*Do you feel the true meaning of Christmas has been forgotten?*
It is more about an imaginary man (Santa Claus) than Jesus Christ himself.
On Christmas Eve before the children go to bed, some of the last words they hear is “Twas the night before Christmas” – not any story about Jesus Christ and his good deeds. And on Christmas day Jesus is also most likely not mentioned or missed at all, as the children jump up and down and all around giggling with their new toys – toys that they wrote about in a letter to an imaginary man named Chris Kringle.
And some adults are so overwhelmed by the luxurious expensive gifts that other family members or their spouse has bought for them. In some cases people go deeply into debt just to buy multiple unnecessary Christmas items. They trample each other in the stores, sometimes causing death or serious injury to other people, (which is not the attitude that Jesus would take) just to get a bargain on a gift.
Now scientist and others are saying that Jesus wasn’t even born on December 25th, and that the date could never be possible being how the days and nights (seasons) were described following his birth, in the good book and in other places.
Now even with that information, still, Christmas seems to be more about bargain gift giving, doing unnecessary overly decorating, overeating, and a imaginary Santa Claus…rather than about Jesus Christ and his peaceful moral words...his message
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Here is the question: Do you feel the true meaning of Christmas has been forgotten?
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Marciano
Alice + Olivia
BDL by Ben de Lisi
We never had Santa, we had St Nick, St Nicholas and my mom would tell me about him, that he performed miracles that he would give people gifts, coins in shoes that were left out for him on december 6th. so that day is all about him and Christmas is all about Jesus, although ST Nick brings gifts for the kids because thats what he does!
Christmas day is about the birth of Jesus (even though I dont believe he was born on that day) The telling of his birth, the bringing of gifts to him by the wise men....
We got away from all that for awhile, concentrating on gifts gifts gifts, its not supposed to be about us! we are supposed to give gifts to eachother because Jesus was born for us, died for us and he is in all of us, and the greatest gift is his love....not a 900 dollar TV.....So we dont go overboard anymore and its so much better.
1Personally, I'd be happy with one of the "900 dollar tv's".
Most scholars believe that Jesus wasn't born on the 25th of December, but that date was "stolen" from the Pagen celebration of the winter solstice. IMO, Christmas is overrated. It wasn't Jesus' birth that saves us, but his death and resurection that save us. It's great to acknowledge his birth, but the true gift comes at Easter. (That doesn't mean you can't give me presents skb...
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2Uhm with all due respect UnDave I don't think so. In 354AD Pope Julius chose December 25 because it coincided with the Pagan ritual of Winter Solstice celebration. His thinking behind the move was to supplant the Pagan rituals with a Christian Holiday. However the fact of the matter is all he succeeded in doing is causing what is probably the greatest cultural systemic misinformation in the history of humanity.
Christs-mas didn't supplant Winter Solstice, the Pagans simply put their arm around Christmas and said hey welcome join the party.
As for "Do you feel the true meaning of Christmas has been forgotten"? Yes the message has suffered under materialism. Regardless of whether one is a Christian or not the common alignment in thought between believers and non-believers is that Christmas is/was about giving, peace, good will and cleansing our selves of selfishness and greed and observing the almost surreal social serenity that it often creates between strangers.
3Isn't that what I said?
4No, I'm reading your comment in the flip. You're suggesting that the Pagans stole the date. The Pagans didn't steel anything. They were given Christmas on a silver platter by Pope Julius.
5I thought I was saying that somewhere down the line, when Christianity was first gaining momentum, some Christian leader stole the idea of having a winter celebration in honor of Jesus Christ, and chose to call it his birth. That's what it sounds like I'm saying when I read it anyway...
6Oh, okay. Well my work is done here I'm gonna pop corn and get ready for O'Reilly.
7Well if there were lambs around at his birth that would mean the birth took place in the Spring. The dates are really unimportant. Look at our Easter vs. the Eastern Rite orthodox. celebrate Easter. They both change from year to year, so what? By the way that difference in Easters worked out great for my wife and I. The "regular" Easter was spent with my family and the Orthodox with my wife's family. It was the same with Christmas. Her family had their big celebration on the Eve, and mine the day. The only BIG holiday both families celebrated on the same day was Thanksgiving. I always called my parent though on that day
8Good statement in #3 *Hypno* I learned something in that comment that I didn't know before.
