Christmas
Mingle
Veteran
What's your stance on it? Come 2nd of January I'm glad its all over and look forward to things warming up in the spring and all I care about is sun sun sun then as soon as June comes to an end I want the cosiness of the cold again, I love autumn so much. Something about it just brings a peace within me, it makes me wanna get creative and draw something( even though I have yet to do so massive procrastinator here). I love those autumn events like Halloween and Bonfire night which eventually lead up to Christmas. I stopped believing in god years ago but feel no reason to stop enjoying the festive times as there really isn't much of a religious element to it anymore. If anything it seems to just be about making people spend money. I have always liked it in my own way, I don't stress about gifts I like the simple things like gazing into the lights and dare I say it the music (at least for a few days lol). There is a feeling in the air that just says "chilll" and If anything its an excuse to get smashed. Anyhoo's I have yet to experience it as a Buddhist, maybe I should call it Buddmas. Anyways that's my thoughts today
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Also who uses this site on their phone. Mine keeps randomly switching to the desktop site and I don't know how to switch back its rather annoying.
gosh only six months to go ... thanks for reminder
we never talk about Christmas here. It's a pagan-christian festival full of meaningless rituals all designed to make you fat and keep you poor. It is a self-indulgent, wicked, meaningless, time-wasting all-consuming period of the year where scant attention to one's self means recklessness, gluttony, unskilful actions and poor choices.
It is not acceptable for Buddhists to even pay it any attention, take notice of it, or become involved.
I am, of course, totally joking....
We have had numerous discussions on this festival - and that of Easter, Thanksgiving, Hallowe'en, and other so-called "non-Buddhist/Theistic" celebrations and frankly the main and general consensus of opinion, is that you throw yourself into the party, without over-doing it.
Give presents, if you'd like to. Enjoy a family get-together, a nice meal and the occasional little drop of 'eau be joyful'...
As with anything social, do what you feel is right, and have a good time.
But Moderation in all things, whenever, really!
(Telephone: on the left you'll find a list of options - last one, go to 'full site'. I know, it keeps happening to me too. Not sure if @Linc can do anything, or whether it's simply an attribute of our phones....)
Bah humbug! But seriously I enjoy it more by thinking of it as a pagan festival, which of course it really is.
My children and wife love it. If they are happy, then I am happy for them
All you have to do is tell the kids not to stick beans up their noses and what's the first thing they are bound to do?
I was once talking with a fellow Zennie about various Christian, Jewish and other religious and quasi-religious holidays celebrated here in the U.S. Both of us decided the best course of action was to celebrate them all, to the extent that any of them had some allure. Walking away from holidays is probably not a good idea since, in reality, it is the holidays that tend to walk away from us over time.
I don't think my wife could live without celebrating X-mas, LOL. Usually, we buy something that we would both like (some new furniture, or whatever) as a present to ourselves, something we'd most likely buy anyways without the excuse of Christmas. Both our families like to celebrate as they are all somewhere on the Christian spectrum. So, we tend to get together with both sides sometime or other during the holidays. I just see it as a time to be with family and leave it at that.
Last year, we had my sister staying with us, while she was looking for a place to stay, so we used the money we'd normally spend for ourselves on things she needed for her apartment.
Mrs. Walker's brother hosts a New Year's Day get-together where we have finger food and have a white elephant gift exchange. That's always a lot of fun!
The Hobbits have Mathoms.
Yeah, our version of the game involves purchasing items (we set a C$30 limit), rather than taking something from home. So there's usually not just a bunch of junk that nobody wants.
I've also heard of a rule where gifts must be home-made, I'd like to try that sometime.
Christmas in July? Yeah, I've heard of that.
If merchants want to push any products now, they might put Santa in some Hawaiian swim trunks, a pair of kuhl shades, and have him hang ten.
(Sorry. If someone could walk me thru posting the word(s) as a link, that'd be kuhl.)
Highlight the word in your post that you want to use as a link indicator.
Now find the link you want, in the address bar, at the top. (This will be on a separate tab).
highlight, and copy.
Come back to your post, and click on the symbol between the smiley face and the 'black' sheet of paper with the corner folded over. (the symbol looks like a pair of rectangular glasses at a 45-degree angle).
