Sometimes I'm really glad I don't have to stress about Christmas. It seems like a lot of work.
The Santa thing wouldn't be so stressful if some people weren't like don't ruin Santa for my 13-year-old kid lol. My husband actually ruined Santa for a kid in 6th grade! His parents were still lying about it and walking on the roof to prove he was real, that is like way extreme.
I feel really odd still celebrating Christmas when I don't actually consider myself a Christian anymore. This is probably the first year I can say I am done with believing in Jesus so it feels strange to still celebrate it.
I feel really odd still celebrating Christmas when I don't actually consider myself a Christian anymore. This is probably the first year I can say I am done with believing in Jesus so it feels strange to still celebrate it.
I'm not a Christian either. We celebrate the way its advertised on TV---presents, a gorgeous tree, friends and family gathering around some good food, and being thankful for what we have.
Well, tv ads don't show that last thing, but you get what I'm saying
Sometimes I'm really glad I don't have to stress about Christmas. It seems like a lot of work.
The Santa thing wouldn't be so stressful if some people weren't like don't ruin Santa for my 13-year-old kid lol. My husband actually ruined Santa for a kid in 6th grade! His parents were still lying about it and walking on the roof to prove he was real, that is like way extreme.
Um, I was talking about 6th grade.....
To be fair to my parents, they were all "Dude, santa isn't real!" And I was like, "Yes, he is!" They sat me down for a talk about it and I literally stuck my fingers in my ears.
The Santa thing wouldn't be so stressful if some people weren't like don't ruin Santa for my 13-year-old kid lol. My husband actually ruined Santa for a kid in 6th grade! His parents were still lying about it and walking on the roof to prove he was real, that is like way extreme.
Um, I was talking about 6th grade.....
To be fair to my parents, they were all "Dude, santa isn't real!" And I was like, "Yes, he is!" They sat me down for a talk about it and I literally stuck my fingers in my ears.
Um, I'm stubborn and fantasy prone.
LOL but at least your parents weren't pushing it, it was all you. This kid like cried at school and went home and told his parents and they still tried to tell him Santa was real. I don't care if a kid chooses to believe, but I think at a certain point parents should stop lying about it and let the kid decide what to believe.
My hospital has a strongly worded suggestion in their policies that people don't wear perfume. I do love many different smells of perfume but I know that a lot of people are super sensitive to them. I use yummy smelling lotions instead.
Scented lotions typically don't bother me at all, unless someone absolutely bathed in it.
Post by honeybee503 on Oct 23, 2014 14:54:41 GMT -5
I'm not religious and still celebrate Christmas. It used to irritate me to see those memes about the "reason for the season", but now I feel like if it bothers someone that much that I buy my friends and family gifts and put up a Christmas tree, they need to calm down.
I mean, it's not like we spend the day going out and drawing mustaches on pictures of baby Jesus. Relax.
I feel really odd still celebrating Christmas when I don't actually consider myself a Christian anymore. This is probably the first year I can say I am done with believing in Jesus so it feels strange to still celebrate it.
I'm a Christian, but I don't find this odd. Christmas is a very cultural holiday in the US. Culturally, it celebrates giving, family, fellowship, winter, etc.
I feel really odd still celebrating Christmas when I don't actually consider myself a Christian anymore. This is probably the first year I can say I am done with believing in Jesus so it feels strange to still celebrate it.
I was never a believer but I get it. I've thrown in the towel now that I have kids. E and I used to travel for every Christmas and pretend it didn't exist. I just cannot do that anymore. I would love to treat the day like any other bank holiday but it is hard to deny the kids the fun of it. We have managed to sneak in some charity though so I kind of okay with it all. Last year we had Dylan pick one thing off of his list to buy for charity. People told me that was a horrible thing to do to a kid but he really liked it and felt really good about it. We will do that again this year.
It is a strange time of year when you don't believe in it all.
That is a really neat idea. I need to remember that for when A is a bit older.
I think part of my problem is I want to believe, I just don't and can't anymore, and it just all reminds me of that and my past beliefs and I get sad lol. Why I get sad about not believing, I have no clue.
I don't even associate Christmas with religion any more. I've been an atheist for a long time and I still love Christmas. To me it's all about tradition and family memories I guess. Trees, crackers, gorging yourself on food, presents, clothes ...
I even go to mass usually on Christmas morning when I'm in Ireland. even though I have zero belief. It's a family tradition
I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I just got home from subbing for a music teacher--and she had me start working with the students on their songs for the Christmas program. While I was thinking, "It's not even Halloween yet," the thought popped into my head, "I've got to tell Trudy about this. She'd love it."
So yeah, I spent my day singing Christmas songs, and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow.
