Raving Atheists Christmas Thread 2010

ghoulslime · 11-20-2010, 04:11 PM

Whip the balls of Santa's reindeer! Fa la la la la, la la la la! It's that silvery bell time of year again, when everybody should try to stop being mean assholes, and pretend to be nice to one another! Thanksgiving is just a few days off, and THAT means that it is officially time for Christmas to get its freak on and shit. Poppin light bulbs on the trees, like a pagan. Drinkin' eggnog in the crib 'til we're slizzard. This is how we live for Christmas day!

Christmas is about connection with the past, the preservation of colorful and glorious mythologies and traditions! At last, the Raving Atheists Christmas Thread has possibly achieved the status of Christmas tradition. Not unlike your fat, whiny cousin breaking your toys every Christmas morning, or your warty grandmother trying to slip you a toothless holiday kiss, this hallowed Christmas thread is now an inseparable part of our RA halls, whether you like it or not - so suck it up, sugarplums. Take your incessant mirth like jolly little elves!

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Raving Atheists Christmas Thread 2009

Merry Xmas Picture Thread 2008

Ghoulslime's Letters from Santa Thread 2005-2008

Should I teach my kids to believe in Santa Thread

I should remind you that this Christmas thread is divinely inspired by the leprechauns. This is the only begotten leprechaun thread, a joyous thread, a thread devoted to the love/hate of Xmas, interesting details about the true origins of Xmas, favorite Xmas songs, uplifting Xmas stories, photos of your Xmas tree, stupid shit your relatives do for Xmas, stories of your Xmases past, dirty pictures of Santa, pictures making fun of Mithra's little brother Jesus, etc. (Your nude photos, as always, are welcome under my Christmas tree.)

Your letters to Santa might possibly be answered if you post them here.

I have to head off to Japan next week, and will probably not be back in Christmas land until mid December. Let's try to make this Christmas a time to remember! A time of joyful merrymaking that will make Santa come right down the chimney! Ho, ho, ho!

psychodiva · 11-20-2010, 05:36 PM

Sternwallow · 11-21-2010, 01:12 AM

Tom Lehrer comes through as usual -
http://www.tsrocks.com/t/tom_lehrer_...mas_carol.html

ghoulslime · 11-21-2010, 10:24 AM

ghoulslime · 11-21-2010, 10:25 AM

ghoulslime · 11-21-2010, 10:26 AM

Sternwallow · 11-21-2010, 05:51 PM

There's no persons like snow persons; they use knitted wool goods to protect them from the cold. Soon their heads, necks and hands will melt clean off. Only white snow beach balls will remain.

Jimble · 11-22-2010, 09:53 AM

Do you guys celebrate christmas? to what extent?
No-one in my family is a theist (my dad's concept of universe-emcompassing consciousness comes closest (Buddhist)) so a few years age we decided to have "Piratemas" in honour of the flying spaghetti monster.

We still exchange gifts and eat and drink til we burst, but with no religious overtones whatsoever. We pump up the inflatable pirate ship to fill with 'booty' instead of a christmas tree, me and my brothers have contests of wit and strength all day, drink rum, watch films, dress up, and I can honestly say i've never enjoyed Christmas as much as piratemas, every year it's bigger and we think of more to do. Atheist family friends have even started coming to our house for Piratemas rather than spend Christmas somewhere else!
So what do you guys get up to?

ghoulslime · 11-22-2010, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Jimble wrote

Do you guys celebrate christmas? to what extent?
No-one in my family is a theist (my dad's concept of universe-emcompassing consciousness comes closest (Buddhist)) so a few years age we decided to have "Piratemas" in honour of the flying spaghetti monster.

We still exchange gifts and eat and drink til we burst, but with no religious overtones whatsoever. We pump up the inflatable pirate ship to fill with 'booty' instead of a christmas tree, me and my brothers have contests of wit and strength all day, drink rum, watch films, dress up, and I can honestly say i've never enjoyed Christmas as much as piratemas, every year it's bigger and we think of more to do. Atheist family friends have even started coming to our house for Piratemas rather than spend Christmas somewhere else!
So what do you guys get up to?