A box appears.
http//: will be highlighted in blue.
Just put your cursor in the box and click ctrl + v, to paste
Merry Christmas!
A thousand thanks, @Federica.
Interesting article with the picture I found, heh...
***it didn't work...maybe it's the picture? Hmm. Ah! It was the superfluous http thingy.
You actually had me going there.
maybe @Federica meant it really, even if only half heartedly ::P lol
Not even...!
I L-O-V-E Christmas! We have a very 'traditional' affair chez nous .... the tree must be real (we've even had real candles on it!) and there's nothing beats an open fire and the delight of opening 'Christmas Stocking' gifts at breakfast - then the main ones after lunch....
Love it....
Too right too Federica
I've decided to go to @federica's for Christmas ... she can vacuum up the needles.
tongue-and-groove wooden flooring. Sweeping them up's simple.....We just make a pile of them and then use them to stuff the pillows in the guest bedroom...
I don't see the practice of Generosity, Metta (loving kindness) & Compassion as having 'special' days... So days like xmas, easter and the like are 'nothing special'
For you maybe. But some of us enjoy the extra whistles and bells.... It's just the 'cherry on the cake'...
Every day I share the cherry on the cake, it's nothing special..
.
" The wise enjoy nothing in particulr, and therefore enjoy everything in general"
Lao Tzu
Oh good grief.... you sure like to be a killjoy, doncha...?
Candles on the tree? Open fire? Wooden flooring?
Don't forget your fire extinguisher and respirator.
I don't mind Christmas as a season. I am ready for the quiet of winter, and I enjoy the festiveness and the decorations. I don't enjoy the crabby people, shopping or having a million expectations placed on me from every person in my life.
Buddhism doesn't get in the way, it doesn't really cause me conflict. As much as Christians want to holler "Jesus is the reason for the season" history shows time and time again it's just not true. Jesus might be why they choose to celebrate but historically as fed said it's Pagan decorations and celebrations of the solstice. I find that the holidays actually have more meaning to me now that I have a better understanding of their roots and the reasons behind the rituals and decorations. I even enjoy the church music, and have been known to go to Xmas Eve services just to sing. Everyone is always so happy then. Doesn't matter to me why.
A lot of our gift giving is home-made stuff. We made our own chai tea mix, irish cream, beer, mead, we pickle stuff from our garden and make salsas and so on. So that is most of what we give as gifts. Along with photos my husband has taken and had printed. It works out quite nicely and the personal gifts are so much more appreciated. Our kids we follow the "something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read." and they can put down a few things for each category and we pick the one thing from each that they get. We still do a santa gift for each kid for fun, but now that the are getting older we turn it into a scavenger hunt. Naughty santa put our oldest son's gift on the roof last year!
I think Christmas MUST have been a very risky business, when there was no choice BUT to use candles and open fires... I wonder just how many disasters DID occur in Victorian times....
Found this:
I'm pretty sure it was always a choice to use that stuff.
People are crazy is all.
Not that fires caused by Christmas lights don't happen nowadays.
Indeed. Well said!
Cards sent. Check.
Tree ordered from pagans. Check.
Still so little to do to get ready. Most shops seem to have sold out of Christmasy stuff already ...
Buddhist Law Section 4 Paragraph 3 states clearly that, "The celebration of Christmas shall be allowed, provided that the celebrants hang their Christmas trees (or elves) upside down from the ceiling. (And that everyone chips in to buy @karasti sta a new xbox 360.)
Not as crazy as you might think...
Christmas party over here!!! Can I get out my Christmas cards? What colors should my door wreath be this year? I can hear people singing.....
And....we usually have a nice snowfall here at the NB.
Good times.....good times....
Thanks @federica, the reverse tree will be what I will be bringing for Her Holiness LucyFairy when I bring them their guilt/dukkha/misery etc in hell this year. They love presents despite the expressions of dislike ... they will probably set fire to it as usual ...
Never be fooled by appearances ...
For what it's worth, Christmastime as a Buddhist has not been very different from Christmastime as a non-Buddhist, aside from the not going to church. Maybe the stance on gifts and giving has changed a bit?