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…
Rona had some for sale hee in N. Vancouver
How did the grinch steal christmas? (chi-roh, XP, nice to know that)
Real evergreen trees are pushing plastic to the curb–yahoooo..
At the library they have a giant table filled with Christmas related books.
Through town there’s some foldout stringers with “Happy Holidays” flung across the street. I’m considering taking out the bbgun and having some fun, before XP.
just doin my part
Hey, reg, go for it!
Like anything else in life, you get out of Christmas what you give.
Sure the Church replaced the Saturnalia & other Pagan holidays with one of their own. So what? Its original intent in all these festivals was the end of the dark period, with a festival of light.
In this none Christian era this holiday has become a commercial secular enterprise for sales by business.
But hey, we as individuals don’t have to follow the program if not desired.
You don’t have to be a Christian to appreciate the desire for peace & good will between men of all stripes. As the Great falling away continues, so will the emphasis on Jesus by the none Religious.
Personally by being kind, showing patience & giving gifts with love, is what God desires any way. Not an empty shell where people are forced by convention to celebrate. Hate having to shell out cash with all the rest. It was meant to be a family day of Thanks to God for the best gift of all . His Son being born to die for our sins. Than proving it by rising from the dead. Death where is thy sting? That’s Christmas to me.
For us Christians, as well those not believers this should be a time of joy, not bitching. Hoping for real peace plus practicing those virtues that make human life bearable.
After all. In Roman times we where the minority don‘t forget. Christmas is just not about belief but an attitude. One we should all cultivate. The mind-set of just enjoying the company of people in celebration with honest cheerfulness.
By the way I am a convinced Christian who trusts the bible as true. I just don’t get a lot of chances to go to a good Church. Most you see have locked doors. For us who work weekends or nights, the Church is empty.
JMO
Merry Christmas all
I was pretty miserable with the Salvation Army last year. They began using the term Happy Holidays whenever you dropped change in their bucket. I send a check to them each year and last I told them if they can’t wish me a Merry Christmas they would not get anymore checks from me. Imagine a Christian organization not acknowledging the Christmas greeting.
Things have changed this year, at every bucket that I throw coins in I wait and sure enough it is Merry Christmas. They got another check this year.
Irwin Daisy 6:51 You have not followed the teachings of the Prince of Peace but seem to be following the intolerance of the Popes of the Western Roman Empire whose short sighted thirst for absolute power, lust and wealth lost the Eastern (Byzantine) Christian Empire. Oh what a different world it would be.
Baby Jesus us Soooooo Happy that you are ensuring that the Islamofascinazihomocommielibranenvirofeminigrinches are not winning their war to prevent all of you Conservative God-fearing Christians from celebrating your holiday. I am sure there is a place in heaven just for you!
There is no way that they can stamp out Christmas. It’s in the very souls of Christians throughout the world, and is passed from one generation to another. Whether we practice Christianity or not it is the root of our being.
One year we all decided to make our Christmas gifts. Since I have such a large extended family I started in January, it was the best and most enjoyable Christmas we had. If stores are hell bent on turning Christians away by their politically correct nonsense we will return to our roots, but give up our traditions and beliefs – fat chance.
As for Santa Claus, it is a fine addition to the season. Children learn at an early age that we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus, and Santa Claus – St. Nicholas – just gives them some excitement and anticipation. I watch my own children play this game with theirs and I smile to myself how my parents kept this belief going with my generation.. It is kind of sad when this childhood wonderment is lost as they age.
Christmas will be around longer than any of us. So once again have a Merry Christmas and don’t forget a prayer for our men and women in uniform.
I was in a store the other day, and I could tell that that idiot clerk didn’t know just from looking at me that I am the sort of lunatic who is totally onto her plot to ruin Christmas. So, when she wished me her pathetic “Happy Holidays,” why, I did just what Jesus would do – I refused to show her one iota of love, forgiveness or understanding. That should teach her a thing or two about how to treat a Christian.
I am actually surprised that nativity scenes are commonly sold. How many do people need? Isn’t one good for a lifetime. In my case, I am looking forward to my mother giving me the one my grandma made. In my case, one is good for three lifetimes: and no-one ever purchased it.
Sam @ December 13, 2008 10:20 AM: thank you very much for your vigorous defence of Christianity—and you’re not even a Christian! But you “get” what Christianity means to our culture, indeed to the very IDEA of civilization.
Believe me—I know you do!—the fact that the West has decided to deep six its Christian soul—I believe the EU deliberately left out any reference to God in the preamble of its constitution—has coarsened our societies considerably. In nearly four decades in public schools, I’ve had a front row seat from which to view the precipitous decline in morals and manners. Many parents no longer bother to teach manners and our schools are bursting at the seams with uncouth little—and not so little—pagans! Such people, who have a very high regard for themselves and very little for others, are not very nice to be around: and neither are their parents or the equally secular administrators—how about our judges as well?—who have no understanding that true justice includes providing meaningful consequences, not just making nice. (Manners were much more prevalent when more families attended church. “JOY” was taught: Jesus first, Others second, Yourself third. Such a mindset really did make a difference in people’s behaviour.)
