Grasshopper Green

Yes, I know it seems a bit early for a post like this, but I've become curious about this topic in the past week or so. As many of you know, I work in a grocery store. Earlier this week, we put our first Christmas display up - at the front of the store - where there is no Halloween stuff yet. The products on display are in the ad this week....and Halloween has yet to go on sale or be displayed in the ad. I went shopping two weeks ago and the department store I was in was in the middle of putting their Christmas display up. I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who has already been bombarded with holiday displays.

So, this is what I have been thinking about. Christ's birth doesn't seem to be the "reason for the season" anymore, buying stuff does. Christmas doesn't seem to be a religious holiday anymore, just a commercial one. The only religious person I really know is my mom, who doesn't really celebrate it; everyone else I know celebrates it. I personally celebrate it, even though I'm not religious; for me it is time to spend with my family. I grew up in a Christian religion that didn't celebrate Christmas, so I love it now that I make my own decisions, especially now that I have a child. However, I'm finding myself more jaded towards the holiday as mass commercialism is taking over and making everything about spending money, and not spending time. I guess I'm just wondering what everyone here thinks, particularly religious TFP'ers, about the meaning of Christmas in current times. Why do you celebrate it, or choose not to?

I found a similar thread about the commercial aspect in general, but I'm really trying to get to the religious aspect of this, and how it affects others here.

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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa