This holiday season, I have been looking for Jesus. And I don't just mean that spiritually, I have been physically searching for Jesus. It all began at the local Target. I was looking to by a roll of wrapping paper, and I noticed that there was not a single roll of paper that had anything remotely religious upon it. I'm talking- there was no "Joy to the World" there was no "Noel!" there was no "O Holy Night"... nothing! The closest I came was "Merry Christmas" which only appeared on two rolls during my entire multi-store search, and is, in itself, not really religious at all. What did I find instead? Well, there were a lot of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowmen, stockings, sleighs, and every other thing you could imagine which is associated with Christmas but which contains none of those nasty little reminders that a big fat man in a red suit is not actually the reason that Christmas is around.

And so here I lodge a protest. I understand, ye atheists, that you wish to take religion out of everything. That you wish you strip religion out of public places, events and consciousness. That you, content (though in an agitated, restless way)without a God yourself, wish to take God away from those who need Him. That you wish for "Merry Christmas", long an expression of joy in the depths of winter's darkness, long an expression of the common bonds of Mankind through a roughly 5 day span in the middle of December, and turn it into "Happy Holidays", an expression reminding all that religion is made to die before us, and that the holidays of all- the Jews, the Christians, everyone- must be stripped of their individual names so that they go unacknowledged and unappreciated. For calling the holidays by their names would inject religion into the Mall, and religion should have no place except in the derision of those who don't know why it exists.

But to all of this I cannot formally protest. For those who wish to remove religion from the hearts and minds of all who hold it dear, fine. You are working valiantly to that end. HOWEVER, what I do logde a complaint against is the fact that these very same people protest Christmas in another way. They are the same people who enjoy spending their time Raging against the Capitalist Machine. They say that Christmas is only a commercial venture, kept alive by stores and greeting card companies to make money- about only buying buying buying and nothing else.

Well, in case you haven't noticed... when you take the religion out of the holiday, when you take out the "good will toward men" (They didn't mention women, those patriarchal pigs!) THEN YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING LEFT IN CHRISTMAS BUT COMMERCIALISM.

You don't have anything left in Christmas besides people shoving each other out of the way to buy things at an over-crowded mall. You don't have anything besides angry shoppers putting themselves into debt and cursing their fellow man. You don't have anything besides the cold realization that there are those more fortunate than you, and that all of the Christmas songs on the radio are about romantic love, which not everyone has... (that's what Christmas is all about, being in love under a Christmas tree, isn't it?!) instead of being about the gift that God gave to the Earth (which EVERYONE gets to share in- young and old, poor and rich, the cold and destitute and the warm contented alike!)



That said, however, I had a great Christmas this year. Just had 4 years of So-Cal Christmas in my blood that I had to get out all at once.

hahaha...
You amuse me.
I totally agree. I've hated the vast majority of holidays for this reason. I'm not much for liars or fakers, and that's what Christmas, among other holidays, has become.
I wish you luck in your search for Jesus through Christmas in the future. For me, I'm just gonna come up with my own ways to celebrate. Start my OWN version of Christmas.
» elessar257 on 2007-01-03 02:09:36

a bit late,
but Hear, Hear! I make it a point of saying Merry Holidays to everyone to show how stupid the whole thing really is.
» TheArchive on 2007-01-03 04:01:56

Remember our attempt to incorporate every single major holiday into one giant poly-slash-a-theistic holiday?
What I don't like about Christmas is that everyone seems to think of Jesus before they think of me. Um, HELLO? I WAS BORN THIS DAY, TOO? Plus, I'm not dead. Let's celebrate ME!

All kidding (it is really kidding when you're quasi-serious?) aside, what people fail to get is the sense of community and humanity we're all supposed to feel during the holiday season, which transcends all sorts of religious barriers anyway. To quote the big J.T. (pun): "Where is the love?"
» ranor on 2007-01-03 05:13:10

Name.

URL.

[to enter your email, use "mailto:[email protected]"]
Subject.

Comment.

Word verification.

Copy the first 4 characters only.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.