December 22 2002

The British Red Cross has ordered a near total ban of Christmas decorations from its charity shops so as not to offend Muslims, a London newspaper reported yesterday.

"We put up a nativity scene in the window and were told to take it out," Christine Banks, a volunteer at a Red Cross shop in Kent county, southern England, told the Daily Mail tabloid.

"It seems we can't have anything that means Christmas. We're allowed to have some tinsel but that's it ... We were told it is because we must not upset Muslims," Banks added.

Confirming the ban at the charity's 430 shops, a spokesman for the British Red Cross told the paper: "The Red Cross is a neutral organisation and we don't want to be aligned with any political party or particular philosophy".

"We don't want to be seen as a Christian or Islamic or Jewish organisation because that might compromise our ability to work in conflict situations around the world."

The spokesman added: "In shops people can put up decorations like tinsel or snow which is seasonal. But the guidance is that things representative of Christmas cannot be shown".

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2002

Answers

How about offending the Christians? No one seems to care about that? I do not claim to be Christian because of the born-agains, but give me a break. Grrrr - don't get me started.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2002

just wait until the schools start suspending kids for making snow-angels.

we had a letter going around work that upset a lot of people. No decorations that said Merry Christmas or Happy Hanuka, no virgin mary pictures [have you seen our stamps?]

that was Monday. Thursday the plant manager came round and said to ignore the letter because it hadn't been cleared thru her. So, we can decorate for the holiday, but most who had already and removed it didn't bother putting it back up.

That was why I posted that link to the history of Christmas. the christians shanghaied it. The holiday is 4000 years old, yes, 4 thousand. Probably older.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

We had extended-family Christmases when I was a child. The Christmas holiday lasted through New Year's Day and the whole family went to grandma's house. The kids often stayed longer than the holiday period, depending on school requirements.

Not one of the family went to church on Christmas Eve, even though they went throughout the year and Grandma was a Sunday School teacher. Even I sang in the choir at our local church back then, but not at Christmas. It wasn't a religious holiday, it was a break from the cold, nasty winter in painfully unheated homes and a celebration of a return to gift-giving after the war. Dad's mother's house was perfect, with Uncle Stan and Aunt Muriel's house for New Year's Day, because they all still lived in the mining village and had plenty of free coal for lovely warmth. I still remember those roaring fires and the "black-leaded stoves" that produced wonderful turkeys, Christmas puds and mince pies, among other goodies.

We might listen to the Christmas Eve service from St. Paul's Cathedral until TV came along, then we watched it. We'd listen to the Queen's speech too. There would be some Christmas cards with Nativity scenes. Other than that, religion wasn't a factor. Same with Easter. It was a celebration of spring, a time for rare sweets and, even rarer, new clothes. We might go to Easter services but that's not what stands out in my mind--I renmember the chocolate Easter eggs and new clothes, though!

I'm getting very weary of political correctness. I shall still insist on calling it "Christmas" and saying "Merry Christmas" to all and sundry. I shall still say "Happy Easter." Screw 'em. If a stranger corrects me, I shall say, "How rude!" and keep on keepin' on. If a friend does it, we shall have a little talk.

Imagine a reading of Scrooge without being able to say Christmas throughout. Pah! Bah humbug! Merry Christmas, y'all!

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

I forgot to add that although there were cards saying "Season's Greetings," it meant Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. New Year's Day dinner is as important as Christmas Day dinner--and no bloody ball games, either! Just a family thing.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

Kwanzaa starts Dec 26. the guy chose that time because of Christmas. it's a celebration of black history in Africa and the US in a sense. The candle part is like a take off of Haunuakaua/chanaka whatever. Except the candles are three different colors, the first being black.

I seriously doubt anyone at work will say Happy Kwanzaa to a white person. Perhaps the other way around, but still the odds are not favorable.

You know, we have Black History month, February, and Hispanic Heritage month, Aug/Sept or something, but no White history month. I suppose it would incourage the KKK to perform. Is there a jewish history month? I don't think so.

I say the hell with anyone who cannot enjoy the Christmas holiday season. It's so commercialized now that to not acknowledge it in some way is very hard indeed.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

December 21, 2002, 12:45 p.m.

Merry Christmas to My Jewish Mother

Growing up with a menorah and a tree.

By Dave Konig

Like most Jewish mothers, mine had an almost supernatural talent for saying just the right thing in any given situation to drive me completely insane. One example (chosen at random from a storehouse of several million): When I called her with the news that, after years of struggling in the outer regions of show business, I had finally landed a big role on Broadway, she responded, "Well, you keep at it dear, things should work out eventually.…"

Don't get me wrong, she wasn't a pessimist. In fact, she always looked on the bright side — it's just that her brain worked faster than her mouth and sometimes her thoughts came out a little, well, fershimilled. She was a confounding, but fascinating, woman. Opinionated, compulsive, talkative, extremely bright, and extremely short. She read voraciously and indiscriminately; always working on several books at once. And, as if that wasn't enough simultaneous intellectual stimulation, she played elaborate word games with the books she was reading. As she read, she would write down the first word of the first paragraph of each page on a little memo pad and then proceed to make little checkmarks for each time that word would appear in the rest of the book. Her entire life she was always surrounded by hundreds of books and thousands of little memo pads filled with words and checkmarks.

