Non-Christians Celebrating Christmas

[Ree]

Does your company officially call their year-end bonuses "Christmas" bonuses, or are they just known that way colloquially among the staff?

Actually, yes they do call them a "Christmas Bonus", and they are given out with the word "Merry Christmas from..." on the bottom of the paystub. They used to be given in Christmas cards when we were still being issued cheques rather than electronic deposit.

In any case, I don't see anything wrong with a non-Christian accepting a year-end bonus that is given out around the holidays. Even if the company is officially giving them out as "Christmas" gifts.

I have no problem with non-Christians getting year end bonus, or even a Christmas bonus, at all.

My problem was with people who don't celebrate Christmas and condemn everything related to Christmas yet have no problem with that Christmas payout.

Again, what companies need to do is to stop associating Christmas with those types of things.
If they're a year end bonus then call it that.

Not all places give the cash bonuses.
Some give turkeys or gift baskets.
Those are more along the line of a Christmas gift, and I have yet to see any of these same people refuse on principle.

I don't begrudge them. I just think it's funny.

I really have no problem with anyone celebrating what they want.

However, the point was raised at the beginning of the thread

Some people think that people who do not follow the Christian faith are being hypocritical if they celebrate Christmas.

I thought that was something that was being brought up to be discussed, so I pointed out my side of that argument.

I think it's hypocritical, but I'm not going to go picket your driveway for having "Merry Christmas" across your lawn when you haven't darkened the doors of a church in years, or even in your lifetime.

I celebrate Christmas in my own way with a focus on the celebration of Christ's birth.

You celebrate it your way.

Do I wish you would call it something else? Yes.
Am I going to make a big deal of it and call you on it? No.

I'll just smile to myself and live and let live.

[Boozy]

My problem was with people who don't celebrate Christmas and condemn everything related to Christmas yet have no problem with that Christmas payout.

When you put it that way, I have to agree with you. It's one thing for a non-Christian to participate in certain non-religious aspects of Christmas, like Santa Claus and Christmas trees. But it's another to actively condemn everything to do with Christmas, and then accept a Christmas bonus. I would consider that hypocritical as well.

But I don't really know anyone like that, either.

[Flyndaran]

When you put it that way, I have to agree with you. It's one thing for a non-Christian to participate in certain non-religious aspects of Christmas, like Santa Claus and Christmas trees. But it's another to actively condemn everything to do with Christmas, and then accept a Christmas bonus. I would consider that hypocritical as well.

But I don't really know anyone like that, either.

It's only hypocrisy if gift giving is only to do with Christmas. Just because I give something to my girlfriend on December 25th, does not mean it has anything to do with Christmas.

[Boozy]

No, but Ree specified that her company specifically calls the gifts "Christmas gifts". The paystubs say "Merry Christmas". The money is specified as a celebration of Christmas.

[Flyndaran]

No, but Ree specified that her company specifically calls the gifts "Christmas gifts". The paystubs say "Merry Christmas". The money is specified as a celebration of Christmas.

Then I would be angry at the company for christmas-crapping on my gift pay. I would still take it.
Turning down legal money is dumb.

[jackfaire]

I was raised in a non christian household by parents who thought they were Christians, OK to be fair my dad simply felt, "There is a god and she is laughing at us,", my mom dragged us to church about three times. Christmas for us was about family, love, and togetherness.

These are not things, no offense, that I ever associated with any of the christian churches my mom took us too. My family was poor and I mean one step away from living in a shelter poor. The only reason we lived in the neighborhood we did was that my grandmother bought our family a house.

I think of it now and it makes me want to cry with how lucky I was growing up. Every year my whole family would gather in the living room pass out meager gifts my siblings and I having bought little trinkets that our parents gave us the money for.

When I turned 11 my dad finally got his bachelor's degree a great job and started making good money but you know what I didn't care. Christmas was when I was 8 and my parents scrimped and saved to buy me a camera that is what Christmas is.

Not because I got the camera but because my parents loved me that much.

I say if your christian, Jewish, buddhist or even Spaghetti Monster Christmas is a holidy for togetherness, love and family no matter where you find it or how poor you are because you know what George Bailey got it right in the end.

[kiwi]

Christmas has become more than a religious holiday for many cultures. It is seen among many as a day for families to gather and have fun.

