Ask Lemmy

The War on Christmas will continue until Christmas ends its illegal occupation of October.

My stepdad, before he died. He simultaneously told me I was fighting a War On Christmas, while also telling I should volunteer to work instead of decorating and making a nice dinner, because "it's not your holiday."

I used to tell my sociology classes, we Americans are very confused people. None more so than Conservatives.

If there's such a war, Christmas is winning. It's conquered Thanksgiving and is marching on Halloween.

Me. The SAM sites are armed. That magical son of a bitch won't get away this time.

I know at least 5 and all of them believe Christians are a strongly persecuted minority group.

Most of the people I know who endorse this view would assent to it because it is consistent with how they feel about the world around them, not because it is a proposition they have seriously considered.

It just feels like everyone hates Christians, so if someone told them they were being persecuted, they would agree. In the same way, it just feels like nefarious forces are trying to "ban Christmas", so when idiots on TV claim that is whats happening, they nod their heads along. When challenged they just retreat into ignorance, saying things like "well that's what I've heard" or "I have no idea about that", because ideas like "the war on Christmas" are not factual claims about the world, they are expressions of sentiments about what the world is like.

One of my coworkers is a militant atheist metalhead. He's also fully maga cult. He's been ranting about people saying 'happy holidays' all week. It's a bizarre contradiction.

The war is real, but the lines are just dramatically stupider than some think. It's the same culture war we're fighting elsewhere, the point of the war is establishing that one singular point of view is the default and the others are invalid.

The war isn't about being able to say "Merry Christmas", the war is about whether it's okay to say anything else.

Oh absolutely. Every Catholic I knew growing up definitely believed that, and very much thought that Christians were the most oppressed religious group in the country, if not the world. My family still have a “Keep Christ in Christmas” magnet on their fridge

Yes, unfortunately. Or at least seems to.

This person was an eye-opener for me in terms of how deep political groupthink and unquestioning belief can go. He's an intelligent person in a highly technical position that requires plenty of reasoning and thought, but if the right political commentator says something, it is absolute truth.

My mother once said she didn't appreciate how "the gays have to be so in your face about it." I guess some gay guys trapped her and made her watch them make out. Cause, you know, they're so in our faces about it.

I've never heard anyone actually say they believed in the war on xmas, but if anyone would, my mom proves they could be real. I cut her out of my life this year.

When I worked at Borders, back when it existed, I was allowed to say whatever exit phrase when finishing registers. I always said Happy Holidays starting end of November.

I had two people tell me no, it's Merry Christmas. To which both times I responded "I'm Jewish. Happy Holidays. "

One of them just gathered her stuff and left without a word. The second got that puckered face like you ate a lemon and she fucking stormed out.

No complaints though so. I kept saying it. I didn't care if people said Merry Christmas back to me.

Er, in short, I'd think those two people would have thought I was warring against Christmas.

At least two people in my friends list have posted the 'It's not Happy Holidays, it's Merry Christmas' meme on Facebook. Unsurprisingly, they're both white guys in their 60s with bald / shaved heads. Both decent guys who help their friends and community, but are sliding more and more into this bullshit.

It's fucking depressing

There's a reason Santa is tracked by NORAD.

(No)

There is no war on Christmas as far as I know. So I'm going to guess it's another dumb American thing?

I live in Denmark, and while the celebration is absolutely christianised, it's sill called "Juletide" here. "Yule" or "Yule-tide" in English. Which refers to the original winter celebration before it got subjugated.

Well, there sort of was a war, but it was conducted by a Protestant group that famously helped settle America, the Puritans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery" or the "rags of the Beast".[50] In contrast, the established Anglican Church "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party".[51] The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity.[42] Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647.[50][52] Oliver Cromwell even ordered his troops to confiscate any special meals made on Christmas Day.[53]

Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans.[50] Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.[54] The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing.[55] During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.[56]

Christmas was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England.[56] Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebrations. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant.[57] The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days".[58] Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been a customary holiday since time immemorial, it was not until 1871 that it was designated a bank holiday in Scotland.[59] The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years.[60]

As in England, Puritans in Colonial America staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas.[61] The Pilgrims of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally.[61] Puritans such as Cotton Mather condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of the day often involved boisterous behavior.[62][63] Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England.[64] Christmas observance was outlawed in Boston in 1659.[61] The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor Edmund Andros, but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.[65]

yes, I believe there is a war on Christmas, because I hate Christmas and want it to die.

Anyone who watches conservative media in the US and UK. Within the last week when the President of the United States was berating the country during a special address about how he's really doing a good job even though everyone's worse off, one of his points was that saying Merry Christmas was banned under the previous president.

I think I'd just laugh if I heard that IRL, lol. You're gonna tell me I've been listening to Mariah Carey everywhere I go nonstop for a month for no reason?!

No.

Like “woke”, their wars on whatever are just stand-ins for everything they don’t like or might force them to exert brainpower that potentially endangers their mental gymnastics.

No but I limit who I interact with based on how normal they are about me being trans. The war on Christmas is part of the culture war bs. Also I'm pagan and don't hide it

I take the Christ out of Xmas when and wherever possible…

Sam Seder seemed prwtty serious in his commentary years ago.