Done.

Every winter, on or about december 25th, I sacrifice a country ham and about $500 to the gods of gluttony and consumption. That is my holiday, but just try to find cards for it.

I heard there was a guy around here who actually tried to get a "put the X back in X-mas" billboard put up, but the advertising agencies in the area wouldn't let him. Could be an urban legend, though.

Oh yes, Kwanzaa is a dreaded pagan holiday... but Christmas we celebrate by putting up a big green tree and various other elements of foliage up all over the place. Ain't nothin' pagan about Christmas, ossifer, Christian as a Bushie!

why do people care if there are nativity scenes in public? aren't we the most religiously tolerant people in the world? let people have their baby-christ scenes, their fancy candlabras, fir trees and afrocentric symbols. let them say merry chrismas and happy kwanza.

who really gives a shit?

Christians who have a literal interpretation have to feel 'persecuted', and can't exist if they don't.

ie.
1. The Bible says that the Bible is true.
2. The Bible that is true says that Christians will be persecuted for their beliefs.
3. If they are not 'persecuted', the Bible is not True.

What stinks the most of this, is that it belittles the lives of Christians past and present who were/are actually persecuted. Fed to lions and such, and I understand China like to lock them up to. If I was a Christian in a chinese gulag, I'm sure he'd rather be bickering over what holiday phrases to use. These are the same people that would complain to a guy with a brain tumor about a hangnail.

I think, too, the unfortunate results of the Presidental "election" have encouraged these nutjobs; they are reading Bush's rather narrow re-election as a wholesale endorsement of their social agenda. My hope is that they are so politically clueless and so clumsy that they're doing harm to themselves, but we'll see.

The other problem I see here is that this is a prime example of the echo chamber news has become. These people only watch Fox News and listen to talk radio, where no one tells them that the story about stores banning employees from saying "Merry Christmas" is crap. Instead, their prejudices are being confirmed, and amplified. There's a whole industry out there (led by Mr. Falafel himself, Bill "Vibrator in My Ass" O'Reilly) that exists to tell these people that their ill-informed, ignorant-ass opinions are "common sense", and anyone who insists on truth and including others is a "liberal pinhead".

The thing is JC penny, Sears, Best buy etc. aren't part of the federal government, they're private businesses so technically they should be allowed to say "merry christmas!" or "happy jesus day" or whatever it is they want to say, I wouldn't mind. Also, the image of santa clause and elves and reindeer and what not are directly tied to the image of christmas, visa vie...so much as putting a cut out of chris kringle in front of your store is endorsing christiainity, so IMO being offended by an advertising campaign that endorses a holiday is kind of pointless and youre probably being a bit over sensitive. Now as far as nativity scenes on government property and christmas songs in public schools go, it only makes sense to be rid of them. It seems kind of extreme but most of these things do when they're first introduced. I'll continue to put up my christmas tree every year, help my mom set up her nativity scene by the fireplace and listen to charlie brown sing those songs about the new born king. Why can't other christians be happy with that to?

And as private businesses they also have the right to avoid blatantly Christian holiday messages. My guess... and remember, this is just a guess... most companies have customers who aren't Christians. Shocking I know but it's true. God forbid they try not to alienate their support.

This part of Christmas pisses me off more than the blatant consumerism I think. For fuck's sake it's the holidays. Go celebrate and leave your fellow man the fuck alone. No matter how much you may want to think it Jesus does not control the world and neither do you. Happy Chrismaramasolstikwanzakah.

Christmas is a big holiday, people want to celebrate it. Merry Christmas. What the hell is so bad about that? I was watching FOX the other day and they had a Happy Hannakuh message. What am I supposed to do, call in and complain? Who gives a fuck. If a holiday greeting from any religion pisses you off you have issues. This isn't some evil government conspiracy to force Christianity down your throat, it is every day people wanting to celebrate a big holiday.

Retail shops banning their employees from mentioning Christmas is a fucking joke, since they make like 75% of their sales or something during the Christmas holiday. Maybe they should donate a few of those millions to the oppressed religious minorities out there...

Putting Christ back into a co-opted pagan holiday that had nothing to do with his birth in its original incarnation? How novel. Kinda like complaining about the Easter Bunny when they stole that holiday from pagans, too.

The strip club that I work for is part of a money drive for ToysForTots (run by SFFD) and we're pretty successful. The girls do a lap dance for charity every shift. Some people object, but SFFD knows that we raise over $10,000 every year for them. Interestingly enough, when we did a charity golf tournament and raised over $12,000, we were turned down by several groups who didn't want to take money from us. Even battered women's groups and women's health charities. People are too uptight. They wind up doing their beneficiaries a disservice by refusing our money.

Also: I'm so glad that Christians have decided to get their religion from THE MALL. If I want to remember the teachings of Christ, I go to CHURCH!

Why does my religion celebrate life by sitting around a dead tree eating candy out of our socks? Just a question.

brin, you have it BACKWARDS. it's the christians who are complaining about people NOT saying "merry christmas", and they made up the story about macy's banning employees from saying it.

so.. did you have another point, or..?

gah, it's spin and manipulation! it's like when you catch somebody doing something wrong, and you call them on it,a nd then they try to turn it around and make you feel guilty.

what a bunch of selfish assholes. the concept is that giving is better than receiving, so why put up such a ruckus jus tto get your holiday recognized WHEN IT'S ALREADY THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE HOLIDAY IN AMERICA.

besides, it's not even about the topic at hand. it's just an excuse to push their beliefs on others and encroach on the rest of the world's cultures.

i say fuck 'em. i'm celebrating festivus today and my family (of which my dad is a minister) isn't even having christmas this year.