Interesting article Spencer. People seem to knock the Christians a lot and portray them as kill joys etc. But I find it interestingly the knockers are happy to have a Easter break and a Christmas break. It seems they want the rewards of a Christian foundation as long as they don't have to say thank you for it.

Next week will be a new year and the shops will start selling Hot Cross Buns. Not sure why a big chain store wouldn't be wanting to sell Nativity scenes as they would make money from them. Maybe the fun police don't want to make profits from something that promotes Christianity even though they are in another sense.

Give me a ripe tasty Papaya over christmas any time.........

Not sure why some Christians have problem celebrating Christmas as it is (not Santa). I see this time as an opportunity to share the love that God has given to us so "freely", yet I see it more and more disappearing from people's lives. Yes, I am aware of the origins of Christmas as a festivity, but when there is still a time left in our rapidly changing world to remind people of their Creator's love I am for it anytime!
This Christmas "Santa worship" is been adopted in the west (the secular west adopts anything but the truth), in Europe Santa's fairy-tale day is for the Kids only, and is celebrated on the 6th of December, nothing to do with Christmas. I guess we just replaced truth with a fairy-tale, and feel good about it... Truth is always challenging, and often convicting, but if you can swallow and digest it, it will yield its good fruit.

Every minute fraction of this essay is an exercise in childish fantasy, and the naive mommy-daddy "creator-God"

An essay criticizing the alleged "historical reliability" of the Bible
http://www.dabase.org/up-5-1.htm

A Birthday Message From Jesus & Me
http://www.aboutadidam.org/readings/birthday_message/index.html

Jesus or Christ as Indivisible Conscious Light
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/christmc2.html

On the mommy-daddy "creator-God"

http://www.aboutadidam.org/readings/parental_deity/index.html

On the Celestial Virgin
http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/rels.2016.women.6

A very comprehensive & informative article, Spencer. Christmas celebrations with all their trappings present Christians with many opportunities to discuss the real meaning of this annual event, and remind those who are ill-informed, of its deeper significance. Many younger people, as illustrated by the young shop assistant in this article, are completely unaware that there is a rich and genuine reason for the season - and it is not just love, family and presents.

//December 25 is not the date of Jesus' birth.//

But it is remarkably close to the date of the December solstice. There's a reason for that: Christmas is a pagan mid-winter festival that the Christians misappropriated in order to make their religion more popular.

//The season has become infected with profiteering and extra effects such as Santa, reindeers, tinsel, lights and Christmas trees.//

No, you've got it entirely the wrong way round. Santa, lights, presents, Christmas trees, reindeer, eating, drinking and being merry are the proper way to celebrate Christmas... it's you mob who have infected it with all your Christian claptrap.

//Mouldy pawpaw seeds did not deter me from enjoying a special piece of summer fruit.//

Quite right... I don't plan to let a few Cromwells whining that 'you're doing it wrong' deter me from having a Merry Christmas.

//I was pleased to enter a Woolworths' supermarket on the day I'm writing this article and to hear Christmas carols being played through the store's PA system, instead of 'Frosty the Snow Man'.//

Yeah, as long they don't play bloody 'Jingle Bell Rock' it's all good. I like to crank up the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and 'The Fairytale of New York' for my Christmas tunes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6FhOb7-1dg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8

Anyway, I wish all of you a merry Christmas, except the miserable puritans, to whom I wish a solemn and devout Christmas with an absolute minimum of fun :)