*Grandpa* I read Jesus was born in the late summer in one article. But who honestly knows? There are so many opinions out there to date.
*CaterpillarGirl* ....And yes, I also understand that the date may not be important but the reason why we give gifts is another. The 3 wise men gave nice simple gifts.
As I stated before, people these days go into more debt just for one day. They buy TOO many expensive things to give to one person.
And no one really speaks of Jesus. Young children don't know the purpose of gift giving like they should. They just know that on Dec. 25th it's party time! Gimme gimme all my stuff!
9The face we see EVERYWHERE in December is a big fat - obese white man wearing too much red and white fur.
Where are the images of a tan face Jesus Christ since people say "Jesus is the reason for the season" so much?
10And during Easter all we see is more odd association. We see over sized bunnies with colorful eggs in a basket. Kids go rushing around looking to snatch up colorful plastic eggs with candy inside them.
Um, how does that associate with Jesus being raised from the dead? How does it associate with Jesus or God at all?
11I agree that the date is speculative at best although most Historian speculation seems to reside in January and that is because the world was under a different calendar at that time and that calendar translated to our calendar appears to land his birth somewhere in January on our calendar.
When I was growing up in the Catholic faith I remember the priest always said "celebrate the birth of Christ" not Christs birthday, so even our church was careful not to be to specific.
12Yes, the true meaning of Christmas is almost gone. We think so much about the fun of gift giving that we forget to remember why we're truly supposed to be celebrating. Jesus is forgotten too many times...especially after that date.
And yeah, what is the deal with an Easter bunny and Jesus - how did that idea all come togather?
13Same thing with Easter Nyrina modern Christmas and Easter traditions are derived from a co-mingling of two different ancient traditions. The Pagan rituals for both seem to have more influence in the way the holidays are celebrated in the main stream IMO because it's the older tradition of the two. The Easter Hare or (bunny) has been an ancient representation for the fertility Goddess and rabbits and eggs are Pagan fertility symbols used to celebrate the Vernal Equinox.
Christianity has managed to nicely place our figures of worship in very opportune times of observance which was the point of doing so I think and it was good for the church. I think if your a Christian Christ him self would say honey don't worry about the date just think about and live by the message I brought to the world and that's fine by me.
As for the topic of has the meaning been lost, whether it be Christmas or Easter I think can be a very subjective reason. If the question is posed by a Christian then IMO it should be aimed at Christians. The public in general should not be taken into consideration. Taking non-Christians into consideration who celebrate Christmas in the Pagan way IMO would not produce the most accurate answer to the Christian inquirer. It would make more sense to take a count of Christians who have lost their way. But as I mentioned above whether your a Christian or non-believer there are many parallel messages which is probably why they coexist so well.
We could get into the whole Christian Religion being created by fathers of the church hand picking many things they liked from ancient Pagan rituals and refashioning with a Christian twist but that is a whole other topic.
I hope every one had a blessed Holiday and St. Nickolas left his mark on your day. Happy New Year to all and to all I'm gonna go get ready and go see Sherlock Holmes.
14Thanks for that explanation Hypno. I really needed to read that. I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas yesterday as well.
And have a wonderful time looking at Robert Downey Jr. I know you will. I would
15I really liked all of your explanations *Hyno* thanks for posting them.
I hope you have fun at the movies tonight!
16Christmas has become so commercialized I don't even celebrate it anymore.
17Christmas has become so commercialized I don't even celebrate it anymore.
18Thanks ladies and Sherlock Holmes was very entertaining and well acted although Liv Tylor as the young American girl still stuck out as a bit odd for some reason but it was only a mild distraction.
19Oh thank goodness *Hypno*. I was hoping to hear good news on this movie before I went out to see it. I still having seen the new Christmas Carol with Jim Carey either.
20And *Gamestomper* is right. There is too much that's off when it comes to what Christmas originally started out as. The manner we celebrate is so different. Yes, it's too commercialized.
21Instead of not celebrating Christmas, why not celebrate Christmas the way you "feel" it should be celebrated? I agree that too many people take Christmas as a opportunity to buy outragous gifts for others in the name of "giving", but that doesn't mean you (general) have to give up on the whole season.
22Yes, people are forgetting the true meaning of Christmas. Nowadays it's more about gift giving for fun and bargins.
23I agree as well *Jessie* Thanks for dropping by with your comment!
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