I know this forum is international in scope with an obvious bias
towards the U.S. since presumably half (or more) of all posters are
from the U.S. (people are on here because they are marrying / have
married a USC).



I'm just wondering if anyone feels offended by the "Merry Christmas"
greetings? Is it that the majority on this board celebrate Christmas so
it is to be expected? I always wonder if the reverse was true. Say this
board was about people marrying people from a predominantly Moslem /
Muslim nation, would us Christians be offended by references to the
Koran or Allah?



The reason I bring it up is that many USCs have foreign spouses who do
not celebrate Christmas or Hanuka / Hanukah / Hanukkah / Chanukah or
Kwanza / Qwanza -- the three religions that the press in the U.S. seem
to focus on.



Maybe our society is becoming way over-politically correct. I've heard
of grade schools in NYC that have banned "Frosty the Snowman" and
"Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" because they are associated with
Christian beliefs and not fair to other religions. My nephew has the
"Winter Celebration" at school as they are not allowed to refer to it
as "Christmas Holidays" and there can be no reference to Santa or
mangers, etc.



Any thoughts?



Merry Christmas (errr, I mean Happy Holidays)


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

S___w political correctness .. its over done anyway.



Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays as it pertains to you and yours.



Rete





Originally posted by sphyrapicus
I know this forum is international in scope with an obvious bias towards the U.S. since presumably half (or more) of all posters are from the U.S. (people are on here because they are marrying / have married a USC).

I'm just wondering if anyone feels offended by the "Merry Christmas" greetings? Is it that the majority on this board celebrate Christmas so it is to be expected? I always wonder if the reverse was true. Say this board was about people marrying people from a predominantly Moslem / Muslim nation, would us Christians be offended by references to the Koran or Allah?

The reason I bring it up is that many USCs have foreign spouses who do not celebrate Christmas or Hanuka / Hanukah / Hanukkah / Chanukah or Kwanza / Qwanza -- the three religions that the press in the U.S. seem to focus on.

Maybe our society is becoming way over-politically correct. I've heard of grade schools in NYC that have banned "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" because they are associated with Christian beliefs and not fair to other religions. My nephew has the "Winter Celebration" at school as they are not allowed to refer to it as "Christmas Holidays" and there can be no reference to Santa or mangers, etc.

Any thoughts?


Merry Christmas (errr, I mean Happy Holidays)


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by sphyrapicus
I know this forum is international in scope with an obvious bias towards the U.S. since presumably half (or more) of all posters are from the U.S. (people are on here because they are marrying / have married a USC).

I'm just wondering if anyone feels offended by the "Merry Christmas" greetings? Is it that the majority on this board celebrate Christmas so it is to be expected? I always wonder if the reverse was true. Say this board was about people marrying people from a predominantly Moslem / Muslim nation, would us Christians be offended by references to the Koran or Allah?

The reason I bring it up is that many USCs have foreign spouses who do not celebrate Christmas or Hanuka / Hanukah / Hanukkah / Chanukah or Kwanza / Qwanza -- the three religions that the press in the U.S. seem to focus on.

Maybe our society is becoming way over-politically correct. I've heard of grade schools in NYC that have banned "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" because they are associated with Christian beliefs and not fair to other religions. My nephew has the "Winter Celebration" at school as they are not allowed to refer to it as "Christmas Holidays" and there can be no reference to Santa or mangers, etc.

Any thoughts?

Merry Christmas (errr, I mean Happy Holidays)



Hey there!!



I have though about all that you have said above quite a few times, I
always wanted to post about this.. but I never did.

I am getting ready for Nochebuena!!:D:D


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by sphyrapicus
<snip>
Maybe our society is becoming way over-politically correct. I've heard of grade schools in NYC that have banned "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" because they are associated with Christian beliefs and not fair to other religions. My nephew has the "Winter Celebration" at school as they are not allowed to refer to it as "Christmas Holidays" and there can be no reference to Santa or mangers, etc.





It seems really weird that they ban Santa & Rudolph etc as they are
really nothing to do with the Christian religion. In fact any really
fundamental christian would love to ban Santa & Rudolph (no offence
intended to any fundamental christians). This hypersensitivity to
Christianity is really bizarre. There certainly isn't such a reaction
to other world religions.



I for one am not at all offended if people speak about their own
religion.



'Christmas', for what it's worth, seems to be more of a capitalist
festival nowadays than a religious one - you just have to see the hordes
of last minute shoppers to realise that.



Clare


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

I think wishing others a Happy "anything" is wonderful. It doesn't
really matter how it's worded, it's the intent to convey warm wishes
that's important :-)



Happy Holidays! :-)



Rene


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by sphyrapicus

The reason I bring it up is that many USCs have foreign spouses who do not celebrate Christmas or Hanuka / Hanukah / Hanukkah / Chanukah or Kwanza / Qwanza -- the three religions that the press in the U.S. seem to focus on.



