[NewBee]

Originally posted by poodleNtraining
Years ago, I think I was 13 or so, we stopped all that stuff. No tree, decorations or gifts. We still ate, but we had a big prayer before we ate. At first it was kind of a blower (no gifts???--I was still young). But once I actually stopped to think about it, it all made sense. I mean, Christmas is supposed to be the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus (although it may or may ot have been that exact day, which doesn't matter, as long as we commemorate it). So, why are we getting gifts on someone else's birthday?? We should be giving gifts to Jesus, which would be to either give your life to Him, do something for those less fortunate than you, or sharing HIS gift with someone else. The older I got, the more the commercial, "traditional" Christmas bothered me. I'm 22 now, and we still don't "celebrate" Christmas.

Look at Santa. Now, St. Nick was a real person in Austria who gave gifts to the poor children around Christmas, so that's where that came from, but what sense is it to tell kids that some old man that flies around the world got them those gifts when you know good and well YOU worked all that overtime and stayed up al lnight wrapping those gifts. Are you saying that your children love an old white man more than you? That the gift would be more special comming from some made up character than their parents??? That's garbage if you ask me.

And like Love_Spell said, most people go into crucial debt to buy a whole bunch of stuff, sometimes for people they don't even like, not to mention cards, parties, etc. What's the point in that? And everyone is all stressed out cussing people out with a BIG attitude when its one of the joyous times of the year. That's ridiculous. Now I know that some people give with a kind heart, but it seems as if they are rare these days.

But what really gets me, and I'm not trying to affend anyone, is when non-Christians celebrate Christmas. I mean, how does that work? The whole purpose of the holiday, at least how most see it, is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is in the Christian religion, so if you either don't have a religion or aren't necessarily Christian, then why do you celebrate Christmas? That has always confused me.

Anyway, I'll shut up now...

Well, technically Christmas isn't the birth of Christ, Christians didn't start celebrating X-Mas until like 300 years after his death. SO I personally don't see why it would bother non-christians to celbrate it because for many pagans, it was their holiday first, and besides the world is set up so that most people use their 2 week vacation time for something so why not give gifts in the spirt of giving and all of that...
You have many Christians you don't celebrate Christmas, myself included starting last year.
But even thought I dont celebrate Christmas anymore, some of these stories were touching.