Anyone else not doing Christmas this year?

[welsummerchicks]

No one is 'plain', actually, that's a 1930's movie idea, and nothing else. It has no merit. As far as kids, look, you change one diaper, and boom, it's yours, biology or not. That's just how we are. But sometimes the wish to nurture is fulfilled not by being a parent, but by helping families, and there are many ways to do that. Do things that make you feel good - get a new hair cut, buy new clothes, go to the gym for a fitness program, do something that makes you enjoy you. When you start to like you, amazing things happen.

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

My daughters and I decided last year to make things for presents. Everyone liked the homemade items !!! We made knitted hats, scarves, goat milk soap. etc.

 

[EweSheep]

Looks like alot of you are making homemade gifts.....that is so wonderful!

Remember back in the old days, they didnt have a toy store to buy toys for the kids or jewerly stores to buy their wives some rings and necklaces and men, the Sears store!

I remember my father and grandfather saying that their Christmases were at a limit, one present per child but can bake all the goodies that the family can shell out. If you had a big family, that was common place to see a scrawny tree decorated with glass and paper ornaments, popcorn with dried cranberries which after Xmas, they would either feed them to the birds OR use them as stuffing for their turkey. They do not waste anything LOL! I love hearing the stories of their Christmas, their most happiness and the most saddest (when their uncle died in WWII on the day the war was declared over and they knew that he was missing......).

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

My family (brothers, and all our kids ) don't do presents, But we rent the conference room of a hotel and we all get together eat and the kids get to swim in the pool. We've been doing this for more then 10yrs. It is alot of fun.

 

[guinea fowl galore]

My family aren't doing the Presents this year. Instead we will be putting the money that would usually be spent on gifts towards going on a holiday.
IMO experiences are much better then "things".

 

[Wifezilla]

I will not frequent a store that says Happy Holidays. After all, Jesus is the reason for the season

My dad was married to a Jewish woman for 15 years. A dear friend of mine is part japanese and a budhist. I have friends that are pagan, born again christian, and atheist. I say HAPPY HOLIDAYS because I am not so arrogant as to think that the traditions I was raised with are the only ones. I guess you will have to stay out of my store because even though we have products that do say merry christmas, we also have things that say happy holidays and : gasp : season's greetings!! The HORROR!

P.S. According to biblical scholars, Jesus was either born in spring (that is when shepherds would have been in the fields tending their flocks, or calculated by dates mentioned, sometime in September. They do agree however, that he wasn't born in December.

"The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast. Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood. December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god. It was observed near the winter solstice.

The apostles in the Bible predicted that some Christians would adopt pagan beliefs to enable them to make their religion more palatable to the pagans around them. Therefore, some scholars think the church chose the date of this pagan celebration to interest them in Christianity. The pagans were already used to celebrating on this date.

The Bible itself tells us that December 25 is an unlikely date for His birth. Palestine is very cold in December. It was much too cold to ask everyone to travel to the city of their fathers to register for taxes. Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12). Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time. They are in the fields early in March until early October. This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall. It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.

Other evidence that December 25 is the wrong date for the birth of Jesus comes from early writings. Iranaeus, born about a century after Jesus, notes that Jesus was born in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus. Since Augustus began his reign in the autumn of 43 B.C., this appears to substantiate the birth of Jesus as the autumn of 2 B.C. Eusebius (A.D. 264-340), the "Father of Church History," ascribes it to the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus and the 28th from the subjection of Egypt on the death of Anthony and Cleopatra. The 42nd year of Augustus ran from the autumn of 2 B.C. to the autumn of 1 B.C. The subjugation of Egypt into the Roman Empire occurred in the autumn of 30 B.C. The 28th year extended from the autumn of 3 B.C. to the autumn of 2 B.C. The only date that would meet both of these constraints would be the autumn of 2 B.C."
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/was-jesus-born-on-december-25-faq.htm

PAGANS are the reason for the season

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

ONLY since Halo is my friend am I even commenting here.....

As a devout Christian, we will be celebrating Christmas. I refuse to let the commercialization of the holiday detract from teaching my children the real meaning of the Christmas season. However, I totally agree that Christmas has been exploited, been politicized, and compared to my childhood is not at all what it used to be.

I am currently (but hopefully not for much longer) unemployed, so gift giving will be somewhat limited this year and the children know it up front.

However, we have just finished loading, with the help of our church members, 107 boxes (all the same size) with misc small gifts in them, for the children of Andros Island. A forgotten island in the Bahamas that was ravaged by Hurricane Andrew some 20+ yrs ago. A member of our church (along with 3 others) are taking a small Cessna plane down there today to deliver gifts to children that have NEVER HAD CHRISTMAS GIFTS OF ANY KIND and to spread the love of Jesus Christ to them and their families.

In spite of my current situation we consider ourselves to be tremendously blessed. I will greet people this holiday season with "Merry Christmas" and I will certainly not be offended when I am greeted with "Happy Hannukah", "Merry Zwanza", "Happy Holidays", etc, etc

I believe that gifts are completely "secondary" in this season. Family, friends, a counting of our blessings (and we ALL have many if we think about it), the country in which we live (albeit in need of repair, I can't think of anywhere else I'd go), our joint love for chickens, etc, etc, etc is something we can all CELEBRATE this year.

