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Who here does not celebrate Christmas at all??

Little brother died a couple of weeks ago, not really feeling it this year, but for the sake of the kids forcing myself to go to sister in laws....sigh...
 
JEDIYoda said:
I mknow there has to be a few...….who celebrate nothing!
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I celebrate many things, but I don't celebrate the non-birthday of a person that didn't exist. My family calls themselves Christian, but most are non-religious and only identify themselves that way. They wouldn't go to church unless it the big one was coming and the church was the only fallout shelter within 100 miles. They go batshit crazy for Christmas though, no expense spared. That's what turned me off of it. If they celebrated in an understated "season of good cheer, time to be with family" kind of way I'd probably still go along with it. But as bad as it is for people who really believe in the fairy tales to get so caught up in the commercial aspects of the holiday to me it's 1000 times worse to see non-believers get so gung-ho about it. That turned me off completely and I ditched Christmas about the same time I ditched religion in general, high school. I have not participated in any aspects of the holiday for ages now and could not be happier that I get to skip it. What an incredible waste of time, effort and money for no good reason. Can't you invite your relatives over for drinks and food in the middle of February just because you want to? If the only time and the only reason you behave this way is because it's Christmas that's kind of sad.

And since the vast majority of the people in the world are non-Christian, I'm relatively sure I'm not alone in feeling that way.
 
I dont. No reason except that im just miserable most of the time.
And i cant see that "christmas is not about christ" thing. I dont celebrate Hannukah because im not particularly stoked by the rebuilding of the temple of Salomon, nor do i follow the seven principles of Kawaida, so Kwaanza is out as well.
 
GagHalfrunt said:
I celebrate many things, but I don't celebrate the non-birthday of a person that didn't exist. My family calls themselves Christian, but most are non-religious and only identify themselves that way. They wouldn't go to church unless it the big one was coming and the church was the only fallout shelter within 100 miles. They go batshit crazy for Christmas though, no expense spared. That's what turned me off of it. If they celebrated in an understated "season of good cheer, time to be with family" kind of way I'd probably still go along with it. But as bad as it is for people who really believe in the fairy tales to get so caught up in the commercial aspects of the holiday to me it's 1000 times worse to see non-believers get so gung-ho about it. That turned me off completely and I ditched Christmas about the same time I ditched religion in general, high school. I have not participated in any aspects of the holiday for ages now and could not be happier that I get to skip it. What an incredible waste of time, effort and money for no good reason. Can't you invite your relatives over for drinks and food in the middle of February just because you want to? If the only time and the only reason you behave this way is because it's Christmas that's kind of sad.

And since the vast majority of the people in the world are non-Christian, I'm relatively sure I'm not alone in feeling that way.
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I guess the point is that in the winter holidays people have the free days to actually do a big dinner with all relatives.
In mid-february someone is on holiday, everybody else is working etc.
 
I think I've reached the age of being indifferent, but this year my employer made sure its employees would go into the end of the month with a very negative demeanor as we were all informed what after the first of the year we would once again be facing more workforce reductions (and for my org that means wireless infrastructure/deployment), abolish the telecommute benefit and expectations job hunting when you are +50 years old. So, this has made it so my family will not be celebrating any holidays, not taking any vacations, etc in the foreseeable future. Happy Surplusmas!

And within twelve hours of my org being told this our VP sends out a Happy Holidays company email wishing us well and suggesting we spend the time relaxing (with depression) and our families (while we have them). Wasn't that a nice double-edge message?
 
BarkingGhostar said:
I think I've reached the age of being indifferent, but this year my employer made sure its employees would go into the end of the month with a very negative demeanor as we were all informed what after the first of the year we would once again be facing more workforce reductions (and for my org that means wireless infrastructure/deployment), abolish the telecommute benefit and expectations job hunting when you are +50 years old. So, this has made it so my family will not be celebrating any holidays, not taking any vacations, etc in the foreseeable future. Happy Surplusmas!

And within twelve hours of my org being told this our VP sends out a Happy Holidays company email wishing us well and suggesting we spend the time relaxing (with depression) and our families (while we have them). Wasn't that a nice double-edge message?
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That really sucks but, did this really come from out of the blue? Your company has no history of doing anything like this before?
 
