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23 2

Should Christmas be renamed "Family Day?"

I read an article called, "How Christmas was Trumpified."

The article states the Freedom from Religion Foundation favors re-naming the federal holiday “Family Day.” It backs this up with a recent poll from the Pew Research Centerthat found millennials are more likely than not to celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday rather than as a religious one—44 percent to 32 percent.

Further, Trump tweeted on Christmas Eve: “People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

What do you think about all this? And, do you agree with FFRF that Christmas should be renamed family day?

[commonwealmagazine.org]

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silvereyes 8 Jan 2
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23 comments

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5

Winter solstice of course.

4

I don't see that any good would come of renaming it. It would further polarize and politicize something that should never have been politicized in the first place. In a free country people can celebrate whatever holidays they want however they want. And a big FU to Mr Trump for once again taking the lowest possible road.

4

Look at black friday. Christmas is Advertising Appreciation Day. Christmas in its entirety should be abolished, both the religious and commercial aspects.

3

No. Consumers Day.

Sadoi Level 7 Jan 2, 2018

@silvereyes I second that proposal, miss!! 🙂

Ooh,@jcoffey9, I used to live in Garland, TX. Attended high school there. Yes, the turning giving into selling and getting is what makes Christmas and its buffoon characters yuk.

3

Thats the purpose of the day isn't it? Getting family and friends together. Only time of the year?

3

This is why I don't align myself with anti-religion activist groups; they are too often zealots who want to impose their ideology upon others. Isn't that one of the things we oppose from the religious fundamentalists? If the trend is that fewer and fewer young people are treating the holiday as religious, why muck that up by antagonizing the other side and needlessly creating a backlash? I see no value in poking the religious who will use this as a marketing tool to get more people on their side. Just let the religiosity fade organically as the trend suggests is happening.

@silvereyes I don't disagree with everything they do — far from it — but this is the sort of thing that puts me off because I think it runs counter to the values I hold and ultimately hurts the cause.

3

I don't think a lot of people gave up saying Merry Christmas - counter to Trump's claim, Obama said it at least 17 time (on video - no doubt more in person). I say it if speaking to or answering someone I know to celebrate it, although I use Happy Christmas.

If there are that many upset about leaving out one word, I suspect there would be mobs in the street if we changed the name of the holiday, although it makes sense since we don't all wish one another Happy Hanukkah, and so on through other religions.

Not to sound immensely negative this morning but I really dislike Family Day. Heck, a problem many people have with Christmas is seeing family. Or what about people who don't have families? We already have a Thanksgiving holiday so .... I dunno.

On the other hand, I'm all behind giving everyone off on election day. It would be interesting to see how that impacts the results at the polls.

we already have family day in ontario. it's in february which is probably designed to head off cabin fever in the great white north

Oh, @markdevenish, doesn't it figure: one more rational thing Canada does better than the U.S. Is there a particular way you celebrate the holiday? Do families get together and do something?

2

Christmas is a season, not just a made up birthday, now.

2

Christmas, Yuletide, Summer Solstice, Winter solstice, call it what you like. In the north it is Mid winter celebration, In the south it is Mid Summer, just an excuse for a big party. All people can join in, don't let one group hiJack it. All names are welcome to me. 🙂

2

I vote for just the removal of holidays. It's mainly just a marketing scheme and a reason to visit family. If you didn't visit the other 364 days why show up now? But that's a long shot too many people are cushy up kn the festivities and drinking.

Yeah, it does sound like a marketing scheme. I guess remove the holidays would make it less demanding for family visitation and so on.

2

the day of greed

Fundamentalists so need to relax and take their claws out of things. No one wants your stupid holyday. Keep it, celebrate it, and get off people who barely want to say, "happy holyday." Grow up, America. It's not 1618, it's 2018!

@GoldenMean "Happy holidays" is a good neutral greeting. I agree on your first sentences..

2

it's just a word [ that everybody knows the meaning of] and it has very little to do with JC. I'm amazed it hasn't been copyrighted !!

Christ? The Greek for 'chosen.'

2

I think people should get holiday days like vacation days, you just get a set amount of them every year to use at your leisure, it would stop a lot of problems

1

Let the people who want Cristmas call it Christmas. Let the people Showa t to have a family day have a family day just don’t make me say any but what I want to say

1

Tuesday or Sunday or whichever

1

Winter bliss

1

So those without families? Will take a Holiday Off? The Art of "renaming things"... again showing it's Ugly Face.

1

No. My Christmas looks 99.9 % like any other Christmas and I don’t feel the need to want to change it. I refuse to let pesky Christians rob me around the time of the year where it is supposed to be fun with family and friends just because they wanted to take that fun by slapping their Jesus all over it and claim everything, just like they try to claim everything else and are knocked down with facts.

1

I'll start by saying this must be considered a hypothetical poll with a goal to create a more perfect society. Having said that my thoughts are since it is already a day with the current purpose to reflect on christian morals. Why don't we just call it "Moral" day. That way the purpose of the day is preserved in a completely inclusive way.

'Moral' brings up fanatic dominionists, like the ones in the 1980's that slimed our rhetoric with fundamentalism. And it's gotten worse, thanks to The Swamp.

@GoldenMean As many people in this thread have said, despite the fact that this a holiday with the intent of celebrating christian morals we see a trend toward tolerance of other moral systems in the US during christmas. The definition of the word Moral is: "concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character". i think that's an all inclusive term that satisfies both religious and non religious belief systems. but I also agree that due to the current political climate there is probably a better future time to change the name of christmas.

1

One in five people spend Christmas alone

1

I'm sure that many people, millennials and others already consider the 25th and 26th December as a cultural holiday. What about those who do not have family? Why not just declare it a national holiday without any particular label attached to it and leave it to people to decide how they wish to celebrate it...

Cool. And a floating Labor Day. Yea.

1

Mmmmm..... I hear you on this. It could catch on. Happy holidays is still gaining ground around here. You talk about an up rising around here from all the Christian churches. There's one on every block. They would team up for once and clobber anyone that got in their way.

The stupid is that there's something wrong with having happy holydays? Are they supposed to be sad? Merry and drunken?

@GoldenMean. Hmmm.... you change merry Christmas to happy family day. ( yeah. I think they would be sad. ). I don't understand your merry and drunken...

0

Leave it as is! It is really only a religious holiday for some and deeply entrenched in our cultural traditions.

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