Christmas WHY!?

Question

why do i love christmas so much and no one else does

Answer 1

i don't think no one else does. its my fave time of year!

Answer 2

Some People love Christmas and some are bahumbugs...I myself love Christmas and its not about what I can get its about what I can Do for my kids and family.....I think a lot of people are dis-hearted about Christmas because the value and history of the holiday has been outdone bye the commercializing of Christmas. It used to be about family and children and a season of giving and friendship now its about what sell is going on and who can get what and how much people can make of the holiday. Please dont get dis-hearted just remember what the holiday is about and maybe one day there will be enough of us that the commercializm will just be a small part.

Answer 3

I now know that we are in the same boat. I love Christmas so much too. I love it because we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus. Why no one else does is bothersome to me.

Answer 4

i feel like i am the same way. the day before thanksgiving i start putting my stuff up, if not earlier. i dont think its ever too early to put stuff up as all these people complain about. it makes me feel awesome to see the pretty lights and decorations. everyone else seems to hate the season! i hate that!

Answer 5

tired of xmas music 6 weeks prior to xmas, rude pushy shoppers, the people outside asking for money outside EVERY STORE, the overworked miserable sales people, the miserable service staff in restaurants!!! bah humbug!!!!!

Answer 6

becuase people think that Christmas has gotten too materialistic and showy

Answer 7

I DO! I DO!

Answer 8

OVER the years, the celebration of Christmas has changed in many ways—and not just in recent times. Even in 1836, English author Charles Dickens said: “There are people who will tell you that Christmas is not to them what it used to be.”

Perhaps surprising to some, Christmas has not always been a popular event. In the 19th century, when Dickens wrote, Christmas had diminished in popularity. Most British newspapers ignored it during the early part of that century.

Dickens and his older American counterpart, Washington Irving, made an effort to idealize Christmas. Why? Not solely to restore old traditions but also, at least as far as Dickens was concerned, to alert readers to the harsh realities of life for the underprivileged and thus to better their condition.

19th-Century Realities

While the industrial revolution brought prosperity to some, it also resulted in slums, squalor, and sweated labor. “Every great town has one or more slums,” wrote Friedrich Engels in 1844, “where the working class is crowded together . . . , removed from the sight of the happier classes.”

Britain’s Factory Act of 1825, which only concerned cotton mills, stated that no person should work in a cotton mill for more than 12 hours a weekday or 9 hours on a Saturday. In 1846, historian Thomas Macaulay blamed such intense labor for “stunting the growth of the mind, leaving no time for healthful exercise, no time for intellectual culture.”

A revival of Christmas festivities took place in the midst of such 19th-century social and moral problems.

Dickens and Christmas

Charles Dickens led in arousing social conscience to the problems of the poor. In his classic novel A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, Dickens skillfully employed his knowledge of Christmas traditions to achieve his end.

A Christmas Carol was an immediate success, and thousands of copies were sold. The following year, nine London theaters staged dramatized versions of the tale. On Christmas Eve 1867, Dickens presented a reading of it in the United States at Boston, Massachusetts. In attendance was a Mr. Fairbanks, a factory owner from Vermont, who said to his wife: “I feel that after listening to Mr. Dickens’s reading of A Christmas Carol tonight I should break the custom we have hitherto observed of opening the works on Christmas Day.” He was true to his word. The following year he added the tradition of giving a turkey to his employees at Christmastime.

Christmas Commercialized

Charitable handouts became commonplace during the Christmas season, ranging from charitable trusts dispensing coal to poor widows to village squires making gifts of money and food. Christmas soon became, in theory, the opportunity for all classes to meet in social harmony. Allowing the divisions between the rich and the poor to become deliberately blurred at this time of year salved many consciences.

A number of festive traditions were either revived or created. For example, the first Christmas cards appeared in 1843, and as printing became cheaper, the market prospered. Christmas trees, a much older tradition, also greatly increased in popularity after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, introduced the German manner of decoration, employing tinsel, ornaments, and candles.

The commercial promotion of Christmas was gaining momentum. Today, a little over a century later, Christmas has become so commercialized that there is public outcry over it. This raises the question: What was Christmas like originally?