I love Christmas. I’m already listening to Christmas carols, and have a string of lights around my desk. I love the music, the lore, and pageantry of it all. Christmas is a special time to reflect on one’s life, and personally assess all that is good about existence. It is a connection with the past, and a sort of kinship with our fellow humans of yore. Just because the blood drinkers have tried to claim the holiday for themselves doesn’t make it theirs. There is more to this wonderful holiday than just zombie-eating delusion. It is a collection of diverse tradition and lore which is the inheritance of everyone who wishes a stake in it.

When organized religion has at last been largely eradicated from Western Civilization as the evil anachronism that it is, and its houses of worship and holy places turned into places for social good, we can still enjoy Christmas for the season of peace and love that it should be. We can even have a little manager with Jesus, Frosty the Snowman, and all of the mythological characters associated with Christmas.

ghoulslime · 12-09-2010, 08:22 PM

Professor Chaos · 11-23-2010, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Jimble wrote

Do you guys celebrate christmas? to what extent?

I, like Ghoulslime, also love Christmas. I love the lights, the drinking, the family, the decorating, the drinking, the food, the gift-giving, the drinking, the gift-receiving, the drinking, and Christmas Vacation.

My parents are Apatheistic Catholics. Most Americans, IMHO, seem to be Apatheistic Christians of some sort. I've never celebrated a religious Christmas growing up in that environment. The most religious thing about Christmas was saying Grace before Christmas dinner. It's almost completely a secular holiday, and I'm quite fond of it.

Jimble · 11-23-2010, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Professor Chaos wrote

I, like Ghoulslime, also love Christmas. I love the lights, the drinking, the family, the decorating, the drinking, the food, the gift-giving, the drinking, the gift-receiving, the drinking, and Christmas Vacation.

All of this is incorporated into Piratemas

By the way, my brother just got this e-mail:

Hi Andy,

I hope you don't mind me getting in touch. I write for a national women's weekly magazine and we're doing a feature on alternative ways to celebrate Christmas. I read about Piratemas on the internet and on your blog and I think it would make a really interesting piece for the mag. If you were interested in taking part, all that would be involved is a brief telephone interview and we'd need to publish pictures of how you celebrated piratemas. We'd offer you a fee for your time and trouble, upon publication, and a read-back of your piece before it went to print.

lucky him! It was all my mum's idea after all..

Irreligious · 11-23-2010, 11:59 AM

I certainly don't go to church on Christmas

. But, yeah, I acknowledge the holiday, not as a "holy day," of course, but as a seasonal celebration that is a socially ingrained part of the culture in which I was raised.

I attend Christmas parties-- which are a lot of fun-- and exchange a few token gifts with some family and less than a handful of close friends who insist upon this ritual. But I don't put up a tree or string lights around my house. Too much work when I can look at other people's trees and festive lights.

ghoulslime · 11-24-2010, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Jimble wrote

All of this is incorporated into Piratemas

By the way, my brother just got this e-mail:

Hi Andy,

I hope you don't mind me getting in touch. I write for a national women's weekly magazine and we're doing a feature on alternative ways to celebrate Christmas. I read about Piratemas on the internet and on your blog and I think it would make a really interesting piece for the mag. If you were interested in taking part, all that would be involved is a brief telephone interview and we'd need to publish pictures of how you celebrated piratemas. We'd offer you a fee for your time and trouble, upon publication, and a read-back of your piece before it went to print.

lucky him! It was all my mum's idea after all..

Piratemas sounds nice, in an arghhh, rum-drinking, booty hunting, parrot-shitting sort of way, but it doesn't really have the traditional connections to past generations that one might want when eating star-shaped cookies and drinking eggnog on Xmas eve. Still, a little baby peg-leg Jesus with an eye patch in the manger might be a nice embellishment.

Jimble · 11-24-2010, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Philboid Studge wrote

Sounds like a first-class journalistic enterprise.

(Apologies for the phrase 'women's rag')

Quote:

ghoulslime wrote

Piratemas sounds nice, in an arghhh, rum-drinking, booty hunting, parrot-shitting sort of way, but it doesn't really have the traditional connections to past generations that one might want when eating star-shaped cookies and drinking eggnog on Xmas eve. Still, a little baby peg-leg Jesus with an eye patch in the manger might be a nice embellishment.

Say what you like, but a bit of Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys of a drunken evening gets the party started more than christian carols