmas. If Christmas is offensive to anyone – too bad, that’s their problem. I know it’s not “officially” a Christian country, but Canada is Christian (in the small C cultural sense) despite that some Canadians are not Christian the same way Canada has two official languages despite that some Canadians do not speak either. We have an identity and we have a value system that is pretty inclusive. It’s a great place, and if you want to come here or live here you should expect to reasonably adapt to us if there are conflicting differences, not us to you. Otherwise – why come, if it’s so great the way you do it where you came from?