The "Commercialization" of Christmas, etc.

[verporchting]

I’m sitting at home with my wife and parrot smoking a pipe and watching football. Yesterday I saw two friends from out of state and enjoyed a meal and drinks with one and some tobacco with the other a few hours later. Tomorrow we’ll share some food and drinks with our friends and neighbors. No gifts exchanged other than food and drinks. Didn’t send any cards. Spent a few bucks on a tiny tree and vintage ornaments from an antique flea market (maybe $23 total).

So far it’s a wonderful holiday and didn’t do any of the retail nonsense and zero stress! Perfect!!

 

[captainsousie]

Christmas is an especially painful season for me so much of what I enjoy is spending time with family and the PMSS trade. The commercial aspect passes me by pretty well except for the few songs I can't stand.

 

[warren]

parrot smoking a pipe

I wonder if Emerald, my Double Yellow, wants to try a bowl?

So far it’s a wonderful holiday and didn’t do any of the retail nonsense and zero stress! Perfect!!

Good on you!

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Until I had a child, I took the less is more approach and would have a merry little Christmas. Here is my tree at the office (and I have a matching one at home).

 

[Sam Gamgee]

I've enjoyed reading all your comments.

I'm felling nostalgic and missing my grandparents today and will share a bit of how they made Christmas magical when I was a boy.

On Christmas Eve, all would gather at my grandparents' big house on the hill -- tons of good homemade food, lights, a big tree, etc. My aunt and uncle would take me and my brother out to see Christmas lights in our little town. We'd sing carols in the car. Our uncle was super cool but our aunt was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, as so often happens. Uncle had a big burly friend that would dress up like Santa. While we were out looking at lights everyone would get all the gifts under the tree and my uncle's burly Santa buddy would hide out somewhere around the house with a few of the gifts in his bag. When we'd get back, Uncle would get up on top of the house and tromp around, making it sound like reindeer were on the roof. That's when Santa would knock on the door with his big bag over his shoulder. He'd come in and hand me and my bro our gifts, sit with us for a bit and chat, and then tell us he had go and make his rounds. Big night and many stops to make! When he'd leave, Uncle would make all kinds of noise on the roof and that's how we knew the sleigh was up and away.

Man, those were such good times. Absolutely magical! I'd probably trade a year of my life to live one of those Christmases over again.

 

[Winnipeger]

I think Halloween is way worse. Imagine if we had a holiday where little kids go door to door collecting bags full of cocaine. Would that be socially acceptable? I have a lot of close friends and family who got addicted to sugar at a young age, and eventually developed type 2 diabetes, and now have poor health and reduced life expectancy. Our culture is sick. But I do love getting together with the surviving members of my family at Christmas time to eat turkey and stuffing and drink eggnog and listen to Bing Crosby and Perry Como. It'll never be the same as it was when my grandparents were still alive, and everybody came together, but for my daughter, I think Christmas is a special and meaningful day just like it was for me when I was her age (5), even if it is a materialistic orgy. At least we're together and I have some time off, and she'll get to see here grandparents and cousins. I still love this time of year. Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Alejo R.]

Christmas was appropriated from pagan traditions, to bring money into the church and raise attendance in winter. Charles Dickens and Macy's practically invented Christmas as we know it today. It's always been about money.

Hasn't religion always been about money and power?

 

[Alejo R.]

While some people don’t think it’s correct to call Christmas “Xmas” because it somehow takes Christ or religion out of the holiday, they would be incorrect.

Xmas is not a modern invention nor is it an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas. The early church used the first two letters of Christos in the Greek alphabet – “chi” and “rho” to create a monogram represented the name of Jesus. This basically looks like an X with on top of a small p. Eventually the small “p” stopped being used and just the “X” continued.

 

[verporchting]

I wonder if Emerald, my Double Yellow, wants to try a bowl?

@warren: I bet Emerald would enjoy the calm bonding moment on your shoulder! When I grab a pipe the bird flies over and just settles in, fluffs up and starts quietly grinding his beak which is a habit of total relaxation for him. You wouldn’t think a bird would want anything to do with smoke and I don’t generate clouds of smoke anyway, but it was shocking when he did it the first time. Decades later I just assume I’ll have a smoking partner as soon as the pipe gets lit. We both enjoy it.

 

[warren]

Hasn't religion always been about money and power?

No. Study your history books a bit closer.

When I grab a pipe the bird flies over and just settles in, fluffs up and starts quietly grinding his beak which is a habit of total relaxation for him.

How totally cool!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Hasn't religion always been about money and power?

Nope

 

[Chasing Embers]

I think Halloween is way worse

My favorite holiday. It and Hanukkah retain more of their original practices than most other celebrations.

where little kids go door to door collecting bags full of cocaine. Would that be socially acceptable?

The drug itself was very socially acceptable being touted as a wonder drug by Freud and Mark Twain nearly established a world wide market for it. It was in nearly everything the way caffeine is now.. Made illegal for deplorable claims rather than its addictive and harmful effects.

I have a lot of close friends and family who got addicted to sugar at a young age, and eventually developed type 2 diabetes, and now have poor health and reduced life expectancy.

If due to childhood sugar consumption, that's bad parenting. My parents made a Halloween bag last for several months after acquiring it trick or treating.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I like the holiday just fine as it is. If you spend too much, then stop it.

 

[verporchting]

I like the holiday just fine as it is. If you spend too much, then stop it.

Perfect advice! Absolutely perfect!

 

[Winnipeger]

If due to childhood sugar consumption, that's bad parenting.

1 in 3 Canadians have diabetes or prediabetes. (About 11 million people.) That's not bad parenting. It's a social disease. Parents don't have the means to wholly protect their children from a sick society. I let my daughter go trick-or-treating, and then dole the candy out to her over months, just like your parents did. When I was a kid, the only risk posed by sugar consumption that anybody ever talked about was tooth decay. I'm not opposed to Halloween or Samhain or whatever. But the way we do it nowadays is indicative of the way corporations (like those of the sugar industry), exert control over our bodies, minds, and pocket books. The big problem when I was a kid was really pop. Winnipeg is after all the Slurpee capital of the world. Kids would drink 2 or 4 litres of Coke every day. Now they're having their legs amputated. True story.

Anyway. Sorry for the digression. Carry on.

 

[pappymac]

But who's counting...

 

[tbradsim1]

We had a Greswaled Christmas, Oldest son has a bad back, drove from Corpus in a Jeep to be with his family, sat down in one of our recliners exclaimed Damn I forgot the presents, Our heated vests for the family never showed up, while laying out the table wife put her dishes stacked up on table cloth, my new Puppy Buddy grabbed the tablecloth and crash broken dishes, it went on, we talked, no iPhone in faces, looked at old pictures, to me it was one of my best Christmas, Oh the heated vests showed up a week later.

 

[tbradsim1]

Wife does this for the Grandkids, they love it, pictures over the years of them. I love it too!