When should Christmas start?

[Quizzical Bob]

But it's not Christmas yet, nowhere near it.

[suespud]

But it's not Christmas yet, nowhere near it.

BUT BUT BUT.....just go with the flow....you might even enjoy it

[Mervyn and Trish]

I love Christmas - but the joy of it for me is diluted when it begins in November

[gfwgfw]

For all of you misguided creatures, the origin of “Christmas”, was what was originally known as “Saturnalia”.

Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, which was a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17th and December 25th. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the celebration.

The festival began with each Roman community choosing “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” They selected a victim whom they then forced to indulge in food and many physical pleasures throughout the celebration. At the festival’s conclusion on December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.

By the 4th century CE, Christianity had imported the Saturnalia festival into their own tradition and by doing so hoped to eventually conjoin with the pagan majority and thus eventually destroy the pagan beliefs. The Christian leaders succeeded in converting many pagans to Christianity by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia.

The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.

Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”

So there you go, all of you misguided creatures are unwittingly celebrating an old pagan Roman celebration. One of many I might add.

OMG

We are doooomed doooomed


Lubbboooo just a tad . . .

Graham

[gfwgfw]

The Giant is rather partial to a special Christmas Mince Pie from our upmarket food emporium


Bunged a couple of packs in my shopping mobile

Advisory date . . .

Best before 25/11/15

[Silver_Shiney]

Mid-December is plenty early enough to start putting up the decorations otherwise, as Merv says, the "specialness" is diluted. How do you tell children they have to wait two, three months for it when it's shoved in their little faces every day? It's getting out of hand.

[Dark Knight]

24th of December is early enough and the 26th is quite late enough for it to finish, after all its just a marketing ploy to get the gullible to buy more of everything and to be emotionally blackmailed into buying presents for everyone , you have ever said more than 2 words to
the meaning of xmas is greed and excess, nothing more

[towny44]

I quite like an occasional bit of greed and excess, it livens up the normal and humdrum.

[oldbluefox]

Isn't there a fine line between greed and excess and having a good time/treat. It's all subjective anyway? What is normal living to some will appear as greed and excess to others. It's a poor tale if we can't let down our hair (or what's left of it) from time to time.

[qbman1]

Stephen let down his hair - and look what happened there !

[suespud]

24th of December is early enough and the 26th is quite late enough for it to finish, after all its just a marketing ploy to get the gullible to buy more of everything and to be emotionally blackmailed into buying presents for everyone , you have ever said more than 2 words to
the meaning of xmas is greed and excess, nothing more

Whilst yes there will be presents bought for some people, lots of things are hand made.
My Xmas cakes are gifts for friends and family, made with Love (and lots of rum) .
The kids make cards and little tree deorations.
My daughter does crochet and makes things for family and friends.
I make fudge and jam and chutneys.


Its about spending time with family and friends, making memories.
Yes we eat and drink..and have yummy things that we dont have every day.
what is so wrong with that?
We have busy lives..so if for two weeks of the year we go mad a bit so what..its fun !!!

Yes I prepare cakes from october and start collecting Christmas stuff early on...and my trees are going up in weekend afer next, but it can be a lovely magical time time of year for everyone, if you embrace thats its a time of closeness and family and sharing and making memories.

[Dark Knight]

it is a bloated ,commercial con, perpetuated by greeting card companies, supermarkets and toy manufacturers.
the common xmas is nothing but a sham, all this rubbish about it being a magical time, blah,blah blah, is a made up fantasy
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
So to all you Christmas fanatics, who don't do religion and don't celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, you are not celebrating xmas, you have just been sucked in to a money making machine and are too gullible to see it or too ashamed to admit you were conned by the media and retail industries

[qbman1]

You should join us on a Christmas cruise !

[suespud]

it is a bloated ,commercial con, perpetuated by greeting card companies, supermarkets and toy manufacturers.
the common xmas is nothing but a sham, all this rubbish about it being a magical time, blah,blah blah, is a made up fantasy
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
So to all you Christmas fanatics, who don't do religion and don't celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, you are not celebrating xmas, you have just been sucked in to a money making machine and are too gullible to see it or too ashamed to admit you were conned by the media and retail industries

What a sad bitter individual you come across as, surely this is a wind up..

I am a christian, I know the meaning of Christmas, I also know how magical it can be. I know I have not been sucked into anything.
I do what I to do because it is good to be amongst family and friends and spend time with the people we love and care about.

