What’s your favorite thing about the holiday season? Have you waged war on Christmas yet?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I’ve got a great collection on iTunes — everything from the standard Christian carols to secular stuff to comedy — if you can, check out “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” by Kip Addotta. 🙂
Reminds me — need to head over to iTunes Music Store for Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song”… 🙂
If you do, and you go through OUR link, we get a cut! I just got it up.
I’m hoping it works. Please give me feedback!
Sorry about that — but I’ve got about $150 worth of albums on my “wish list” for when the money I’m expecting comes through, so I’ll keep that in mind.
(I think I’m going to be in the market for a bigger iPod; got about 6GB left on this one…)
That’s good to know. I just clicked it and it linked me through my itunes (which was running). How does the cut work. You get a cut of what we buy after we link through you?
We usually get 5% but right now we’ll get 10% for every sale!
my daughter says you have to click on the ad here and not close your iTunes for it to work.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I saw some children’s book in spanish i would like to buy.
Yes. Powell’s has a very nice affiliate program …. we get a percentage of each sale, and Powell’s is always helpful with any requests.
Thank you!
The Today show 3-4 years ago aired a morning segment of the piece done live by a (all or largely) African-American chorus, possibly associated with Broadway or drawn from Broadway chorus singers. I was drenched in sweat within seconds but haven’t been able to find any pointers to their recording (if they did one) or something suitable.
It gave me a vision of God elbowing Handel right out of the picture.
Living in a university town, it’s cause for celebration when finals are over (today), winter commencement is finished (tomorrow), and all the knuckleheads go away for a month! Christmas….ahhhh…
Now I really gotta go shopping…later.
Peace
with my family (time permitting) – Holiday Inn, White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life and a remarkable episode of the Twilight Zone called “The Night of the Meek” with Art Carney as a drunken department store Santa Claus.
First Amendment changes in works thru admin regs?
I started shopping this past summer on our trip out west for Chanukah/Christmas gifts and was mostly done long before the cold weather came along. (At least here in the northeast) Does that make me a warrior upon Christmas for failing to attend the current spate of holiday, err, Christmas/Chanukah sales?
I truly enjoy being a scrooge. I rant and complain and act wholly curmudgeonly through the whole season, and on Christmas Day, I melt and wish Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men. Then we have a big breakfast and play video games or movies. The next day, it’s as if it all never happened.
Tradition!!
You have a very interesting user name. May I ask the source? Native American, perhaps?
I am celebrating Christmas with enthusiasm at Blue Christmas 2005
We celebrate from Samhain at October 31 until Solstice and then toss in Christmas – just for the fun of presents!
Happy Hannukah/Christmas/Kawanza/Solstice/WhotheHeckCares
how many times i’ve been called “cerridwen.”
: p
Also Goddess of Transformation
I’d suggest you just smile and say thanks for the comparison to such a wonderful Goddess…and the name is Cedwyn!
You are wise and maybe that is why they compare you to the Goddess!
which i won’t be having this year.
: (
fight back!
AFA is now encouraging a boycott of progressive auto insurance because the ceo donated to ACLU. this, of course, allows the ACLU to carry out its “anti-christmas” agenda.
sigh
the AFA is asking its supporters to drop progressive, or send them a note saying they’ll never use progressive, because of the ACLU support. i’m not going to bless them with site hits, so i won’t be posting the url here.
it’s probably more effective to contact progressive directly, anyway. so if any of you have progressive as your insurance carrier, please thank them for their support of the ACLU. if you do not have insurance with them, maybe consider it. and if you make the switch, please tell them it’s because they support ACLU.
just for grins, though, since i was already there, i sent the note. it’s pre-written text – they got wise to people disagreeing with them in their name. so for the firstname i was “Wingnutasshole” and my last name was “Tobeignored.”
: p
as to what is going to happen with the (west, mid-west, south…) stuff up top? I would think these threads would be handy during election time to get people together, but I haven’t used them since Booman first opened up. Just wondering if there is some other creative thing that can happen up there. Perhaps someone should do a diary and put up a poll to see if anyone uses them or what should happen up there. Just a thought.
about how much George Bush likes elections. Why every other month or so he’s on the television getting very emotional about purple Iraqi thumbs.
So let’s support our president and give America a bonus election. I could be ready by Monday. How about you?
Nic Robertson has gorilla balls of steel. He is in Ramadi for the Iraqi elections, which start in about an hour.
more about the Tookie Williams execution over at CounterPunch:
Two reports from the rally outside San Quentin, the first from the philosophy professor responsible for the Nobel prize nominations:
Phil Gasper
Norman Solomon
& two other pieces I appreciated:
Alan Maass – They Murdered a Peacemaker
Nate Mezmer – Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does It Make a Sound?
http://cedwyn.blogspot.com/2005/12/people-forget-that-redemption-is.html
it was all politics:
http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2005/12/14/6515/8822
disgusting
Favorite thing so far:
Our church decided that funds would be set aside for a daily senior center where folks could congregate.
