I found this an interesting article. I recall the time some years ago when we celebrated Christmas with the Kids Club in the Uniting Church in an industrial suburb of Perth. My wife rewrote the Nativity play giving it a local setting. The Church Hall was packed with folk who didn't usually come to worship. Blokes turned up in shorts, singlets and thongs with their tinnies and smokes, which they decided to leave outside and joined in the evening celebration. For them it was the ordinary that really got them talking about the reality of the time. You should have seen the girls putting on their dance and song!

Christmas is a pagan holiday and always will be. The early Christians
Co-oped the date because people were already doing the gift/ new life thing on this date in Europe.
Modern Australian Xmas season had very little to do with Christmas, sure many of us have a cultural back ground of Christian mythology around Christmas, less of us about the Islamic and Jewish. And even less of us about the pagan roots of the date.
However what just about all of us do have and the main reason why we do celebrate Xmas is gift giving and family time based around the made up story of the coca cola father Christmas.
I don’t know a single person who does celebrate Xmas but I know plenty that don’t celebrate Christmas

International surveys show that Australians are more excited about Christmas than comparable nations.

Yes well, some of our multicultural societies, here in our Christian country are doing their damnedest to change this.

Given time I fear they will succeed.

Kenny,

In so far as Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth whenever that was, how can it be a pagan celebration? I think you are referring to the date, viz, 25 December. That may well have been although refer http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v. Come to think of it some of our days of the week are named after pagan gods. I do not hear anyone yelling to change the names of our week-days.

"I do not hear anyone yelling to change the names of our week-days."

Nobody's yelling to change the name of Christmas. But whatever you want to call it, midwinter religious celebrations were going on throughout Europe long before the arrival of Christianity.

Another attempt to bring Christmas back as a religious festival. It will be tough going, on this evidence.

"Australians have a love affair with Christmas... Average households here will spend $1,055 each this Christmas, based on all expenses including gifts, food and decorations"

Hmmmm. So, the measure used in the "extensive six-nation study by top research firm, CoreData" is dollars spent.

An interesting metric for a love affair. That would put Geoffrey Edelsten in the top ten Australian romantics, for sure.

"We know the retailers are pushing Christmas pretty hard, but even that does not explain its peculiar popularity"

Beg pardon? Surely, that explains a heck of a lot. Or at least, it is the only measurable variable, given the rest of the article is pretty empty of anything factual..

"When Paul Hogan said in Crocodile Dundee, 'I read the bible once'..."

Errr... Crocodile Dundee was a movie. It had scriptwriters. This would only have substance if you also believe that you could bring a buffalo to its knees by pointing two fingers at it.

"However it's not just the longing for transcendence..."

Those folk with the eskies at the carol concert are not there for a singalong then, belting out the familiar tunes of their childhood while knocking back a bevvy or two? They "long for" transcendence.

Well, it's a theory, I guess.

But I'm afraid this is where the article trips over its own over-enthusiasm.

"Australians love outsiders and outcasts."

The fact that "Australians" have spent the entire year finding every means possible to stop "outsiders and outcasts" from landing on our precious shores clearly hasn't made an impact on the author's consciousness.

No, we are not only a long way from turning Christmas into a religious celebration, we are speeding in the opposite direction at a fairly constant rate.

But a holiday is a holiday, and we don't really need much of an excuse here in our beautiful country to spend time in the sun with our friends, do we.

Which is entirely as it should be. Happy Christmas everyone.

xmass has nuthing to do with the christ
its about expending cash..to buy presents people dont want

the kids had a santa thing
[bying each other gifts under 5 bucks]

i note them huge xmass trees
and decorations..in shoppibng centers/town squares..govt depts etc

do the 'stats...made by '''An extensive six-nation study by top research firm, CoreData,"""

in clude govt and business
xmass partiers..booze ups etc
linked into a vague approximation to the birtrh of christ
who was actually born in summer..not winter[a thing satan claws neatly hides

just as the estar bunny hides his death

anyhow an add agency found xmass costs
"""has found over*all spending
...lol

""during the festive season
by Australians will dwarf that of the US, UK, France and China""

as a %
or by dollar yen ammount

to the chist
or getting drunk
and partying

selling kids on a fat dude
in a fat suit
waering a fake beard

promising presents
only their parents could deliver [but cant afford]

a god like fiction
that judges you
is watching you
isnt real

covering over the good living loving god
of grace mercy love..[who dont judge no one]

see if we talked more about christ
and less of the rabbit

we would know..christ died
YET HE DIDNT DIE
in fact came back to proove
the lie of an end time judgment day
as well as reserction day

even telling a thjief on a cross beside him
this day he too will be in heaven

so NO ONE DIES
NO ONE gets judged
we ARE ALL..instantly 'reborn/again"

regardless of cred/need or greed

we KNOW
the sure words

MORE SHALL BE A GIVEN!
[of the same..as you chose here]
some in the high heavenly floor
others in the darkest basements...

some in the baptist room..others in the extreemist room
yet others in with the sheep..others in the goat room

even a place for wheat/tares..
who xtians ONLY judge,,...NEVER*

judge not lest ye be judged
by the same faulse weight..[measure]
or pay more for quality than quantity

but ALL
IN OUR FATHERS HOUSE

Jon J,

No doubt but what does that have to do with celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth 25 Dec or any other time? Are these mid-winter pre-Christian celebrations any reason not to celebrate his birth?

related to francis statement[quote]....""Are these mid-winter pre-Christian celebrations any reason not to celebrate his birth?""

there is a joining together of many differnt things
that demeans the chist

like xmass begins at 5 dec...[with saint nickolas]
the only 'saint'..they couldnt get 'the people'..to drop
after the reformation...because of this specific uproar...nickolas was allowed to be rememberd in the family home..

of course st nick got highjacked..too
but saint nick aint santa...and santa isnt christ
and cherist..the son..isnt god the father

we have crammed...2 people..[and the only true gracefull/mercyfull god]..into one unholy trinity...into one specific wrong date..

we have our years measured...in the years after christ
so the christ might better be considerd to be born..[when the new year gets born]...and dec 5 kept for saint nik...and 25 th [the winter solstrice...for the bountyfull harvest...a time of sharing

and 1 jan...the next christ 'year'
then the teachings christ bought...could run till the day he died
next the day he returned..[to prove two huge things..one no day of judgment..and two no 'reserction day'....[cause if these are true..he couldnt have returned]

jesus said that ye se me do
ye shall do better

christ is basicly about honouring/respecting...comming
easter isnt about the rabbit..but is about rebirth

anyhow i tried to re think the whole thing
but regret those extra 20 'shopping days...
have created the satan 'clause'...

based on a faulse god myth..[lol..only the true god..KNOWS...
if you been good/bad...and he dont judge no one..!]

christ more than hinted at it

till we do as he did
we have no right..to claim to say..he died
so we can sin...if even his own dont get it..how can others?