The Trouble With Christmas

Rating:
Summary: any book burnings lately?
Review:

Santa Claus and his reindeer, Christmas trees and cards, exchanging presents and so on and on. It is good to have in one place a history of all of these diverse elements of the Christmas tradition. Tom Flynn covers a lot of ground and he writes well so this is a fun book to read.

The book is even better in presenting the argument against the holiday and describing the "Trouble With Christmas." He demoans the arrogance of adopting a holiday of one religion as a secular holiday in a country that is home to people who have many different religions.

Last week when I was watching television I saw the ad the Hallmark Company ran urging people to buy their Christmas tree ornaments. And as I write this review the middle of August has not even come so I know the Christmas season will be in full swing soon. I suggest to others that indeed it is not too early to start preparing for the Christmas season by getting this book.

The author presents a good case for having a Christmas free end of the year.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Antidote to End of Year Madness
Review:

Santa Claus and his reindeer, Christmas trees and cards, exchanging presents and so on and on. It is good to have in one place a history of all of these diverse elements of the Christmas tradition. Tom Flynn covers a lot of ground and he writes well so this is a fun book to read.

The book is even better in presenting the argument against the holiday and describing the "Trouble With Christmas." He demoans the arrogance of adopting a holiday of one religion as a secular holiday in a country that is home to people who have many different religions.

Last week when I was watching television I saw the ad the Hallmark Company ran urging people to buy their Christmas tree ornaments. And as I write this review the middle of August has not even come so I know the Christmas season will be in full swing soon. I suggest to others that indeed it is not too early to start preparing for the Christmas season by getting this book.

The author presents a good case for having a Christmas free end of the year.

Rating:
Summary: any book burnings lately?
Review: I couldn't believe how entertaining this book was. I was really just expecting a book full of putative facts, sleeping material. Not so! As cliche as it sounds: "I couldn't put the book down." I was really impressed with all of the resources that were used in compiling this book. One phrase that sticks in my head even after reading this was the "controversial," mantra : "Keep Christ in Christmas," to which he commented to the effect, "They were having a hard enough time keeping Christmas in the first place." I recommend this book to anyone who "insists" on putting up Christmas lights in the middle of October, and, "Mary Xmas!"

Rating:
Summary: Bah! Humbug on Mr. Flynn
Review: I was first angry after reading Mr. Flynn's book but now all I feel is pity for him and those that gave it a glowing review. The thing is they just DON'T get it. They don't get Christmas.

At it's core Christmas may be a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. But at its deeper core...if one actually takes the time and effort to search it out, one finds the true origins of our Christmas holiday. The origins in the pagan Roman Winter solstice celebration of Saturnalia. A celebration that including feasting, gift-giving, and much revelry. In other words, a celebration on unlike the way most Americans celebrate it.

Christmas can be a quiet day of religious reflection if you want, or a season of fun...a season of enjoying Frosty and Rudolph and the Grinch on TV, of wathcing decorating shows (without a hint of relgious symbolism) on HGTV or DIY, it can be jumping in the car and drving around the neighborhood at hight looking at houses decked out in lights. Having parties with friends you haven't seen in a long time, baking sugar cookies and Gingerbread houses. All without the religious trappings that Mr. Flynn seems to fear.

No one expects EVERYONE to celebrate Christmas. And so what are we to do? Cancel Christmas because 18% of the U.S. is not ?Christian? Heck, my Arab neighbors put up Christmas lights. Almost every ethnic group has some kind of celebration of light and music. Does seeing Rudolph and Santa Claus on TV really impose our religious beliefs on people?

No. Mr. Flynn is a stinker of the highest degree...he's a party pooper. He's one who can't live with the belief that the majority rules. Whether you celebrate Christmas as a day...or a season that starts when the Halloween decorations come down, Christmas is the one time of the year when people seem a little nicer...when people who don't give to charity all year reach in the their pocket for a dollar and give it to the Salvation Army.

These are dark times we live in filled with war and threats..and for a few weeks out of the year Christmas helps us put aside those worries. People who feel threatened by Christmas' commercialism or relgion just don't get it and never will.

What a shame...what a pity...

Rating:
Summary: Grouchy Christians and Weary, Walked-Upon Atheists Unite!
Review: Just as the old ad slogan goes, You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy's Rye Bread . . . I say: You don't have to be atheist to enjoy this wonderful diatribe against the hokum that had grown clogged and weedy around what was once a simple, reflective religious day of remembrance. Christians are enriched by reading of the non-Christian origins of modern Christmas customs. I for one am fed up with the glut of consumerism that has buried the holiday and if Flynn served only as a whistleblower to the holiday's excess, this book would be good enough. But Flynn also writes from the atheists point of view, an amiable atheist at that, and he has this practicing Catholic on his side as one who decries those condescing, oppressing people who poo-poo anyone who doesn't get all visions-of-sugarplumsy at the thought of Christmas. I read this year (2002) that Christmas is catching fire in China with nary a mention of Christ. They just dig the gift giving and the clown in the red suit and if Americans were more honest, we'd happily echo the words of Bart Simpson, who said something like: "Let's remember the true meaning of Christmas...the birthday of Santa Claus."

Flynn reminds us that our egotistical view of the holiday -- that it "our" Christmas was the way it always was -- is a myth. In just a blip of history ago, Christmas was a holy day and a humbler day. I long for a return in that direction, and Flynn's book refreshes my overview of the holiday. It consoles me that much of it is hogwash and that I oughtn't feel to glum about feeling glum about it.