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[iamamjbeliever]

[YouRnotAlone7]

Speaking for myself, I celebrate Christmas as the Birth of Christ. I never taught my kid's about Santa, but we always put up a tree with decorations.  For us, it is a celebration of Christ....even if it may not be his "official" birthdate.  Even if it does have Pagen origins, I think it's what you believe that matters.  What should be banned is Halloween...but that can also be turned around for good by celebrating the Harvest and dressing like good things and not demons.

[Aidan_81]

 Decorating tree with stuff and... of course pagan! Duh.
Here [Russia] we don't celebrate Christmas that way, or at least tree is not really for
Xmas here [Jan 7th is our Christmas and church was not a fan of people putting up trees],
ours was named New Year tree decades ago and that spares all the "pagan tree for Christian
Holiday?!" questions - I adore my New Year Holiday trees and celebrate New Year night with
trees, lights and gifts simply as the night of new year beginning  ::)
Perfectly secular, can be celebrated any way you want - with family, at the night club, on
the street. Christmas itself is less celebrated and is totally religious and fairly modest
compared to New Year.

[trublu]

Perfectly secular, can be celebrated any way you want - with family, at the night club, on
the street. .

I dressed up as a christmas tree and hit the nightclub! Most fun I've had in ages!!

[melody]

Perfectly secular, can be celebrated any way you want [...]

I think that's the problem. From my studies, I've gathered that the bible tells its followers not to be like the world, not to pollute their worship of him by adopting "heathen" traditions, to not follow the ways of the nations, or imitate anything pagan, honoring their God with images even after he said not to. They've exchanged the truth for a lie; they worship him with falsehood. If Christians know the "holiday" is dishonest, they shouldn't want anything to do with it. The Israelites had a real problem with this; it would seem like history is repeating itself.

To avoid a wall of text in this post, let me just reference from biblegateway some of the verses that speak of this: [deu 12:31, 18:9, jer 10:1-4,  2 kings 17:19, rom 1:23, 25, mark 7:8, rom 12:2, james 1:27, 1 john 2:15, james 4:4].

[Tink]

Saint Nicholas was a real human being, like you or me. He did many, many wonderful things in his lifetime. He was a Bishop of Myra, and helped to feed those suffering during a famine. http://angels.about.com/od/MiraclesReligiousTexts/p/Who-Was-Saint-Nicholas-Santa-Claus.htm

I appreciate what he did for the people - I don't worship him; I celebrate him and all of those who gave up every day comforts, to help the poor. Perhaps if more of us looked at things that way, Mother Theresa would've had more help! She's also been canonized now, and rightly so.

So, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Years.

and HAPPY KWANZA!! rr/

[VeryLittleSusie]

First Christian missionairies adapted the old pagan holidays to Christianity in order to convince pagans to accept Christianity.

St. Nicholas is a great saint, a bishop -  however he is portrayed as a dwarf with a beard and in a red pajamas... This reminds a pagan troll rather than a bishop...

[Tink]

@VeryLittleSusie: You are welcome to your opinions. My father was Catholic, my mother other form of Christianity. I grew up in a rather colorful household, you might say. There are missionaries in my family, too, putting their money where their mouth is.

Shouldn't we not judge, and leave that up to God?

Aren't we suppose to love and help one another, and spread the joy around the world?
Jesus didn't go around condemning others, as far as I know. He spent his time with the poor, helping them.
How many people come out of their houses, and do that these days?

Rather than condemn art, stories, other aspects of religions, perhaps we should reach out a hand, and sing happy songs of joy of love and God!

[VeryLittleSusie]

I do not condemn - I just explain facts. I'm Catholic. I see nothing wrong with the Christmas tree. I see something wrong with St. Nicholas portrayed as dwarf.
Hugs :)

[Tink]

Who portrayed St. Nick as a dwarf? That's silly!
bearhug