Really bad television...

One of the reasons for my pure and absolute hatred for Christmas is the ever growing, ever-repeating list of truly horrible programs aired on television every December.

The good people at Salon have put together a comprehensive overview of this year's offerings, here's some excerpts:

It really wouldn’t be Christmas without a bunch of saccharine, low-budget original films that almost always seem to involve both death and a romance... 

If Hallmark’s script appears a little thin, that’s because the network has 12 new Christmas films. “One Starry Christmas,” about an aspiring astronomy professor; “The Nine Lives Of Christmas,” starring former Superman Brandon Routh, as a hard-hearted fireman who adopts a stray cat and opens himself up to love; “A Cookie Cutter Christmas,” about two rival teachers who cross swords over a handsome single dad and a cookie bake-off; “A Royal Christmas,” which is a Christmas knockoff of “The Prince & Me,” which is itself a knockoff of “The Princess Diaries,” but look, it stars Jane Seymour;“The Christmas Shepherd,” about a lonely woman and a single dad and daughter who all adopt the same dog; and at least four films with angels walking around on earth in some form, mostly to set white people up in small-town romances. Fortunately, most of Hallmark’s Christmas films have aired already: You don’t have to be scared anymore... 

Unscripted programming is trotting out an awful lot of holiday specials this year, each one a bit more cringeworthy than the last. 

I highly recommend clicking here to see the full piece.

Seriously, how can anyone justify this kind of garbage being produced and aired year after year?

Pros and Cons

So, I was challenged to come up with a pro/con list about celebrating Christmas.

Here's the parameters I'll set up:

1. focused on the real, modern American celebration of Christmas - not Dickens' Christmas, not an idealized Hallmark Christmas, just the looking at what we experience now

2. recognizing that one person's "pro" could very well be another person's "con" - and vice-versa - so some items could end up on both lists

3. as always, your observations and challenges are welcome - but please note that I will call "Malarky" on nonsense like "it's the one time of year when there's peace on earth and good will towards man" - because really, that's patently false on multiple levels.

So, with that done, here's my list of pros and cons about Christmas

PRO

1. Quality movies released on Christmas Day
2. Vacation Days
3. Those sugar cookies with the chocolate drop in the middle
4. Opportunities for family get-togethers

CON

1. A one-day holiday that gets started in November and goes into January
2. Christmas music - from 24 hours of the garbage on certain radio stations to the non-stop music in stores - Todd Chappelle captures this perfectly here:


3. Christmas movies - seriously, turn on ABC, Hallmark, Lifetime, or whatever in December and it's wall-to-wall horrible, bad, unwatchable trite with snow and tinsel
4. People who confuse Christmas with Christianity (one really has nothing to do with the other - see previous posts)
5. People who get really obnoxious about whether a clerk greets them with "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" - like this:

6. Family get-togethers and all the drama that can bring
7. blatantly lying to children
8. the continued adding on of "traditions" from Rudolph to Elf on the Shelf
9. the inevitable let-down when December 25 rolls around and every attempt at creating some "magic" fails miserably
10. People who love Christmas and can't accept that some other people don't


Did I miss anything from either list?

Seriously - add yours in the comments below...


UPDATE: as some have observed, there's a more lively discussion happening on facebook than here - so I'll add comments from facebook here - feel free to jump in on either platform:

Here's a list of pros and cons from Syd:

Syd Swann Pros
-Encouragement: Church services, plays, events, and advent readings that provide an opportunity for people to collectively and individually reflect on the wonders and hope that God loved those He created so much that He came and lived among them with the stated purposes of "being an example" and to "save sinners."

-Growth:
To accomplish the point above people should be encouraged to read and study the Old and New Testament passages that foretell the birth (and reasons) or the events surrounding the birth. The Bible says that "God's Word will not return void" so it could change lives completely. The numerous fulfilled prophecies alone have confirmed in many people's mind the authority of the bible and have been part of their conversion. Also there are so many examples to follow from the passages: faith (virgin birth), obedience even in hard situations (Joseph/Mary), evangelism (shepherds), faithfulness Simeon/Anna), worship in giving/sacrifice (wisemen), etc. 

-Evangelism:
Many open doors to talk about Jesus Christ: His miraculous birth to a virgin. Even "Happy Holidays" could be used to ask the greeter "Thanks, which holiday do you celebrate...I celebrate Christmas...God loved us so much that He came and dwelt amongst us, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for us and then rose again providing a way for us to be with Him one day." People could even write a blog to help share their faith at a time where people are open to hear it. 

Cons
-Misunderstanding:
sadly there is a lot of misunderstanding and legend surrounding the 
biblical accounts (wisemen at the stable, censuses being taking in the winter, etc). 

-Breaking
the 3rd commandment: I might be on my own on this one but I hate 
hearing people vainly saying Christmas. I believe Jesus Christ was/is God so "Christ" is a name of God. 

-Pagan traditions: oddly most christians incorporate pagan traditions into their celebration of Christmas (trees, yule logs, etc). Those traditions are carry overs of when 

-Overspending: Many christians get wrapped up in the commercialization of the holiday and overspend / go into debt buying things they/others dont need or will ever use.

Let's make this as easy as possible to follow, shall we?

For the past couple of decades, I seem to have the same conversations every year around the Winter Holiday Season.