As I’ve also pointed out many times before, it is religious folks—in the West, overwhelmingly Christians—who give much more generously of their time, talent, and treasure than their secularly minded fellow citizens. Check out the free Christmas dinners and gift giving being provided for the down and out in warm places this Christmas—or many other days of the week. Who are the people providing them? The overwhelming majority of them are Christians. (And, as batb has pointed out, as these folks become fewer and fewer, they’re becoming burned out. So, are replacements coming forward from the unchurched sector of our population? NO.)
I am fully convinced that pushing Christ and Christianity out of Christmas—out of the public square of our society altogether—is the deliberate goal of secular humanists, who, generally, run our country—into the ground. A fine, quite short, book about the secularization of the West is “The Cube and the Cathedral” by George Weigel. Here, in Canada, look what Trudeau and his Charter have done to this country. Good Lord, deliver us.
And, to everyone at SDA (thanks, Kathen, for getting in touch and my sincere condolences on your loss) a very Merry Christmas!
Most religions are an ism of a prophet, oracle or a miracle worker. To be more up to date lets consider Nostradamusism or my favorite Cayceism or Santosism (Lucia of Fátima). Modern new religions with more recent written works. These births an deaths can be verified and the scripts for the new texts are available for publishing.
Merry Cayceism.
Even as an ex-Christian, it is still easy for me to recognize how society is minimizing it’s importance in the making and maturing of our country. It fits in with the slow erasure of Canada’s proud war history and the rest of the politically correct, anti-conservative reinvention of our past.
I must say that this year, opposed to the last few, I see no real shortage of the word Christmas being used commercially.
And I couldn’t help wonderering, when did people lose the ability or imagination to attain something if it wasn’t available as a ready-made kit in a store? Seems to me a homemade nativity scene, even for a novice, would be easy to achieve. Actually, you’d think it would be a labor of love for any serious christian. Or maybe, in today’s world, it just wouldn’t look ‘expensive’ enough when finished.
So…a person named Jeanette at an unspecified location claims that her Costco (not identified) isn’t carrying nativity scenes for sale at the moment she wanted to buy one. She did not ask whether they are out of stock, waiting for more inventory, or simply restocking the shelves.
And this is evidence of the war on Christmas.
You guys are funny.
“Irwin Daisy 6:51 You have not followed the teachings of the Prince of Peace but seem to be following the intolerance of the Popes of the Western Roman Empire whose short sighted thirst for absolute power, lust and wealth lost the Eastern (Byzantine) Christian Empire. Oh what a different world it would be.” – uuess
So, not accepting the spurious, insulting and arrogant Islamic definition of Christ is intolerant? Oh, dear me. How can I ever reconcile this sin?
And it certainly wasn’t the lust of Popes (though I wouldn’t defend them) who lost the Eastern Byzantine. It was the wanton lust made holy writ of Mohammad and his Mohammadans that stole through bloody conquest what was not theirs.
However, what does that have to do with my post?
Rather, it appears you’re following the high druidic teachings of Rowan Atkinson.
Merry Solstice.
Oops. I meant Rowan Williams. Though Mr. Bean might be more fitting.
All I want to know is why people who deny Christmas (in all your myriad ways) feel entitled to 2 days off with pay??? Does it ever cross your pointy little minds…there’s a reason for the season?
Take the days off, but be honest enough to refuse the pay. Or get your own holiday; call it Heathen and Jihadi Day.
Polly,
that is exactly what I used to do when I worked in an industry that operated on Christmas Day. I would work the 24th, 25th, and 26th letting those people who celebrated christmas be with their family and I would take those Holiday days when my observances were.
Where I currently work if i want to take the two days for the observance of important cultural days (i.e. jewish new year) I have to either take a day without pay, or use a day out of my holiday bank.
Given the choice, I’d be glad to work it, but don’t have that choice.
And another thing!
If someone wishes you “Happy Holidays” or other nonsense, you can always say “no, honey…Merry Christmas”. Most of the young people working in stores will remember what Christmas meant to them as a child.
We don’t need to be angry; just smile and remind people that it’s Christmas, not some season. (we all know it’s bloody winter today)
balbulican (whoo, sounds a little like that name for you-know-who): “And this [not being able to locate a nativity scene at Costco or Wal-Mart] is evidence of the war on Christmas?”
I don’t see that Jeanette has said that it’s a war on Christams. She’s wondering out loud about Christmas in our culture and asks if there might be a discussion about it at SDA.
‘Looks like she has a point! And I’m grateful that she opened the discussion.
Nice thought Actor. Did you refuse the time and a half?
Actually Polly, I took a day for a day.
worked the 25th, got a day
Worked the 26th, got a day.
that is the law of the land, couldn’t change it if i wanted to
Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to everyone.
That said, What were the basis of Judeo-Christian beliefs? The Greeks and Romans, the pagan tribes of the middle east. Maybe you should all be pissed off that nobody says, ” Merry Solstice”.
Christianity is in no way responsible for democracy, human rights or equality. The church tried to quash any of this for centuries. People are responsible for these outcomes by battling for them against the church and others.
Happy Holidays !
