Twisted Christmas: Really?!

Ok, so I’m far from being a prude and you’ve all read about my feelings about the holiday but really, I mean really?!  Is this the first commercial you should see on Christmas morning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oMY6sC7wQ

Fun Friday: Twisted Christmas – My Favorite Christmas Carol

For my combination Fun Friday and Twisted Christmas Eve post I present:  My favorite Christmas Carol

Although as has been evidenced by my previous post:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/twisted-christmas-why-i-dont-like-christmas/

I’m not a big fan of the holiday, however, that does not mean that I don’t find things about the season enjoyable and in fact I do have a favorite Christmas song and video, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueVPUsyrT0s

I’ve also posted the lyrics below:

Ho ho ho ho ho

Flying Through the snow
Can you hear him ho ho ho
He’s so full of cheer
only has to work one day a year

Children in their beds
Visions of sugar plums fill their heads
So many kids out there
Santa must be a billionaire

Red suit, boots of black
Big sack of toys hanging off his back
How much does he weigh
How do the reindeer pull his sleigh

Nobody sees him
as he travels the world

Leaving his presents
for the good boys and girls

Ho ho ho ho ho

Sees every move you make
Better be good for goodness sake
Leave him cookies and beer
He’ll be back to your house first next year

I am Santa Claus

Ho ho ho ho ho

Twisted Christmas: Why I don’t like Christmas

I don’t like Christmas and if you say that you get a lot of crap from folks, how could you not like Christmas?  Well the fact is we decide what we like or don’t like by the experiences that we have related to anything.  So, as I posted several weeks ago, I really love Thanksgiving because of the good memories and feelings I have associated with that holiday, you can see that post here:

http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com/2010/11/25/why-thanksgiving-is-my-favorite-holiday/

So likewise, when I think back to Christmas my memories are not so fond.  Christmas was always the time of year that raised the tension bar in our family to unacceptable levels and made everyone overly emotional, even me.  Throw in some alcohol for good measure and bring a bunch of folks together who normally wouldn’t socialize and you’ve got a recipe for argument and hurt feelings.

Lay on top of that, that I figured out there was no Santa Claus when I was about four-years old and the majesty and the magic of the season starts to wane.  The last straw, my break with the traditional tenants of Christianity pretty much eliminates December 25^th as any kind of significant holiday in my life.

Now, of course, I do participate and I love giving gifts so I do spoil the hell out of my nieces and nephews and briefly get together with family.   The folks I do admire the most this time of year are the ones that bake cakes and celebrate Jesus’ birthday, since that is supposed to be the focus of the season.

So if you celebrate it, Merry Christmas, and have a great time, may your holiday be wonderful and bright and if you can’t conceive of how someone can dislike Christmas, take a gander at a clip from Gremlins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueVPUsyrT0s

Twisted Christmas: The Origins of Christmas

I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas, to say the least, so my vision of Christmas is a little bit twisted, hence the title of my first Christmas post.  I thought like I did for Halloween it my be interesting to take a look at the origins of Christmas, so here goes.

So much like Halloween, the holiday of Christmas has its origins in the pagan religion.  I know, I know, Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, except for one thing, no one believes that Jesus of Nazareth was born in December.  The link below provides a long and thorough accounting of the likely date of Jesus’ birth based off of the writings in the bible:

http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/ARTB/k/568/When-Was-Jesus-Born.htm

The conclusion that this author and many others have made is that Jesus was almost certainly born sometime in the fall.  So if December 25^th isn’t Jesus’ birthday why do we celebrate Christmas in December?

Well first we have to recognize that several pagan festivals were celebrated either on the winter solstice or in the case of the Feast of the Son of Isis, celebrated on December 25^th.  The entire holiday season for the Romans covering December and January was called the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.   Given this, in 350AD Pope Julius I decreed that Christ’s birthday would be celebrated on December 25^th.  He did this for political reasons; the Pope knew that the majority of Romans, who were not Christians at the time, would more easily convert to Christianity if they could still have their rituals and feasts.  Christmas or the Christ Mass seems to have its earliest origins in the 1500’s in Germany.

The most identifiable icon of Christmas, the Christmas tree has its origins as well with the Pagans of Northern Europe as the evergreen tree was symbolic in all of their winter festivals, as well, the wreath was often used as a celebratory symbol in solstice celebrations and at weddings as a sign of fertility.  The solstice holiday was called Yule and huge fires were burnt in honor of the sun-god on this holiday.  Hence our tradition of burning a Yule log, although I can’t imagine what the Pagans would think of today’s televised Yule log.  Finally, the Druids considered Mistletoe a sacred plant and kissing under the Mistletoe was a fertility ritual.  Given all of the fertility symbolism tied to Christmas, it’s amazing their aren’t a lot more birthdays in September.

So very much like Halloween, Christmas is a Christian holiday stacked on top of old Pagan holidays and traditions.  Also like Halloween, the reasons and ways we celebrate the holiday are very different, even from the holiday as it was celebrated even fifty years ago.

Fun Friday: Christmas from the Tree’s Perspective

In digging around the net for my Fun Friday post I decided to go looking for holiday videos, I was just about to give up when I happened upon this short 1 minute video, hope you enjoy it and consider it a kickoff of this blogs holiday postings, twisted Christmas, here we come:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80876576/