Don’t want to endorse Christianity necessarily but hard to get around saying the word Christmas or Xmas, so is Xmas more rebellious? Is there an even more rebellious or irreverent name for it?
Also, should I not even celebrate Christmas? What’s an alternative that features the presents-giving at the same time of year but in a way that isn’t tied in any way to religion (and ideally doesn’t involve killing turkeys)?
Apparently saying “happy holidays” is rebellious enough to send some folks into unhinged rants about “the war on Christmas” lol
Despite what crazy right wing pundits say, “Xmas” is Christian. Chi (Χ) is the first letter of “Christ” written in the Greek alphabet. (Χριστός)
Just go back to first principles and celebrate the actual solstice.
Yule.
Yeah this. Most Nordic countries at least call it some variation of Yule still, Joulu in Finnish for example
Gledelig jól.
\o/
Yule is kinda religious though.
At least it’s pagan though. A bit of an F you to the mainstream religions.
Winter solstice.
Saturnalia
That’s still religious.
If you wanna be rebellious around Christmas, all you gotta do is serve somebody a coffee in a red paper cup.
But that aside, both “Christmas” and “Xmas” are equally religious. The X in “Xmas” is actually meant to be the initial for Christ’s name in Greek (Χριστός), so it’s still ultimately the same thing as saying “Christmas”.
Christmas has been secularized for decades, really don’t need to be Christian to celebrate it. Especially since Jesus was probably born in the summer, the early church adopted Dec 25 to make it easier to convert people used to celebrating Saturnalia.
Festivus is maybe the best known totally non-religious December holiday. Or new years.
Xmas was never intended to be a more secular alternative, it was originally created by scribes wanting to save space so they used the first letter of Christ in Greek, “Χριστός”.
I think christmas has lost it’s religious connotations, nobody I know thinks of it as a religious holiday at all. It’s just a time for giving gifts, showing love and spending time with meaningful people in your life.
If you want a catch all though “Happy Holidays” covers it.
Why does it need to be rebellious? Sounds a little childish. Just roll with “happy holidays” or whatever and celebrate and let others celebrate whatever they want. Celebrating at this time of year has nothing to do with Christianity really, it’s much older tradition.
Fuckmas
I can’t give you finger guns over this medium, but just imagine me doing that while I say “nice!”
No offense, but you really don’t need to try so hard.
In some countries Christmas is a national holiday. It’s simply the name of a holiday that affects everyone in my country (USandA). Because of that, it’s both a secular and religious holiday. So do what you want with that. Celebrate by worship, by spending money, by seeing family, or do nothing and enjoy the quietest day of the year (in my city, at least).
And not to mention that Christmas isn’t even a real holiday; the Christians just co-opted and modified all the solstice holidays of every culture they conquered. The only “reason for the season” is to indoctrinate. Merry Christmas!
The X in Xmas is supposed to be the Greek letter Chi, and stands for Christ, so I wouldn’t call Xmas secular. But also a lot of Christmas traditions are in fact pagan, as a lot of European pagan religions, both historical and modern, have some kind of midwinter celebration. If you want to celebrate without the Christian stuff, you can celebrate winter solstice in whatever way you want.