I should also mention that I was at Dutch Growers on Pasqua south of Regina Avenue yesterday to pick up my Christmas tree, and I saw lovely nativity scenes, quite a nice selection, all 50% off. They are closed on Sundays, but I believe the sale runs all week.
Quimby must have gone to a Canadian school in the past 25 years. ‘Doesn’t know his/her history.
Unfortunate wretch.
D’accord, batb!
Bloblobican said: “And this is evidence of the war on Christmas. You guys are funny.”
Blob, you have problems with reading comprehension don’t you?
I have never met a newcomer that had an objection to Merry Christmas. Usually they smiled and replied Merry Christmas. One seemed a little upset I did not know the Indian equivalent but he was a professor so I don’t count him.
What I did witness was an unholy fear of the utterance in the civil service. One day I said s
“Screw PC and Merry Christmas”.Everyone replied and usually with a comment that they thought it was nuts.
Well batb, please enlighten me to the rightard revisionist history.
Quimby: “Well batb, please enlighten me to the rightard revisionist history.”
Duly noted.
Do your own research.
“please enlighten me”, Quimby it is impossible to enlighten a darkened mind such as yours. Any attempt on my part to enlighten you would be like mud wrestling a pig. Despite all the squealing I would just get dirty and you the pig would enjoy the mud.
So, what your really saying is that you don’t know, and are content to spew your bile on this “blog” regardless of any proof, facts or intellect ?
Gotcha!
Quimby, for enlightenment, try reading “The Cube and the Cathedral” by George Wiegel.
About this book Niall Ferguson writes, “George Weigel’s impassioned essay on the strange death of European Christianity and its impact on international politics is at once an elegy and a warning—an elegy for a venerable culture that is being effaced by a vacuous secularism, and a warning to [North] Americans that their assumptions about a shared ‘Western civilization’ are fast becoming obsolete on the Eastern side of the Atlantic.”
With apologies to Shakespeare, “There are more things in heaven and earth, [Quimby], than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.
Happy Holidays!
“So, what your really saying is that you don’t know, and are content to spew your bile on this “blog” regardless of any proof, facts or intellect ?”
Actually, no. Taxpayers have paid enough for your education.
Your mind is a sinkhole. It didn’t take. So, cut the losses.
(Or, irwin daisy, an even more upsetting thought: this person’s “education” took all too well. Remember the public school systems are very good at indoctrinating their charges with Gaia worship and intellectual pablum.
To use Niall Ferguson’s quote in the public school context: “a venerable [Christian] culture . . . is being effaced by a vacuous secularism, and . . . assumptions about a shared ‘Western civilization’ are fast becoming obsolete . . . ” So, actually, the vacuous secularism, not to mention the bad manners and sneering condescension that so often seem to accompany it, show, quite conclusively, that this person has been thoroughly propagandized. Thus, we might use the moniker, “Vichy Quimby”, a reference that person probably won’t get.)
Yo Quimby – What “Holidays” are you referring to?
“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.”
So basically if a store doesn’t sell something, than it’s part of a conspiracy to destroy said object.
Conservative logic at work.
John at 2:38
The attack on Christmas has little to do with what is sold, but rather the statements that the retail industry makes during the season. I worked for four years as a waitress in high school, and another four years as a sales rep in a clothing store (which will remain nameless) during university. In both of these places I was actually forbidden by head office to say Merry Christmas.
When I became a supervisor at the clothing store, I begged head office to allow me to put up signs celebrating all the major religions (and after taking a number of religious studies courses in university, I had a list of major holidays celebrated from late November to mid January) and was told that would be unacceptable because wishing people a happy whatever could offend someone who was not a part of whichever religion it was that was celebrating. Basically, if I accidentally offended someone with no faith by wishing them a good religious day, I was going to be in trouble. I did wish people Merry Christmas at every opportunity, and even though I was sorely reprimanded, I would do it again in a heartbeat, because I honestly wished people to have a happy Christmas, a lovely Hannaukah (or however its spelled), a wonderful Diwali or simply a great day.
If you dont believe that there is an attack on Christianity though, take a look at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_atheist_display.html
and note the comment “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
You cant spin that quote. Set next to a “Holiday Tree” and a nativity scene, this sign makes a point of attacking, and does not celebrate anything (a nativity scene celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ), include anyone (a menorah next to a nativity scene would include a symbol with direct meaning towards the Jewish people), or promote peace and kindness towards fellow men (the teachings of Islam). Rather, it attacks, excludes, and insults.
But then again, I’m Christian, so according to you, my conservative logic is all skewed. Maybe you can explain how I should take that quote about religion, assuming my simple little mind has gotten it all wrong.
as a non practicing christian, can anyone tell me what buying cheap chinese made crap for our kids has anything to do with – the birth of Christ? Yes I like traditions, and I’ll say Merry Christmas, but if someone doesn’t repy the same, especially some meaningless greeting from some employee or advertisement from some company that’s just trying to sell their crap to me – why would anyone care – it has no connection the chritian holy day at all – none
some of you need to get back to true meaning of christmas itself before you try to save it.
see linus’s speech from Charlie Brown’s Christmas – shown by all those evil mainstream secular tv stations