Jesus, as far as we know, as far as what we can believe, was a righteous dude, and despised the rich, and advocated for the poor and downtrodden. You know, like a hippie, or a community organizer, or a Union rep, or a social worker.
Many Christmas beliefs and traditions are centuries old.....older than Christians and go far back in time to Pagans, and even father back........
Winter solstice, winter ice and snow, the death and rebirth of the Earth, charting the seasons, has a powerful pull on humans......we shall always celebrate in the days of darkness..
Christianity took the idea of the Christmas tree from 17th-century German traditions, but bringing in greenery during long dark days is easily understandable! Santa Claus and Father Christmas figures reflect Pagan ides of winter spirits that traveled the dark cold winter sky.
Puritans and Protestants hated celebrating Christmas and they, and Oliver Cromwell,1599-1658, the leader of Olde England even banned it!
Presents? yes presents! Not until the late Victorian era of the 1800s did the tradition of gifts move from New Years Day, to the birthday of Christ, the lovely day of Christmas.
Always in favor of being kinder than you have to be....we do celebrate Christmas, and other holidays that encourage kindness, charity and being with family and doing good deeds. Any excuse for a party!!
cards
Decorating the home for the holidays is such fun! so many traditions......yule logs, gifts, music, caroling, church parties, delicious meals, special cookies and cakes and pies....Whole books are written about just what can come from the holiday kitchen and dining room.
500 Cookie Recipes !! woo hoo!!
and string them along the gutters and down the sides.....that's fun when it's icy and cold. not. But it is so pretty when you are done!
Christmas decor, the evergreen trees, the holly, the twinkly lights, the nativity scenes, garlands of delicious-smelling evergreens, and wreaths, the mistletoe, .....
Don't have a real fireplace? Don't worry.....you can buy a fake one lit by a light bulb behind red plastic.....it's all good......
And need a costume to play Santa at the office party?
Here's one you can find online.........
Vintage Christmas cards are sentimental.......
find some here too.......
From Catholics we get Father Christmas, and Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, and Christkind. In The Netherlands, the Dutch, enjoy celebrating with Zwarte Piet. it's weird I know. Read about it here.
And the Germans, add a demon, named Krampus, who comes around with Santa Claus, and stuffs all the bad kids in a big sack. Quite the opposite of taking presents from a sack to give to good little boys and girls!
all about Krampus
While most of the Christian mythology is based on a book called The Bible, no one really knows the real birthday of this fella called Christ. In fact, a lot of what is written in the bible, at least as far as the some dogma of Catholicism is from Plato's Royal Lies. Heaven, purgatory, and hell, as Catholics described them in the medieval days, are traceable to the last book of Plato's Republic.
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