{"id":321,"date":"2010-12-25T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-25T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity\/"},"modified":"2010-12-25T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-25T11:06:00","slug":"christmas-stop-the-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html","title":{"rendered":"Christmas \u2013 Stop the Insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
There has been a rash of activity on the Pagan side of the internet this week about Christmas and what \u2013 if anything \u2013 those of us who aren\u2019t Christians should be doing with it. It began with this Wild Hunt post<\/a> by Jason Pitlz-Waters, which summarized his entry on The Washington Post\u2019s \u201cOn Faith\u201d question \u201cwhat is Christmas all about?<\/a>\u201d Jason basically argues that much of Christmas comes from older, pagan, universal Winter traditions, and thus belongs to everyone.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thorn Coyle took another angle<\/a>, arguing that Christmas has become a Frankenstein\u2019s monster that does a disservice to the true meanings of both the Christian and the Pagan holidays. Follow-up posts here<\/a> and here<\/a> generated a ton of commentary, ranging from the supportive to the insightful to the incendiary.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
While the tone of Jason\u2019s original essay was light and positive and I generally agree with his thoughts, ultimately I think Thorn is right \u2013 the \u201ctraditional\u201d American Christmas is a monster than needs to be destroyed. And here\u2019s why.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My mother is retired and living on the proverbial \u201cfixed income.\u201d She has her savings and in general she\u2019s doing OK (and would be doing better if some other relatives would stop asking for money, but that\u2019s another rant for another time), but she can\u2019t afford to spend a ton of money on Christmas presents. Yet every year, she does. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This year, as every year, she asks me what I want for Christmas. This year, as every year, I try to talk her down, name things that are simple and inexpensive. And this year, as most years, when I open her gift I find something I don\u2019t need and don\u2019t really want.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My mother spent money she needs for other things to buy me something I don\u2019t need, don\u2019t want, and can\u2019t use. Now I have to lie my mother and tell her how much I like it, so I don\u2019t make things worse. Why? Because of the \u201cChristmas spirit?\u201d Because of love and generosity? <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
No, because of social expectations. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The marketing-driven consumer orgy that is Christmas must die. Look at the car commercials \u2013 you should give your spouse a car for Christmas??? It\u2019s no accident that the biggest auto advertisers are Lexus and Mercedes. Jewelry commercials? These messages trickle down to the rest of us, pushing us to participate in this monstrosity.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Celebrate the birth of Jesus or the rebirth of the Sun. Gather with friends and family and your co-religionists. Celebrate \u2013 sensibly, sanely, sustainably. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But stop the insanity.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019m off to a family dinner. Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, and blessed be.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a rash of activity on the Pagan side of the internet this week about Christmas and what \u2013 if anything \u2013 those of us who aren\u2019t Christians should be doing with it. It began with this Wild Hunt post by Jason Pitlz-Waters, which summarized his entry on The Washington Post\u2019s \u201cOn Faith\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas \u2013 Stop the Insanity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There has been a rash of activity on the Pagan side of the internet this week about Christmas and what \u2013 if anything \u2013 those of us who aren\u2019t Christians\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas \u2013 Stop the Insanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There has been a rash of activity on the Pagan side of the internet this week about Christmas and what \u2013 if anything \u2013 those of us who aren\u2019t Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-25T11:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html\",\"name\":\"Christmas \u2013 Stop the Insanity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-25T11:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-25T11:06:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"There has been a rash of activity on the Pagan side of the internet this week about Christmas and what \u2013 if anything \u2013 those of us who aren\u2019t Christians\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/12\/christmas-stop-the-insanity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Christmas \u2013 Stop the Insanity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. 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