It has been stated 59639373 freaking times that the date of christs birth is noth December 25th and that the Catholic church took over many pagen celebration dates and assigned their religious holidays to take place instead. So really Christmas day is much like Queens birthday, which is not celebrated on the Queens actual brithday (Victoria Day) for Canadians. It is just a symbolic refrerence that has been attached to the day.

Does that mean if you only get the day off if you are a monarchist? All the people who don't believe in the Queen has a god given right to be the ...well Queen should be at work.

thats my take on it anyway

[Lace Neil Singer]

That's what I'm saying. Who cares?

I mean, I agree that it's not technically "Christmas", but it's not something I care about one way or the other. How I celebrate and what I believe is my business. Same for everyone else.

Exactly. Besides, where I come from telling people "Happy Winterval" or "Merry Winter Celebration" would get a "Lolwut?" in the first breath and a query about how much you've had to drink in the second. So pardon me if I call it Christmas.

[BlaqueKatt]

Exactly. Besides, where I come from telling people "Happy Winterval" or "Merry Winter Celebration" would get a "Lolwut?"

Yuletide greetings?
Happy Festivus?

[Fryk]

Actually, wouldn't it only be hypocritical if you said you hate christianity and that it should be done away with, and THEN celebrated christmas?

I fail to see how simply celebrating another faith's holiday would be hypocritical.

[kiwi]

happy festivus?

happy festivus!!!!!!

[BroomJockey]

I fail to see how simply celebrating another faith's holiday would be hypocritical.

No, but potentially seen as rude and dis...err. I forgot the word I'm looking for (not disrespectful), since if it isn't your faith, you're less likely to honour the holiday properly.

[guywithashovel]

I fail to see how simply celebrating another faith's holiday would be hypocritical.

On another board that I go to, there is a Jewish woman who often says that non-Jews are more than welcome to join them in celebration of Jewish holidays.

Though, I'm actually a lot like Lace in this respect. Every year around Christmas, I look at it as an end-of-the-year celebration for getting together with family and reflecting on the past year. Though when pressed to, I usually stick with the name Christmas so as to avoid confusion (I don't feel like explaining myself over and over again).

Though, just to consider another point, I don't think there's much doubt that there was a Jesus or at least a Jesus-like person who lived in the Middle East approximately 2,000 years ago. I guess a non-Christian could just think of it as a celebration of the birth of a very influential man, even if they didn't see him as divine.

However, I'm sure most Christians acknowledge the days of the week and months of the year (many of which were named after old pagan deities), so the hypocritical accusation could easily be reversed on them.

[AdminAssistant]

On another board that I go to, there is a Jewish woman who often says that non-Jews are more than welcome to join them in celebration of Jewish holidays.

All of the Jewish people I know (and granted, that isn't many) have expressed similar opinions.

One of my professors (Jewish) had invited us to her house to watch a movie we didn't have time for in class. (We're a small class, and it was optional.) The movie was Mephisto, and it's excellent. At any rate, since it was Friday, she pulled out some hallah (sp?) and a dish with honey and said, "Before we begin, let's break bread!" It was a nice little thing. I always appreciate people that are so open, because I'm just really curious about other cultures and religions and stuff.

[Kimmik]

"Origin and development

The early Christian community distinguished between the identification of the date of Jesus’ birth and the liturgical celebration of that event. The actual observance of the day of Jesus’ birth was long in coming. In particular, during the first two centuries of Christianity there was strong opposition to recognizing birthdays of martyrs or, for that matter, of Jesus. Numerous Church Fathers offered sarcastic comments about the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays when, in fact, saints and martyrs should be honoured on the days of their martyrdom—their true “birthdays,” from the church’s perspective.

The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices."

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Personally I feel that it is a sucky thing to just remember Jesus on two days of the year.. the day he was born and the day he rose. I guess I am like the founders that way. I celebrate Christmas the old father Christmas way. It is a time of giving, not big shiny objects, but rather gifts from the heart. It is a magical time of year.. the elves, the raindeer, the special feeling as the year is coming to a close and all things are possible.

Strangers wishing joy to one another, a time to wonder in childhood innocence at the magical feeling in the air. To enjoy hot coco and the lights twinkling in the snow. To remember that giving is better then receiving... That a simple gift of mittens might mean the world to someone homeless, or remember that it is one time of the year that social standings have no meaning that in the big picture it is not about what you get but the act of giving that may, even for that brief moment, make a difference to someone.