"Count you blessings....name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done"

Merry Christmas from me and my family....be blessed and enjoy your holiday season in the manner you chose to celebrate it

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
My dad was married to a Jewish woman for 15 years. A dear friend of mine is part japanese and a budhist. I have friends that are pagan, born again christian, and atheist. I say HAPPY HOLIDAYS because I am not so arrogant as to think that the traditions I was raised with are the only ones. I guess you will have to stay out of my store because even though we have products that do say merry christmas, we also have things that say happy holidays and : gasp : season's greetings!! The HORROR!

P.S. According to biblical scholars, Jesus was either born in spring (that is when shepherds would have been in the fields tending their flocks, or calculated by dates mentioned, sometime in September. They do agree however, that he wasn't born in December.

"The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast. Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood. December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god. It was observed near the winter solstice.

The apostles in the Bible predicted that some Christians would adopt pagan beliefs to enable them to make their religion more palatable to the pagans around them. Therefore, some scholars think the church chose the date of this pagan celebration to interest them in Christianity. The pagans were already used to celebrating on this date.

The Bible itself tells us that December 25 is an unlikely date for His birth. Palestine is very cold in December. It was much too cold to ask everyone to travel to the city of their fathers to register for taxes. Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12). Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time. They are in the fields early in March until early October. This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall. It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.

Other evidence that December 25 is the wrong date for the birth of Jesus comes from early writings. Iranaeus, born about a century after Jesus, notes that Jesus was born in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus. Since Augustus began his reign in the autumn of 43 B.C., this appears to substantiate the birth of Jesus as the autumn of 2 B.C. Eusebius (A.D. 264-340), the "Father of Church History," ascribes it to the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus and the 28th from the subjection of Egypt on the death of Anthony and Cleopatra. The 42nd year of Augustus ran from the autumn of 2 B.C. to the autumn of 1 B.C. The subjugation of Egypt into the Roman Empire occurred in the autumn of 30 B.C. The 28th year extended from the autumn of 3 B.C. to the autumn of 2 B.C. The only date that would meet both of these constraints would be the autumn of 2 B.C."
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/was-jesus-born-on-december-25-faq.htm

PAGANS are the reason for the season

I agree with these facts, and the Bible was written by Man.......

My father told me about this when I was growing up that Jesus was NOT born on December 25th, it was a day that we all can celebrate on a long, grey, dreary day that man needs something to enlighten and enrichen his life, Christmas was the way to go to remember why and what we were doing this in the first place!

Not sure how the Pagans celebrate "Christmas"....bonfires and hotdogs?

 

[purr]

Quote:
My dad was married to a Jewish woman for 15 years. A dear friend of mine is part japanese and a budhist. I have friends that are pagan, born again christian, and atheist. I say HAPPY HOLIDAYS because I am not so arrogant as to think that the traditions I was raised with are the only ones. I guess you will have to stay out of my store because even though we have products that do say merry christmas, we also have things that say happy holidays and : gasp : season's greetings!! The HORROR!

P.S. According to biblical scholars, Jesus was either born in spring (that is when shepherds would have been in the fields tending their flocks, or calculated by dates mentioned, sometime in September. They do agree however, that he wasn't born in December.

"The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast. Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood. December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god. It was observed near the winter solstice.

The apostles in the Bible predicted that some Christians would adopt pagan beliefs to enable them to make their religion more palatable to the pagans around them. Therefore, some scholars think the church chose the date of this pagan celebration to interest them in Christianity. The pagans were already used to celebrating on this date.

The Bible itself tells us that December 25 is an unlikely date for His birth. Palestine is very cold in December. It was much too cold to ask everyone to travel to the city of their fathers to register for taxes. Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12). Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time. They are in the fields early in March until early October. This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall. It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.

Other evidence that December 25 is the wrong date for the birth of Jesus comes from early writings. Iranaeus, born about a century after Jesus, notes that Jesus was born in the 41st year of the reign of Augustus. Since Augustus began his reign in the autumn of 43 B.C., this appears to substantiate the birth of Jesus as the autumn of 2 B.C. Eusebius (A.D. 264-340), the "Father of Church History," ascribes it to the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus and the 28th from the subjection of Egypt on the death of Anthony and Cleopatra. The 42nd year of Augustus ran from the autumn of 2 B.C. to the autumn of 1 B.C. The subjugation of Egypt into the Roman Empire occurred in the autumn of 30 B.C. The 28th year extended from the autumn of 3 B.C. to the autumn of 2 B.C. The only date that would meet both of these constraints would be the autumn of 2 B.C."
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/was-jesus-born-on-december-25-faq.htm

PAGANS are the reason for the season

I agree with these facts, and the Bible was written by Man.......

My father told me about this when I was growing up that Jesus was NOT born on December 25th, it was a day that we all can celebrate on a long, grey, dreary day that man needs something to enlighten and enrichen his life, Christmas was the way to go to remember why and what we were doing this in the first place!

Not sure how the Pagans celebrate "Christmas"....bonfires and hotdogs?

Well this pagan celebrates it by putting up a tree, lighting the candles in the yule log , getting together with friends and family.praying or as we call it Ritual. Preparing a feast and thanking the Gods and Goddesses that we are getting through another winter and the days are going to start getting longer.
Not so different after all

 

[EweSheep]

Anyone doing Christmas cards?

I am not sending out very many this year, the price of stamps are expensive as it is. It is only for those who are elderly, non computer users or lazy bones LOL! I do return the favors for those who sent me a card. Please no "brag fests" sheets of the story of your family. Not interested in keeping up with the Joneses.