Is Christmas a socialist holiday?

No.

Hahaha no.

Isn’t that fundamental for all things Christian?

No work? How about the inescapable omniscient powers of Santa/God watching and judging every child’s waking moment and keeping accounting records of how naughty or nice they were? Not to mention the whole “chores” thing, which in some cases can be a toxic dumping ground for the parents’ subconscious resentments, and all the other arbitrary domineering rules so many parents impose?

All those toys are made by slaves in China for the profit of multinational corporations.
Christmas is pure capitalism.

Yes, clearly a socialist holiday, and not at all driven by capitalistic materialism.

…you’re truying cover up that you’re too cheap to give a gift, aren’t ya? It’s okay, we love you anyways.

Tsk, trust Jesus to be born on xmas day…awkward bastard.

Christmas is a giant Skinner Box experiment. Will all the little rats behave to get their momentary rewards?

Christmas isn’t about the redistribution of wealth. It’s about celebrating the birth of your saviour, Jesus Christ.

IT IS HALLOWEEN.

CHRISTMAS DOES NOT GET HALLOWEEN.

I REFUSE.

^^godammit that is correct. We have had our house all holloweened up for over a month. The christmas shit has been out on store shelves at least that long. I’m starting to resent christmas.

Happy Halloween Seek!

@Lightlyseared “Christmas isn’t about the redistribution of wealth. It’s about celebrating the birth of your saviour, Jesus Christ.”

Well it’s more about celebrating a Roman sun god.

The legendary Saint Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) was all for taking from the rich to give to the poor…

Oh, wait! That would be Robin Hood!!~

I doubt that much of Christmas giving crosses class lines, other than the contributions made to retail corporations.

Christmas is a pagan holiday and things are shared amongst the neighborhood and family because winter is hard and long and not everyone is equally prepared for it and it is the half way mark. We share and cooperate to survive. Now it is more symbolic of course but it’s a good time to help out those you can in any way you can. Even if it’s just some good words or some handmade soap.

@Darth_Algar possibly but let’s be honest Christmas is an orgy of over consumption. There is no religious basis for it any more… and hasn’t been for years.

It’s an orgy of over consumption by some BY CHOICE. Choose less. It’s never been a strictly Christian holiday ever.

@Lightlyseared only on the west. Eastern Orthodox Christianity does not have Santa Claus per se, and that “be good to get presents” thing is not common. I may even say I’ve never heard any parent here teaches kids about Santa. Not that he is a foreign concept, but is connected to New Year, rather than xmas.

I agree with @BellaB: Christianity is fundamentally socialist.

*dictatorship

Harvest festivals are fundamentally socialist: people who work the land together come together to celebrate share the bounty of their shared harvest. Community members who cannot work are not excluded, but also invited to share.

Christmas is capitalism wrapped in religion. Several religions, actually. Christmas charity is a suggestion, not a given.

I don’t give a flying fuck what xmas is meant to be about, just give me beer, pressies & The Wizard of Oz on the tellybox & i’m as happy as a pig in shite.

@ucme You could have those every single day of your life. No need to wait for xmas.

@olivier5 Of course, but that’s like having a wank, fucking the wife means so much more

Not a very precise comparison, if you don’t mind me saying so.

Seems you like some of the rituals of xmas even though you don’t care much for their meaning. Nostalgic much?

And you care because…?

Because I am as curious as a dead cat. Edit: also because as an ex-christian, i sort of miss the xmas spirit. I can relate to a nostalgic feeling to the rituals, but what i really miss is the meaning of it all.

Since Christmas involves mutual gift exchange, I don’t see how it’s some sort of redistribution of wealth from those who work to those who don’t.

The exception would be with children, but it was largely due to the efforts of socialists that child labour was eradicated in the developed world. Unlike most of the undeveloped world which doesn’t have pesky things like trade unions, regulations, and laws enforcing and protecting the rights of workers and preventing exploitative child labour.

But since you brought it up—unearned income is very much a facet of capitalism, and not of socialism. It’s in capitalism that parasitic rent-seeking takes place, and an entire class of people accumulate capital from the labour performed by others.

@Kropotkin an entire class of people accumulate capital from the labour performed by others

Interesting observation; reminds me of a definition of capital I read many years ago, from the Urantia book (believe it or not!).

Paraphrasing from memory, capital was defined as labor in reserve.