acrossthelines wrote:
I hate hate HAAAAAAAAAAAATE when those who are sure to post "Merry CHRISTmas!" all over facebook don't celebrate it in any more significant way than giving unnecessary presents to their progeny. They may have a manger scene up in their homes, and they may read the story from the Bible about Jesus' birth as a prelude to opening gifts, but that's about the extent of any religious activity that takes place that day. Eh, throw going to church in for good measure, especially since this year Christmas is on a Sunday.
If they desperately want to hold to the idea that Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ, and that the giving of gifts is a metaphor for the needed gift of salvation to all mankind, it would make more sense for them to stop lavishing gifts on their children and focusing the holiday purely on already healthy, already content family and start giving time, money, and legitimate help to the indigent actually in need. Instead of giving gifts to their children and making Christmas all about themselves and theirs, they could, I don't know, donate a chunk of change to a charity committed to providing basic food, housing, etc. to the poor; buy blankets, coats, socks, gloves, and hats and giving them personally to the homeless in their areas Christmas day (especially blankets, as those get taken from them all the time when they are evicted from wherever they have currently set up camp, and especially socks as perpetually wet socks cause serious health problems for many people in the winter); donate all of Christmas day and/or money to organizations committed to bettering the lives of children with terminal illnesses; etc. etc. Take your pick.
I don't have any problem at all with Christians' buying gifts for friends and family and celebrating Christmas by exchanging gifts and sharing meals and time with family, more or less celebrating it in a secular and/or materialistic way, but CHRISTmas people shouldn't celebrate it in that way while pretending that it's anything close to an allegory of what salvation is supposed to mean to them. Besides, the Bible doesn't exactly encourage sitting around and being thankful for a comfortable life in a food, housing, and health sense. (Being thankful for wisdom, relationships with others, etc., however, is encouraged.) It more directly says that if you have those things, you better be giving away any excess to the poor.
this is why im glad that im orthodox, and follow the old calendar.
all this materalistic stuff doesnt exist on 7 JAN