Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

THE WART[s] ON CHRISTMAS





Tired of all the yawping about taking Christ out of Xmas? Tired of people--and you know who they are--who make a living out of pretending that there's a war on Xmas?  

Yeah.  

Me too.

Actually, there is no WAR ON CHRISTMAS.  The Christmas holiday season starts earlier and earlier each year, lapping over other traditional American holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving.  And this country is absolutely drenched in everything Christmas starting right after the 4th of July.

The complainers who claim there's a war on Xmas aren't really whining about not having enough Christmas, they're really complaining about people not being more religious about Christmas.  But the ones responsible for that are not the non-religious--(actually, the Christians stole the idea of celebrating the winter solstice and making it into the birthday for Jesus from pagans.

No.  The people most responsible for making Christmas into the biggest capitalist celebration of the calendar year are, well, they're the good ole all American apple pie, Mom, and flag waving corporations.  They're the ones who start the selling of stuff right after Labor Day and they keep it going right through the Baby Jesus's non-birthday. (According to Biblical scholars, Jesus was born in the spring.)

So all of this forced commercialism on what was originally a pagan celebration around the Winter Solstice is, to me, a WART on Xmas, not a WAR on Xmas.

A wart is an unpleasant growth on something.  Usually a hand or foot or other part of a human's or other animal's body [See Warthog.]  So we usually associate it with something unattractive.

I now associate the Christmas season with a lot of unattractive, annoying corporate, not family, traditions. When I was a kid, the Xmas season wasn't like that.  We actually made it through Thanksgiving without hearing a Xmas song or seeing a Xmas decoration in the neighborhood until at least the second week in December.  We didn't put our pagan-inspired tree up until the week before Xmas.  And we didn't feel like choking the person responsible for playing Christmas music because he/she imposed it on us in November. The Christmas songs were fun for the two weeks we endured them.  But because Xmas is the biggest selling season for corporations, we're exploited and hounded to get into the Xmas spirit so we'll feel all fuzzy and warm inside while spending a lot of money on a lot of cheap Chinese-made stuff.

I prefer the Xmas of my youth when we exchanged one present each, when we put food or sweets in our stockings, and we celebrated the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, while our aunts and uncles played our favorite Xmas songs on the piano, violin, and guitar.



Here's my list of  what has become the WARTS ON XMAS:

1) Black Friday

2) Being forced to listen to "What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away," starting on November 1 in my local CVS.  And other Xmas ditties over and over and over and over in every store I walk into.

3) The teevee adverts on children's toys.  Children's ugly made-in-China plastic toys.

4) Salvation Army ringers.  I heard them in October outside of my local Whole Foods.

5) Gigantic plastic blow-up reindeer, Santas, snowmen, and creches on sad little lawns in suburbia.

6)  Colored lights -- not the kind that Stanley Kowalski told Stella about in "A Street Car Named Desire," the colored, flashing lights that are festooned on houses so that they look like nightmarish casinos.

7) Fake Christmas trees (unless you have allergies.)  Why not enjoy the smell of pine in your home--one of the nicest things about the season.

8) Fake snow

9) Teevee specials with awful music and singing.

10)  Fruitcake.  (Except the one a friend from South Africa made me one year--it was the best I'd ever tasted in my life.)

11)  Commercially baked Xmas cookies from the supermarkets

12)  Christmas "letters" included in cards bragging about all your families' achievements.

13)  Putting up Xmas decorations on December 1.

14) Shopping malls.

15) Office parties.

16) "I want, I want, I want!"

17)  FAUX NOOZ telling their viewers that saying "Happy Holidays," is leaving Christ out of Xmas.

17) FAUX NOOZ, Bill O'Reilly, and their viewers telling me there's a "War on Christmas."

18)  There isn't.

Feel free to add more.



There's no war on Christmas, there are only WARTS on Christmas, and that's because the corporatists need to make as much money as possible in this limited period of time.  That means we have to endure annoying inducements to buy, buy, buy.

I was raised a Catholic.  I am no longer a believer, but I do enjoy the pagan tradition of putting up a tree and celebrating the winter solstice.  