Just to be pedantic - Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday. It just
begins the day after Christmas, is all.


--
Dekka's Angel


Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by Dekka's Angel
Just to be pedantic - Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday. It just begins the day after Christmas, is all.

Thanks DA for the correction. And yet another spelling of Kwanzaa. I
guess the only alternative I've noticed for "Christmas" is seadave's
"christmass". :)


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by sphyrapicus
Thanks DA for the correction. And yet another spelling of Kwanzaa. I guess the only alternative I've noticed for "Christmas" is seadave's "christmass". :)



:D:D


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by Hypertweeky
:D:D

Hyper! Now you're going to be in trouble with the smilie police!!
:scared:



Malvo was the "son" and co-conspirator with John Muhammad in the sniper
shootings that happened in Virginia and the Washington DC area. They
allegedly killed 10 people and injured 3.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by sphyrapicus
Hyper! Now you're going to be in trouble with the smilie police!! :scared:

Malvo was the "son" and co-conspirator with John Muhammad in the sniper shootings that happened in Virginia and the Washington DC area. They allegedly killed 10 people and injured 3.



I dont agree with the policy;)



How terrible was that!!, Thanks for explaining, I just didnt remember
his name:rolleyes:


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by Hebapotamus42

Seriously though, I've heard of boxing day but I don't know what it's
about. Could you explain? Boxing Day is the Feast of Saint
Stephens which is 26th December.



There are numerous theories about why it's called Boxing Day, the
most popular of which being that during Victorian times the servants
would have to work on Christmas Day. On St Stephens they were given
their Christmas boxes (a tip) and given the day off to be with their
own families.



In my family it is a bigger event than Christmas Day. Coming from an
Irish racing family with the relatives still being very involved in
training, we'd all go off to Kempton Park on the outskirts of London.
Once there we'd have a champagne breakfast (we were lucky enough to have
a private box) then we'd have a days racing to watch and round it off at
a relatives house late into the night.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by Hebapotamus42
Who are you calling a hippo?? :p
Seriously though, I've heard of boxing day but I don't know what it's about. Could you explain?

From: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp



Few Americans have any inkling that there even is such a thing as Boxing
Day, let alone what the reason might be for a holiday so named. However,
before one concludes we're about to rag on Americentric attitudes
towards other cultures, we should quickly point out that even though
Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada,
not all that many in those countries have much of a notion as to why
they get the 26th of December off. Boxing Day might well be a statutory
holiday in some of those lands, but it's not a well understood one.



Despite the lively images suggested by the name, it has nothing to do
with pugilistic expositions between tanked-up family members who have
dearly been looking forward to taking a round out of each other for the
past year. Likewise, it does not gain its name from the overpowering
need to rid the house of an excess of wrappings and mountains of now
useless cardboard boxes the day after St. Nick arrived to turn a
perfectly charming and orderly home into a maelstrom of discarded
tissue paper.



The name also has nothing to do with returning unwanted gifts to the
stores they came from, hence its common association with hauling about
boxes on the day after Christmas.



The holiday's roots can be traced to Britain, where Boxing Day is also
known as St. Stephen's Day. Reduced to the simplest essence, its origins
are found in a long-ago practice of giving cash or durable goods to
those of the lower classes. Gifts among equals were exchanged on or
before Christmas Day, but beneficences to those less fortunate were
bestowed the day after.



And that's about as much as anyone can definitively say about its origin
because once you step beyond that point, it's straight into the quagmire
of debated claims and dueling folklorists. Which, by the way, is what
we're about to muddy our boots with.



Although there is general agreement that the holiday is of British
origin and it has to do with giving presents to the less fortunate,
there is still dispute as to how the name came about or precisely what
unequal relationship is being recognized.



At various times, the following "origins" have been loudly asserted as
the correct one:



Centuries ago, ordinary members of the merchant class gave boxes of food
and fruit to tradespeople and servants the day after Christmas in an
ancient form of Yuletide tip. These gifts were an expression of
gratitude to those who worked for them, in much the same way that one
now tips the paperboy an extra $20 at Christmastime or slips the
building's superintendent a bottle of fine whisky. Those long-ago gifts
were done up in boxes, hence the day coming to be known as "Boxing Day."