Now … why is this significant?
Well, these old couples are TOO PROUD to go to the state to help out with their heating bills! They’d rather shiver their asses off in silence than get help. Picture “mom and dad” with their hand out, and you might understand how much these folks “hate” asking for help.
This way.. they get to congregate and sit in our heated rooms while their own abodes go underheated. This has been VERY postive for these people, tho I know they’d rather not be here.
Folks in rural USA need to understand the needs of their elderly neighbors. Just lend a hand, but dont’ give them what they’d call charity or a handouts. Make a place for them at your dinner table if you can.
I wanted to wait until this open thread morphed away from the holiday theme so as not to inject my usual dark view on what might be a celebratory conversation. Now that I see the ugly topic of politics has come up I feel my comments will be appropriate.
Try as I might I’ve been perplexed at how the Bush regime has allowed the standoff with McCain to continue the way it has. Somehow there’s a “What’s wrong with this picture?” aspect to it I haven’t yet figured out.
So now, my question is, “How is McCain going to capitulate, (I regard any compromise as capitulation) to the Bush gang on the torture thing and still give the appearance of staying true to his (supposed) principles?”
I rule out the possibility that Bush/Cheney will agree to the McCain language on this, especially given the latest stealth move to rewrite and keep classified the Army Field Manual regs on this topic.
thing about the holidays is “turnaround day.” Better known as the Winter Solstice. Days start to get longer – a minute here, a few minutes there, until at the end of January it is still light out at 5 pm here in the Midwest. And even though ‘ol Man Winter can still inflict upon us powerful snow storms, I don’t really mind because I know that Spring is just around the corner.
Absolutely seconded, LynChi. I personally feel greatly blessed by the ‘turnaround’, as my lifestyle’s centered on the outdoors. Somehow wicked weather’s softened by stronger daylight.
As it is now, the sun seems to begin setting at 2 pm here in rural upstate NY. Not a good time to sleep in when outdoor chores call for attention.
I’ve been reading a book on American food and eating in the 18th and 19th centuries, and one point strongly made is that Christmas was not a separate celebration in places like Plimouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies. As late as almost mid-1800s, Thanksgiving was the big holiday. Our form of Christmas developed under influence of British immigrants bringing customs from the Church of England. And probably from the Victorians, who got a lot of the stuff from the Germans.
So, to be true to the original American spirit of Christmas means to treat December 25 as any other day and to celebrate Thanksgiving and New Year, instead.
May I ask what the book is?
You may, indeed, ask:
Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the 19th century. Sandra L. Oliver, Mystic Seaport, 1995. ISBN: 0-913372-72-2
I’m doing some research on the period, thus I’m keeping all the biblio info on such readings.
It’s a big, very dense book. Coffee-table size but not coffee-table froth: very substantive. Tells you more than you’ll ever want to know about how to make hardtack.
Cool! I’ll have to look it up.
LOL..I wage war on Christmas every year! I celebrate Yule instead. Not only is it 4 days earlier, but I can claim religious holiday and get two days off work instead of one! :>)
I’m a propaganda warrior in the “war on Christmas”. Here is my latestet work entitled, FOX NEWS presents Brokeback Christmas:
I am so pleased with my gifts this season – I just have to brag a bit.
I got my neices books, my nephews passes to the Omni theater, and my friends candle-holders from a store that I LOVE – Ten Thousand Villages. This is a store run by the Mennonite Central Committee in support of fair trade. They are a non-profit, self-supporting alternative trading organization. The candle-holders are onyx made in Pakistan. But they have wonderful items from all over the world and stores all over the country. If you’re interested – their web site is http://www.tenthousandvillages.com
They were saying Happy Holidays when I was a kid back in the 50’s when everything about America was perfect. No war on Christmas then.
Having been brought up by two depression era parents who came from rural backgrounds, I heard a lot about common sense when I was young. I wonder what happened to it in the last 50 years or so?
If I meet a friend who is Christian, I might very well say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too! If I know they are Jewish, I will probably say Happy Hanukkah. If I was unsure what their favorite winter solstice holiday was, or if I was speaking to a large group of people from diverse backgrounds, I would probably say Have a good Holiday. My parents would have said that was just using common sense. I could add that it is also the “Christian” thing to do. After all, we don’t want to unnecessarily offend our friends, co-workers, or neighbors do we?
To the folks who see a “war” that is ongoing, I would respectfully suggest that it is taking place in Iraq, and does not involve the phrase Happy Holidays.
Have you waged war on Christmas yet?
I knew I was fogetting something. I’ll get right on it.
Seriously, though, my favorite thing about the season is the music (mostly the really hard core Jesus-freezing-in-the-manger stuff, and classical holiday pieces). I also enjoy putting antlers and Santa hats on the dogs…..