Origins of Christmas

Providing historical background, The Chicago Tribune just last December noted in a front-page story: “Ironically, the holiday that Christians now complain is being co-opted by commercialism traces its roots to a pagan festival that was taken over by Christianity.

“The first reported observance of Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ was more than 300 years after the event. In the 4th Century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and, scholars believe, Christians set Jesus’ birthdate at Dec. 25 to coincide with existent celebrating by non-Christians.

“‘Rather than battle against the pagan holidays, they decided to join them and try to replace them,’ said University of Utah professor Russell Belk . . . ‘The pagan holidays replaced by Christianity were the Roman celebrations of Saturnalia—which were carnivalesque celebrations with gift-giving—and later the Yule celebrations in England and Germany that celebrated the winter solstice,’ Belk said.

“Christmas has gained and slipped in popularity over the centuries. It was banned for a time in England and America by Puritans who objected to the frivolity associated with it. But toward the mid-1800s, Belk said, ‘Christmas was in trouble, waning in popularity.’ He said religious leaders welcomed an injection of commerce, via gift-giving and Santa Claus, to revive the holiday.

“That revival, Belk said, was credited largely to English author Charles Dickens, whose 1843 ‘A Christmas Carol’ showed a reformed Scrooge who became a generous giver.”

What About Christmas Customs?

Dickens is said to have “enjoyed all the attendant paraphernalia of Christmas.” But from where did the paraphernalia come?

Providing interesting insights into this matter, New York Newsday of December 22, 1992, quoted John Mosley, who wrote the book The Christmas Star: “‘The early church leaders didn’t celebrate Christmas in December specifically to celebrate the birth of Christ,’ [Mosley] said. ‘It was their way of dealing with the winter solstice,’ the turning point of winter, when the sun stops its drift to the south and heads north again, bringing new light.

“Evidence for this is seen in the symbols of Christmas, Mosley said. Most obvious is the use of green plants, which symbolize life in a time of darkness and cold. ‘The most obvious green plant is the Christmas tree,’ he said. ‘And the northern Europeans celebrated the solstice in the forest; they worshiped trees. So the Christmas tree is really a throwback to tree worship in prehistoric times.’

“Also, Mosley said, ‘What do you put on the trees? Lights. Light recalls the Sun and symbolizes the Sun. It’s for the rebirth of the Sun and the return of light after the solstice. The main things involved in solstice celebrations everywhere are light and green plants.

“Dec. 25, he added, ‘was also the original date of the winter solstice, and many of the things we do now, and which we think are relatively modern Christmas customs, really trace their origins to the solstice celebrations.”

Music also characterizes Christmas celebrations. Thus, it is not surprising that the Roman festival of Saturnalia was renowned for its feasting and merrymaking, including dancing and singing. That the modern Christmas owes much to the ancient Saturnalia, scholars no longer dispute.

Deep Misgivings

England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, complained about the “Victorian, Charles Dickens Christmas.” The reason? “I am concerned in case our children are affected by the commercialism,” he said.

According to the newspaper The Scotsman, Anglican bishop David Jenkins believes that Christmas commercialism is driving people to the point of nervous breakdown. “We worship greed and Christmas becomes the feast of greed and folly,” he said, adding: “Ordinary persons are made miserable by their credit card debts. . . . There is increasing evidence that after Christmas people get into despair and have family rows. It is increasingly causing more trouble than it is worth.”

The Church Times of England aptly summed up the problem of Christmas: “We need to be liberated from the great bacchanalian orgy we have allowed it to become!”

What to Do About It

You can recognize Christmas for what it is, a pagan celebration that falsely parades as the birthday of Jesus, and have nothing to do with it. That is what Rita did, the woman mentioned at the outset. She became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she is now united with more than 4,500,000 fellow Witnesses, who shun Christmas completely.

Yet, it is not always easy to take a course that differs from that of the majority. (Compare Matthew 7:13, 14.) The Church Times acknowledged: “It takes a brave man, woman or family to opt out of a festival that is thrust upon us so aggressively by our peers.”

Many who have made the decision to “opt out” agree. But they also know that a deep love of truth has given them both the incentive and the strength to take and maintain that stand. The same can be true of you—if that is your desire.

Answer 9

i LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

i love christmas so wat you talkin bout