For clarification, here's where I stand:

1. I hate Christmas
2. Anyone who wishes to celebrate Christmas in whatever fashion they choose, is encouraged to do so
3. If you are ok with me hating Christmas and you celebrating Christmas, then all should be fine in the world

You see, the problem is that when I say, "I don't like Christmas" it's normally met with a barrage of questions, theories, and, in many cases, a vow to "convert" me to being a Christmas lover.

Then there's those who want to claim religious persecution if a sales clerk greets them with a very pleasant "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

So, let's establish the basics first:

1. Jesus was not born on December 25
2. There is NO biblical mandate to celebrate the birth of Christ
3. There is NO biblical example of anyone celebrating Christ's birthday - other than the actual birth - which is only described in two of the four gospels.
4. There are NO early church examples of anyone celebrating Christ's birthday
5. The first time we see a church celebration of Christmas is in the 4th Century - and the holiday was practically ignored through most of church history

OK, if you want to argue against any of the above facts - you are welcome to do so - please cite your sources.

If we can all agree on those five facts - then we can move on to the next level:

1. The celebration of Christmas has nothing whatsoever to do with the observance of Christianity
2. Those who choose not to celebrate Christmas are NOT attacking Christianity by simply not participating in the annual tradition

So, here's the challenge to Kirk Cameron, Bill O'Reilly, and anyone else who gets bent out of shape over the annual "War on Christmas" - please explain to me how choosing to not celebrate this one day is, in any way, an attack on your faith, your tradition, or your way of life.

I'm happy to have this discussion with anyone.

I really hate Christmas

I hate Christmas -- that's right, I hate Christmas -- not the commercialization (although that stinks,

too), I truly, genuinely, down to my bones hate Christmas.

To help you understand this, I'm posting a copy of a piece that ran in the local newspaper back in 2006

Why Christmas?

Confessions of a self-professed Grinch

By Ken Grant

Every December, when that great song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" comes on, my kids demand that I turn up the radio so they can sing – or gleefully scream – the lyrics at me.

Grinch, Scrooge, the Anti-Claus, take your pick of titles – I gladly wear them all.

I honestly do not like Christmas, I do not enjoy any aspect of it, and I'm finding that more and more people are admitting that they're not all that thrilled with it, either.

I can already hear the cries of heresy coming from faithful Christians and even not-so-faithful-but-we-show-up-for-church-twice-a-year types alike. But, if we take a moment to look at the origins of Christmas, we might find that the truly Christian thing to do might be to shift our focus to something more substantive and meaningful every December.

Nowhere in scripture are Christians commanded to celebrate the birth of Christ. I challenge anyone to find a scriptural reference to the First Century Church celebrating Christmas. In fact, two of the four canonized gospels don't even mention the birth of Jesus.

By contrast, the followers of Christ are admonished to observe two things: Communion and Baptism. All other feasts, festivals, and observances are entirely optional (see Colossians 2:16).

So, when did we start this Christmas tradition? Allow me to quote from George W. Cornell:

For more than 300 years after Jesus' time, Christians didn't celebrate his birth. The observance began in fourth century Rome, timed to coincide with a mid-winter pagan festival honoring the pagan gods Mithra and Saturn. The December date was simply taken over to commemorate Jesus' birth, since its exact date isn't known. Consequently, the fusion of the sacred and the profane characterized the celebration from the start.

The reality is that celebrating new life following the winter solstice is something that's been done for some time – much more than 2,000 years. Switching the celebration from Ra the Egyptian sun-god, Adonis the Syrian god, Mithras the Persian sun-god, and any number of Norse gods (Oden being the most prevalent) to the birth of Christ seemed to have occurred almost seamlessly – in fact, nearly EVERYTHING that we associate with the Christmas tradition (evergreen trees, holy, lights, candles, etc.) can be traced back to one or more of these pagan origins.

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't know how ministers go through this every year. Let's think about this for a moment. The average minister has 52 Sundays a year to teach, to preach, to explore the deep and rich mysteries of scripture found throughout the Bible. Out of those 52 Sundays, the minister is forced by tradition to focus on a small handful of passages for at least four of those Sundays every year – re-hashing the same themes year after year after year.

And again, this is for something that really has very little to do with the crux of Christianity . I challenge anyone to show me where Peter preached about the importance of the birth of Christ. How about an epistle from Paul where he explains to a growing church the need to have a manger scene set up by the second week of December?

The message of Christ is profound – he did not call his disciples to look at his baby pictures . He told his followers to pick up their crosses and follow him to death. Paul tells us that presenting ourselves as living sacrifices is our reasonable act of worship. Peter's sermon at Pentecost focused exclusively on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Again, the two practices Christians are ordered to observe – baptism and communion – are symbols of sacrifice, death, and resurrection – not of incarnation and birth.

Of course, it makes sense for just about anyone to be more comfortable focusing time and attention on a harmless, cute baby than to deal with the man who calls you to sacrifice your pride and your ego to follow him to an uncertain future.

I am not advocating that everyone quit celebrating Christmas. But I am asking for two things. First, figure out what it is you are celebrating and why you are celebrating it. If it's just tradition or a warm, fuzzy feeling, that's OK – just be honest about it. Second, please don't tell me that I "must" celebrate with you.

By the way, the kids don't seem to mind the fact that their father is a Grinch.