Up until this year I would have said Yes. Previous workforce reductions resulted in dying technologies and services and those labor forces behind them becoming reduced. But in 2017 the bean counters simply slashed across the board, stopped investment in their high-margin current demand technologies and services and caused an impact to where they went from #1 to #3 in wireless service. Then they complained and slashed blindly again in Q3 because the only way to get stock prices up is to slash across the board and stop investment.

BTW, I compared my employer's stock prices for the past half-decade to their two competitors and it was clear that no decision made in the past five years has done anything to make value of the company stock. It is all the labor's fault. LOL
 
Not really.

One of the things I liked about living in Asia is they don't really practice Christmas. You aren't bombarded with Christmas ads, and you aren't pressured to buy anything.
 
Seems like the older you get the more Christmas seems like work ... hopefully grandchildren will lighten the mood at some point!

Merry Christmas anyway ATOT! 🙂
 
Mai72 said:
Not really.

One of the things I liked about living in Asia is they don't really practice Christmas. You aren't bombarded with Christmas ads, and you aren't pressured to buy anything.
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We dont buy a lot for Christmas. The kids get to choose a few things. It's more about getting family and friends around and feeding them too much food and giving them too much drink.
 
Captante said:
Seems like the older you get the more Christmas seems like work ... hopefully grandchildren will lighten the mood at some point!

Merry Christmas anyway ATOT! 🙂
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Well I'm slinking off for a sleep before my night shift its 1400 here, but theres a 92 year old and an 84 year old trying to work their way through my Christmas booze so I'd not necessarily agree that older people aren't into it!
 
Mai72 said:
Not really.

One of the things I liked about living in Asia is they don't really practice Christmas. You aren't bombarded with Christmas ads, and you aren't pressured to buy anything.
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Lol yes they are part of the Christmas consumerism. Even more so in Lunar New Year.
 
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darkswordsman17 said:
While it has issues that need to be addressed certainly, trade has been probably the single most prolific mechanisms for peace in human history.
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Yeah, right up to the moment when it isn't.

Pop quiz, what do the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, the Opium Wars, the Punic Wars, the Anglo-Indian Wars and oh, about a dozen other wars have in common? For every two countries united in a beneficial trade relationship there are ten more that want to horn in on the action.
 
GagHalfrunt said:
Yeah, right up to the moment when it isn't.

Pop quiz, what do the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, the Opium Wars, the Punic Wars, the Anglo-Indian Wars and oh, about a dozen other wars have in common? For every two countries united in a beneficial trade relationship there are ten more that want to horn in on the action.
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I'm not sure what point you think you're making as it in no way refutes my point at all, if anything it reinforces it. Also, uh, are you seriously trying to argue that the Anglo-Indian wars were because of trade disputes and not seizures of land and genocide? Most of the shit you're talking about is exactly what I'm saying modern consumer-movement driven trade actually stops.

Global trade has been the reason for relative worldwide peace of the past few decades. Its not perfect and it needs regulation and oversight, but if you're enabling trade it fosters peace and prosperity, even if that's sometimes still shitty. Instead of countries going to raid each other via war, now they setup deals. Again, not perfect (even highly flawed, and there's arguments to be made there's still plenty of raiding going on, but that's often via outright corruption), but I'll take that over the escalating global warfare we were headed towards.

The American Revolution is perfect example, of how countries can have major issues but overcome it because of the mutual benefit of trade. Just like how America has worked after most wars. Help Germany (and Europe) and Japan build up economically and trade so that there isn't the lingering issues like post WWI. We're healthy trade partners with Vietnam. We helped South Korea become an economic power. We tried to help Russia and China, but that's certainly been mixed results. And while the Middle East is certainly mixed results as well (although a lot of that is because of idiocy like using the CIA to try and force trade situations that benefit us and not thinking how that might impact things in the future).

Yes, there's other factors that come into play (old hatreds, etc, although that stuff usually only really becomes an issue when there's serious economic issues that groups are trying to distract from).
 
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