Christmas celebrations in the old days entailed bringing everyone
together from all over a large estate, thus creating one of the rare
instances when everyone could be found in one place at one time. This
gathering of his extended family, so to speak, presented the lord of the
manor with a ready-made opportunity to easily hand out that year's
stipend of necessities. Thus, the day after Christmas, after all the
partying was over and it was almost time to go back to far-flung
homesteads, serfs were presented with their annual allotment of
practical goods. Who got what was determined by the status of the worker
and his relative family size, with spun cloth, leather goods, durable
food supplies, tools, and whatnot being handed out. Under this
explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the
lord of the manor was obligated to supply these goods. The items were
chucked into boxes, one box for each family, to make carrying away the
results of this annual restocking easier; thus, the day came to be known
as "Boxing Day."



Many years ago, on the day after Christmas, servants in Britain carried
boxes to their masters when they arrived for the day's work. It was a
tradition that on this day all employers would put coins in the boxes as
a special end-of-the-year gift. In a closely-related version of this
explanation, apprentices and servants would on that day get to smash
open small earthenware boxes left for them by their masters. These boxes
would house small sums of money specifically left for them.



This dual-versioned theory melds the two previous ones together into a
new form — namely, the employer who was obligated to hand out something
on Boxing Day, but this time to recipients who were not working the land
for him and thus were not dependent on him for all they wore and ate.
The "box" thus becomes something beyond ordinary compensation (in a way
goods to landed serfs was not), yet it's also not a gift in that there's
nothing voluntary about it. Under this theory, the boxes are an early
form of Christmas bonus, something employees see as their entitlement.



Boxes in churches for seasonal donations to the needy were opened on
Christmas Day, and the contents distributed by the clergy the following
day. The contents of this alms box originated with the ordinary folks in
the parish who were under no direct obligation to provide anything at
all and were certainly not tied to the recipients by a employer/employee
relationship. In this case, the "box" in "Boxing Day" comes from that
one gigantic lockbox the donations were left in.



More elaborate versions of this origin involve boxes kept on
sailing ships:



The title has been derived by some, from the box which was kept on board
of every vessel that sailed upon a distant voyage, for the reception of
donations to the priest — who, in return, was expected to offer masses
for the safety of the expedition, to the particular saint having charge
of the ship — and above all, of the box. The box was not to be opened
until the return of the vessel; and we can conceive that, in cases where
the mariners had had a perilous time of it, this casket would be found
to enclose a tolerable offering. The mass was at that time called
Christmass, and the boxes kept to pay for it were, of course, called Christmass-
boxes. The poor, amongst those who had an interest in the fate of these
ships, or of those who sailed in them, were in the habit of begging
money from the rich, that they might contribute to the mass boxes; and
hence the title which has descended to our day, giving to the
anniversary of St Stephen's martyrdom the title of Christmas-boxing day,
and, by corruption, its present popular one of Boxing Day.



Whichever theory one chooses to back, the one thread common to all is
the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social
level. As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day
or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants,
serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after.
It is to be noted that the social superiors did not receive anything
back from those they played Lord Bountiful to: a gift in return would
have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the
very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against. Boxing Day was,
after all, about preserving class lines.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

And here I thought boxing day referred to the fact that it takes a
whole day to clean up the boxes from Christmas the day before! LOL
Just kidding!!



Like Heba, I had heard of it but never knew what it was about. Thanks
for enlightening us :-)


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Originally posted by Hebapotamus42
Thanks, Sibsie and Mr. Woodpecker.

I resemble that remark. :) Glad us Commonwealthers could be of
assistance. Actually, I had no idea why it was called that either until
I moved to the U.S. and people started asking me about it. Being a tad
embarrassed at not knowing its derivation, I had to do a quick search on
the internet. So, don't feel bad about not knowing where the heck the
name came from.


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com

One reason my child is in private school.





Originally posted by sphyrapicus
I know this forum is international in scope with an obvious bias towards the U.S. since presumably half (or more) of all posters are from the U.S. (people are on here because they are marrying / have married a USC).

I'm just wondering if anyone feels offended by the "Merry Christmas" greetings? Is it that the majority on this board celebrate Christmas so it is to be expected? I always wonder if the reverse was true. Say this board was about people marrying people from a predominantly Moslem / Muslim nation, would us Christians be offended by references to the Koran or Allah?

The reason I bring it up is that many USCs have foreign spouses who do not celebrate Christmas or Hanuka / Hanukah / Hanukkah / Chanukah or Kwanza / Qwanza -- the three religions that the press in the U.S. seem to focus on.

Maybe our society is becoming way over-politically correct. I've heard of grade schools in NYC that have banned "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" because they are associated with Christian beliefs and not fair to other religions. My nephew has the "Winter Celebration" at school as they are not allowed to refer to it as "Christmas Holidays" and there can be no reference to Santa or mangers, etc.

Any thoughts?


Merry Christmas (errr, I mean Happy Holidays)


--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com