Also sometimes I think I'm deluding myself by thinking I "love Christmas" I mean I hate the stress of Christmas shopping, I dislike crowds, I have to fly 3000 miles with two kids then the baby probably just won't sleep for two weeks. Then I have to spend a lot of time with mil because she's coming too
But I MUST keep telling myself I love Christmas. Is the only way ... Lol
I feel really odd still celebrating Christmas when I don't actually consider myself a Christian anymore. This is probably the first year I can say I am done with believing in Jesus so it feels strange to still celebrate it.
I'm a Christian, but I don't find this odd. Christmas is a very cultural holiday in the US. Culturally, it celebrates giving, family, fellowship, winter, etc.
Maybe it's cultural to people who are not specifically none-Christians. To us jews it's very much about Christ.
I also don't like snow or trudging through slush for months or trying to strap children into car seats with frozen fingers...
I'm not a huge fan of hot summer days either though. Or rain
But sometimes I feel like it wouldn't matter where I lived, i would still complain about the weather. Like if I lived somewhere where it was always 75 and sunny i would be like "ugh this damn place, always the damn same. grumble grumble"
Post by DesertMoon on Oct 23, 2014 15:09:08 GMT -5
I recently admitted my atheism to myself and DH. I still fucking love christmas, and I still think Jesus sounds like a very good guy...I just don't believe. DH and I were just arguing about Vs baptism last night. My brother and his female cousin will be baptizing her, since my brother is kind of a dick, and pretty much an athiest DH was trying to tell me "no" your brother won't be baptizing her...so I said either we include him, or she won't be baptized. Idk I hate rituals. His brother baptized J and never comes to see him...he likes the dog better tHan my kid...
You all know I am a nut about maintaining the Santa myth for my kids. I LOVE santa.
We are agnostic /atheist and the majority of H's friends are Jewish. We always have a big "multi belief" kids party at our house where all the kids trim our tree and decorate cookies, we play dreidel and light the menorah, and friends of ours do a Diwali candle celebration.
I just have always explained to H that everyone believes different things and celebrate in different ways. Some people celebrate Christmas because they are celebrating the birth of a man called Jesus that they believe is like God (simplistic explanation obviously), while others - like us - celebrate it just as a holiday to show everyone we love them and care for them. We show our friends and family we love them by giving gifts and food and coming together. We show strangers we care about them by volunteering, donating , being cheerful, etc.
He has a few friends who have mixed Jewish/Christmas celebrating families so it's nice that he is really casual about how everyone celebrates in their own way. It's also nice because he knows that not everyone believes in/ celebrates Santa, but so far that hasn't made him question that Santa is real for our family.
We are indoctrinating E early. He is going on the Polar Express and meeting santa at about 4 functions this season, so he WILL BELIEVE. Lol
Post by thedahliharpa on Oct 23, 2014 15:50:44 GMT -5
H recently told me that the Santas at the malls and stuff are not the real Santa. We visit Santa at the D-land hotel each year so I explained that he is the real Santa and he's friends with Mickey and sleeps at the hotel when he's too tired to go back to the North Pole. Flame! Lol
She also told me that the characters in costumes are just people and they are not real. She does still think the princesses are real.
While I know Christmas (now) has some of its roots in Christianity, we were always taught that it was a strictly cultural holiday, and looking at the origin of a lot of the traditions, few of them are inherently Christian. While I know a lot of people celebrate it as a time to remember Christ's birth, for us, growing up, it was always just a fun holiday of giving and family.
katfco Random question - do churches who don't commemorate Christ's birth at Christmas commemorate it at another time? Or would it just be the theme of a random service in July one year and February another year?
Not the ones I've ever been to. The main reason is that no one knows when he was born, so I've always been taught it's inappropriate to make up a date. While I don't think it's inappropriate to use it as a time to remember his birth, I don't think it's necessary. In fact, a lot of preachers around Christmas will say something like, "This is a time when many people of the world choose to celebrate Christ's birth."
I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I just got home from subbing for a music teacher--and she had me start working with the students on their songs for the Christmas program. While I was thinking, "It's not even Halloween yet," the thought popped into my head, "I've got to tell Trudy about this. She'd love it."
So yeah, I spent my day singing Christmas songs, and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow.
When I was teaching band and choir I had a "no Christmas/seasonal songs until after Halloween" policy. It was more for me than for them, but yeah, if you don't want your performance to suck you have to start early.
I haven't read the rest of the thread, but I just got home from subbing for a music teacher--and she had me start working with the students on their songs for the Christmas program. While I was thinking, "It's not even Halloween yet," the thought popped into my head, "I've got to tell Trudy about this. She'd love it."
So yeah, I spent my day singing Christmas songs, and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow.
When I was teaching band and choir I had a "no Christmas/seasonal songs until after Halloween" policy. It was more for me than for them, but yeah, if you don't want your performance to suck you have to start early.
I'm not sure if she would have started right now or would have waited a week, because she had several options available, not knowing the skills and knowledge of her sub. I wasn't brave enough to have them break out the recorders, but I can certainly lead them in song.