The Holiday Season Upon Us, Can we celebrate as we want?

I think this about sums it up for me...

"Nephew!'' returned the uncle, sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.''

"Keep it!'' repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't keep it.''

"Let me leave it alone, then,'' said Scrooge. ``Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!''

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,'' returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!''

A Christmas Carol- C. Dickens

I would whole heartedly agree that people are not tolerant to anyone's beliefs anymore. What happened and why? This has all gotten so dang ridiculous.

well here is the history of Christmas, according to Wikipedia (not always a reliable source, but does help).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#Ori...igin_of_holiday

Merry Christmas!

I need to get my wife that button She has an I Love Jesus Button she wears at WalMart as a cashier and she wont say Happy Holidays she says MERRY CHRISTMAS So far only some customers give her a hard time!

Roberto, I loved the quote from Dickens. That pretty much sums up what Christmas is all about. I love Christmas. When my children were little, I made a birthday cake for Jesus so they would understand what the day meant. I never talked about santa to them. My biggest fear was if they thought I lied about would they think I lied about who Jesus was. Oh, they knew about santa was but not from me. Now my daughters do the same for their little ones.

Have you ever look in to the real story of Santa/ St. Nicholas. He was actually a fourth century Bishop from Myra (Turkey). It is said that he was present at the first church council which brought about the Apostle creed and the begining of the formation of the Bible. Some of our practices today copme from his actions. The idea of the stockings over the fireplace came about because there was a family which had three girls. Their father could not afford a dowery for them. Nicholas heard about this and during the night put the money into their stockings which they had hung by the window to dry. He was later caught and confessed but his deed brought about a tradition that continues to this day. There are alot of great facts behind the myth. I've seen several books and DVD's which tell the story of Nicholas. My kids watched "Nicholas The Boy Who became Santa" for years. My own personl favorite symbol is the Santa kneeling before the manger bed of Jesus. I guess hat I am trying to say is that the story of santa is a Christian story and we really should not discount all of it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't tell your children about santa. It was something I chose not to do. The problem now a days is Christ has been taken out of Christmas. Look how Christmas trees and such are now on sale and it's not even Thanksgiving yet!! It's all in how much money we can spend and how far we can be in debt for the next year. It's crazy.

what I have a problem with is that some folks here in America refuse to not have Christmas trees at all. Well that is all fine and good, but yet everyone wants to participate in the gift exchange. Sorry to be so blunt.

With the overabundance of Santa imagry I can see why you chose not to mention it. I agree the shopping thing is way out of hand. Our local Mart only carries one or two things that have to do specifically with Jesus. Lots of Santa films and not one with any of the facts. And its not the only holiday. Last Easter I checked out three aisles of Easter stuff to only find that a chocolate cross was really the only reference to Jesus. The rest was all Easter eggs and bunny rabbits. I know that at one time these were used as symbols of the resurrection by Christians but I think that symbolism has long since been lost. Time for some new stuff. I myself, don't decorate or even start celebrating Christmas untill the first week of Dec. And speaking of Christmas did you hear about the Nativity film coming out this year?

Nativity movie? I am not familiar with that! Please do tell!

Here is the link. Enjoy
http://www.thenativitystory.com/

Hey Roberto! I saw the ad on TV tonight for movie, The Nativity Story. Looks really good! Thanks!

My daughter and I can't waite to see it. It looks good.