On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 09:45:12 GMT, "Koi-lo"
wrote:

[...]

Of course all of this assumes that Jesus was born in December and not some
other time of year..

[...]

More likely in the Spring. "There were shepherds abiding
in the fields..."

Point is, as another poster indicated, many, if not most,
cultures have some kind of celebration or invocation at the
darkest time of year, to bring back the sun.

Our early ancestors must have been terrified when they
saw the days getting shorter and shorter. In pre-historic
times, one wonders what kinds of sacrifices, rituals, etc.
they engaged in to bring back the sun.

Today, it's become a hysterical race to buy (generally)
useless tchatchkes for one's "Christmas list".

Some fed-up people, Christian or otherwise, have decided
not to feed Moloch, but instead to donate the amounts that would
otherwise be spent on Christmas "gifts" to charity. Think
of the good that could be done if that idea spread!

Stan Freber's hymn to the commercialization of the festival,
"Green Christmas", says it all! From an on-like article about the
great, the ineffable, the ultra-talented Stan Freberg:

"Green Christmas" with Scrooge recast as the head of a major ad agency
and Bob Cratchit as an account exec committing industry-heresy by not
exploiting Christmas every way possible in his ads."

Finally, good wishes to the REAL Christians. May they celebrate
the purported founder of their belief system with prayers and
tzedakah.

Persephone