Jesus was not born in the winter. Shepherds did not keep watch over their flocks by night in the fields in winter.  But no one seems to mind that part of the story's contradiction.  

Why people who believe in the Christmas story participate in making it into a wart on the season is a mystery to me.


Happy Holidays and Festivus for the rest of us!

32 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

Can ANYBODY, and I mean ANYBODY just give it a frigging rest?

Isn't there more important issues?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Give what a rest? You do understand what a blog is for, right? It's a place where people express their opinions on a variety of subjects.

Ducky's here said...

I blame Walmart.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Hmmmm.

WART-Mart?

Infidel753 said...

Being forced to listen to "What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away," starting on November 1 in my local CVS. And other Xmas ditties over and over and over and over in every store I walk into.

I'm constantly amazed that store employees don't all become ax murderers after being subjected to Christmas songs eight-plus hours a day. They're usually not even the good versions of the songs. It's part of what makes me actively avoid shopping.

Fox is part of that Drudge-Limbaugh-RedState-etc.-etc. tinsel constellation of wingnut fake media that survive and thrive on keeping their audience feeling under attack and agitated into a state of outrage. They'll turn everything, or nothing, into a "war on" something that people value.

Oh, and the concept of December 25th as a god's birthday came from Persia, hundreds of years before the alleged birth of Jesus. These dunderheads are celebrating a holiday invented by the hated Iranians.

skudrunner said...

The good thing about all of those things mentioned is you don't have to participate if you don't want to.

I have yet to have someone force me to listen to any song or buy something on black friday. There is an off button

okjimm said...

''a place where people express their opinions on a variety of subjects.''

yupperz,,,,np54 they put the goddam holiday smack dab in the coldest time of the year... Xmas should be in October, or June or some other goddam month. this bundling up stuff is for the birds...and they have enough sense to fly south!

I am looking forward tyo the wasr on Easter.... I like to egg christians on

Anonymous said...

There is no war on Christmas, so why are you pretending there is? Do you always knee jerk react to any idiot statement by idiots? You are trying to create something that does not exist.

Jerry Critter said...

skud,
Do you walk around with your eyes closed too so you don't have to look at it too?

Shaw Kenawe said...

Anon@1:39,

You obviously did not read the post.

Here's what it says:

"Actually, there is no WAR ON CHRISTMAS."

You're welcome.

skudrunner said...

JC

I realize it is a unique concept but some people take responsibility for their actions and their lives.
If something is visible that I disagree with I look the other way and if there is something on the radio or TV I change channels.

You might want to give it a try it may be a good sphincter release for you

Ducky's here said...

More proof it's almost over

Talk about the Christmas spirit.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud, there's no "taking responsibility" when one is forced to listen to Xmas songs in October when one has to patronize a neighborhood store. We have no choice. And unless you wear blinders, one is forced to see Xmas decorations in November.

skudrunner said...

Shaw

Sure there is, choose to shop somewhere else and let them know of your displeasure.

I am totally against anything to do with Christmas until after Thanksgiving but that is my choice. To say you have no choice is a defeatist attitude which I will not succumb to, but that is my choice.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Crudskimmer: it may be a good sphincter release for you

The next time you leave an offensive remark like this, sit on a mirror and rotate slowly until you see your own reflection it in.

Leslie Parsley said...

Oh - I thought that's where he had his head.

skudrunner said...

Leslie,

Good comeback but JC is really not that bad he is just misguided.

Ducky's here said...

War on Christmas - Dispatches from the Front

"O'Reilly: War On Christmas Is Part Of "Secular Progressives'" Desire For "Unfettered Abortion" And Gay Marriage"

A mixed bag this year. We are clearly winning on the gay marriage front but recent reports show teenage pregnancies and abortions way, way down.

Merry Christmas, all.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"O'Reilly: War On Christmas Is Part Of "Secular Progressives'" Desire For "Unfettered Abortion" And Gay Marriage"

And yet I've had people come here and at The Swash Zone, where this was also posted, to say no one's saying there's a war on Xmas.