[qbman1]

I know exactly what he means, Spuddy, although I wouldn't have put it in quite those terms ! I do think it is all too commercialised, which is one of the reasons that we like to escape on a Christmas Cruise each year now. Yes, I know it is all very Christmas-themed on board but, apart from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, you are not force-fed Christmas and don't have the legacy of three months' worth of food left over! At the end of the day, it is whatever suits you and your family and you seem to do a lot of stuff yourselves which is more my idea of a traditional Christmas

[Quizzical Bob]

it is a bloated ,commercial con, perpetuated by greeting card companies, supermarkets and toy manufacturers.
the common xmas is nothing but a sham, all this rubbish about it being a magical time, blah,blah blah, is a made up fantasy
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God.
So to all you Christmas fanatics, who don't do religion and don't celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, you are not celebrating xmas, you have just been sucked in to a money making machine and are too gullible to see it or too ashamed to admit you were conned by the media and retail industries

What a sad bitter individual you come across as, surely this is a wind up..

I am a christian, I know the meaning of Christmas, I also know how magical it can be. I know I have not been sucked into anything.
I do what I to do because it is good to be amongst family and friends and spend time with the people we love and care about.

You can do that at any time of the year, not just at Christmas.

I repeat, it isn't anywhere near Christmas yet. I agree with DK about the constant commercialism which begins in September and dilutes the whole seasonal experience. Added to that is the fact that Britain virtually closes down for three weeks whilst the rest of the world goes on spinning.

[oldbluefox]

What a sad bitter individual you come across as, surely this is a wind up..

I am a christian, I know the meaning of Christmas, I also know how magical it can be. I know I have not been sucked into anything.
I do what I to do because it is good to be amongst family and friends and spend time with the people we love and care about.

You are right Sue. Whilst I disapprove of all the shops being decorated for Christmas months before it happens, and those who spend beyond their means, it is a time for being with friends and family and those we care about whilst also reflecting on those less fortunate than ourselves.
Of course we can buy into the commercialism (and even a Christmas Cruise is a commercial venture) but if that's how people choose to celebrate Christmas I see nothing wrong with it. Hopefully those going away for Christmas will have a great time, I'll be spending mine in UK down in Leicester with my family (and there won't be much food left, if any, after Christmas).

[qbman1]

Sad but true - Christmas = Commercialism

I can understand, however, that with large families, often spread across the country or even beyond and with work commitments, then Christmas is often the only time when everyone can get together

[Raybosailor]

This year will a very different one for us. Our son, will be, as always, abroad, our eldest daughter is going to her new In-laws and our second daughter will - God willing - have her baby home from hospital, probably only just home by then and they will need to be on their own as a new family. So we shall be on our own, for the first time in nearly 40 years. But I know we shall talk to them all on Skype or FaceTime sometime during the day.

While it will be different, we are quite looking forward to a change - though charades with just two of us will be very different indeed. On the plus side, we will be able to watch Downton totally uninterrupted!

We are in the same boat as you and Tony Gill, our son and daughter both have new homes and want to do their own thing so Cheryl and I would be "Home Alone" at Christmas so we might decide to go away for a few days.

How are things with your new grandchild Gill ?, being in France with limited access to the internet I have lost track of the Cruise Community chat in recent weeks.

[qbman1]

Ray - Just in case Gill is not online in the next day or so (and at the risk of incurring the wrath of the ModPlods by going off-topic!) the update and some lovely photos are on here:

https://www.cruise-community.me.uk/view ... 3&start=30

[Dancing Queen]

I love Christmas and everything leading up to it it can never start too soon imo I'm already playing Xmas cd's in my car.

Can't wait for January for the Easter Eggs to be in the shops

[qbman1]

We are in the same boat as you and Tony Gill, our son and daughter both have new homes and want to do their own thing so Cheryl and I would be "Home Alone" at Christmas so we might decide to go away for a few days.

What you need is a Christmas Cruise !!

[qbman1]

I love Christmas and everything leading up to it it can never start too soon imo I'm already playing Xmas cd's in my car.

Can't wait for January for the Easter Eggs to be in the shops

You need treatment DQ !! A psychoanalyst's dream !

[Raybosailor]

For my wife Christmas starts as soon as the shops sell off their unsold Christmas stock, she will often go out to get milk and bread and come back with bags full of cut price stuff that she puts away for Christmas.

I am a bit of a humbug regarding Christmas but I suppose that is partly due to the fact that I was often on call out duty over the Christmas season so would have to stay sober just in case the phone rang.

Over in France the villages and towns are already trimmed up and the shops are selling Christmas fare so it is not just a British thing, the children of France usually open their gifts at lunchtime on Christmas Eve which is when french families have their big feast that lasts for 6/8 hours. Christmas day is more like our Boxing day where families just chill out with the remains of the previous days food and drink.

The grand kids usually bully me into putting up the Crimble tree and they take great pride in dressing it with the help of Cheryl but I take great pride in demolishing it and stashing it away in the loft after Christmas ( perhaps that's why they call me Ebeneezer).

Humbug

[Raybosailor]

We are in the same boat as you and Tony Gill, our son and daughter both have new homes and want to do their own thing so Cheryl and I would be "Home Alone" at Christmas so we might decide to go away for a few days.

What you need is a Christmas Cruise !!

We have one booked for next Christmas qbman E625, but nothing for this year.