Her spiritual life was equally peripatetic: She was Jewish, we were Jewish, but she had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a core restlessness that led to a lifelong self-education in theology — and a more-than-occasional dabbling in alternative spiritual paths. For a while she was very interested in Christian Science, the writings of Bishop Fulton Sheen were always comforting to her, and, as an on-again-off-again member of Overeaters Anonymous, she had a more than passing acquaintance with the 12 steps of recovery.

For her, none of this was ever a substitute for Judaism, or a rejection of it. To the contrary, she felt it made her a better Jew; the more she learned and understood about the religions of the world, great and small, the closer she felt to God and the more tolerant she was of her fellow man — and wasn't that the whole point of being a good Jew?

My mother loved Christmas. My parents believed, quite simply, that Christmas was a heck of a lot of fun — especially for kids — and we weren't about to let a little thing like the fact that we were Jewish get in the way of the fun! So, like a good All-American Jewish family, we lit the Hanukah menorah for eight nights, then got up early on Christmas Day to open the presents Santa Claus had left under the Christmas tree. We wished each other "Merry Christmas" (for those under 30, "Merry Christmas" was a happy phrase — people used to say it to each other all the time, up until a few years ago).

A few years ago my mother contracted colon cancer. She was only 67 — it was a bad break for a great gal who had a tough life. In the end she was cared for 'round the clock in an incredible facility: Mary Manning Walsh on the east side of Manhattan. She died on the sixth floor, loved and comforted and eased into the next life by some of the most wonderful people on earth: Gloria, George, Nurse Jackson, Conchita, Theresa. And, of course, prayed for by Sister Noreen and all the loving nuns and priests at this Catholic institution.

It's been five years now. Like a good Jewish boy I think of her at this time of year. Merry Christmas, Mom.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

Christmas without Christ fine by many

By Thomas Hargrove and Guido H. Stemple III Scripps Howard News Service December 21, 2002

Nearly half of adult Americans report they personally know someone who doesn't believe in God but still will celebrate the Yuletide this year, according to a survey of 1,001 people conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Significantly more people will set up a Christmas tree than will attend a worship service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. And Americans overwhelmingly believe the holiday has become less focused on the birth of Jesus than it used to be.

"Historically, it has been a struggle for America to find meaningful holidays that include a broad number of people. But Christmas seems to have many modes of interpretation upon which we can set our own personal needs," said University of Texas historian Penne Restad, author of the scholarly book Christmas in America: A History.

"Christmas has become as much a celebration of community as it has a celebration of religion," she said.

The survey asked if "you, personally, know anyone who does not believe in God but still celebrates Christmas?" Forty-five percent answered yes, 51 percent said no and 4 percent were undecided.

"Sure I know people like that. I'm one of them," said New Yorker Ron Barrier, a leader of American Atheists, a 2,500-member national group. "I believe the holidays are a great tradition regardless of the underlying basis for them. It's a wonderful time of celebration and a gathering of friends and family."

Barrier said he and many other atheists enjoy celebrating the slew of early winter holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and even the winter solstice.

"There is that old tradition that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. I certainly don't want to be an isolationist," Barrier said. "Christmas is seductive. I love this time of year. And it does seem that people behave a little better around the holidays, and that's always good."

Other poll findings:

# Younger Americans are significantly more likely to say they know an atheist or agnostic who celebrates Christmas than do people who are 45 years of age or older. People living on or near the West Coast are most likely to say they know a nonbeliever who celebrates while Southerners were least likely.

# About 80 percent plan to decorate a Christmas tree this year, including 68 percent of the people surveyed who said they have no religious preference. (About a tenth of American adults routinely answer "none" when asked if they have a religious preference.)

# Sixty-two percent expect to attend a Christmas religious service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

# Fifty-seven percent reported that Christmas is their favorite holiday.

# Eighty-seven percent said they think the holiday has "become less religious than it used to be" while 11 percent believe most people still "focus on the birth of Jesus at Christmas time." Two percent were undecided.

"A kind of nostalgia has established itself around Christmas," Restad said. "Americans often say that we have to get back on track, morally. And there is the effect of the loss of our youth. In my youth, it seems we had better Christmases. The packages seemed bigger, the trees prettier."

The poll was conducted at the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University. Residents of the United States were interviewed by telephone Oct. 13-28 in a study funded by a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation.

The poll has an overall 4 percentage point margin of error, although the margin increases when examining attitudes among smaller groups within the survey. The margin of error on how many Americans with no religious preference will decorate Christmas trees, for example, is 9 percentage points.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

The sci fi channel is doing an In Search Of.. marathon. I caught one episode that talked about a priest in France that allegedly found information hidden in the altar that may have suggested that Jesus didn't die on the cross.

In the church this priest was at there is a mural showing the body being put into the tomb, but he was buried in the daytime and the mural has a full moon in it.

Hmmm...

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2002