FAUX NOOZ is THE most watched cable news channel. So O'Reilly's nonsense gets through to millions and millions of viewers.

To the numbskulls who watch that FAUX "news" channel, when someone says "Happy Holidays," it means something about abortion and gay marriage?

Truly insane.

skudrunner said...

Shaw

The ratings are that Fox is the highest rated cable news but if you combine all of the leftist channels, Fox audience is a drop in the bucket.

You seem to watch Fox more than most so you add to their ratings, probably not what you intended.

Anonymous said...

Stupid moronic rightwing Fox Asshats.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Sorry skud, it doesn't work that way.

And you obviously don't understand how stats are gathered on who watches which news program either.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Shaw,
In defense of Skud’s NumberRunning skills, having six digits on each hand can be a decided handicap when counting on all fingers. Consider: Five represents 50% in a base-ten counting system but only 42% in a base-twelve system. Six digits are cute and charming on a Hemingway cat but downright creepy on a humanoid.

skudrunner said...

NBC 93332000 ABC 8237000
CBS 7293000

Total 25 + million

Granted Fox has more that MSNBC and CNN combined but not even close to the over the air news programs.

Hard to argue with facts no matter how you spin it.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud, your claim that every other news outlet except FAUX is "liberal" is a matter of your paranoid opinion, not fact.

Your stats prove nothing more than the fact that network news draws more viewers than cable, and FAUX NOOZ is the most watched.

Only a biased and paranoid would claim that every outlet is "liberal."

Of course that's not true. But you need to cling to your victim status and not face facts.

skudrunner said...

That kind of logic is impossible to argue with. It is kind of like your statement about southern democrats were not democrats back in the day but now they are democrats.

Take away responsibility, logic and reason and you have created a liberal, excuse me, progressive liberal.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Skud,
FYI, here are the most recent Nielson ratings (December 4, 2013) covering the cable news segment (daily totals in 000s for all viewers over the age of 2):

FOXN – 1,322
CNN – 257
MSNBC – 430
CNBC – 122
FBN – 60
HLN – 147

Please note: The total count for CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FBN, and HLN inclusive is 916 – representing a 59% market share for Fox and 41% for all others combined. In addition, only a wingnut compares mixed nuts. In other words, we don’t compare cable news with network news, cable news with network entertainment, or cable news with network football – unless you see fictitious liberal conspiracy theories everywhere you look (i.e. in your bathroom mirror, under your bed, and inside your underwear).

Shaw,
Given the scarcity of six-fingered trolls in Cyberspace, I am left wondering. Shall we keep this rarity (and torment him without mercy), or should we put him up for adoption at our local ASPCSFT?

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud: "That kind of logic is impossible to argue with. It is kind of like your statement about southern democrats were not democrats back in the day but now they are democrats."


Skud, I never, never, never, said that. Are you deliberately misquoting me to make a point? Sort of a habit of yours.

What I said is that CONSERVATIVE democrats were the majority in the Democratic Party of the south. There are conservative and liberal Democrats. Just like there were once liberal Republicans, until the cranks took over the GOP and chased them away.

CONSERVATIAVE Democrats were AGAINST integration. See Dixiecrats.

That you keep repeating a falsehood about what I've written is shameful.

What exactly is your motive for doing that?

skud: "Take away responsibility, logic and reason and you have created a liberal, excuse me, progressive liberal."

It is this type of sweepingly hateful, ignorant statement that gets you deleted more often than published.

Shaw Kenawe said...

I say we let him continue to come here.

skudrunner said...

The difference with what I posted and what you wrote is Semantics.
The difference between the number of liberal news stations and conservative news stations is fact.

It does irk the leftists that their shrine's msnbc and cnn are far outpaced by one station.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever noticed Bill O'Reilly usually gives his 'war on christmas' (yes, I use a lowercase c) wearing a Santa Hat. I always wonder just exactly whom he thinkd the warriors are attacking

dmarks said...

RN said: "Can ANYBODY, and I mean ANYBODY just give it a frigging rest?"

Billo Reilly endlessly flogging this issue is one of the many reasons I stopped watching the guy, and am happy for it.