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Thursday, October 14. 2021

The Christmas "Risk"

Today I received a note from a friend about the Christmas "risk" and it gave me pause.  After all, we humans tend to think so linearly at times, we tend to miss the bigger picture.  I'd never actually fallen for the 'Christmas is at risk' story, though for reasons entirely different than what I'm about to share.  Her note is as follows:


"The latest fear tactic is saying that "Christmas may be at risk" due to supply chain issues. Christmas is not at risk. The ability to buy a bunch of crap no one needs or knew they wanted may be at risk, but Christmas is not at risk. Let's not allow these fear-mongers to screw with our joy, please. The joy of Christmas isn't stuff, it's family and tradition and celebrating love. And, if you're religious, it is about Jesus' birth. Not STUFF. Christmas is not at risk. Christmas will go on. Maybe in a different way for now, but...
Christmas and the way we celebrate it is not dependent upon material things.
Just sayin'...



And this is the last time I will mention Christmas until after Thanksgiving."

I realized, as real as supply chain issues are, the story circulating is just another bit of Leftist FUD.  After all, good Leftists don't believe in God and certainly do not support consumerism.  As a result, the 'risk' is designed to craft a narrative which simply increases the concept of class warfare among those they seek to oppose.


The real story of Christmas won't be the TV we couldn't get on time, or the doll your daughter didn't get.  It's going to be the time we spend together with friends and family and enjoy each others company.  That isn't at risk, though Fauci is trying very hard to push it, and we should continue to look forward positively and set aside most of the fear-mongering that the Democrats and Democrat-oriented media push our way.


Her note has altered how I was thinking about the upcoming holidays in a very positive way, and I am 100% in agreement with this point of view.

Posted by Bulldog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Religion, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 20:08 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Maybe this supply disruption will be a blessing in disguise. Let us focus on the real meaning of Christmas. Let us focus on what made Christmas such a joyous time of year. Ditch the commercialism.
#1 B. Hammer on 2021-10-14 20:37 (Reply)
You will find many athiest Biden apologists saying the same thing in the coming months, for completely self serving reasons.
#1.1 Joe B. on 2021-10-14 20:58 (Reply)
Xmas is at risk insofaras bureaucrats are telling people they cant be with the ones they love, whilst bueaucrats skirt travel rules.

Anybody hoping to get their kid a great toy is also faced with the reality of spiking food, transportation costs along with basic heating to, you know, survive through xmas.
#2 Joe B. on 2021-10-14 20:56 (Reply)
Correct. Christmas is at risk, but not from a lack of Chinese junk to be packaged into "jolly" wrapping paper imported from China to serve as Christmas gifts that will end up in the trash a few days later anyway.

It's at risk from the unrelenting assault on western society and culture coming from the rabid left, an assault that's not letting up and indeed speeding up.
#2.1 JTW on 2021-10-15 04:48 (Reply)
This.

Couldn't go see family last year because of the Woo Floo. Going this year regardless.
#2.2 William O. Blivion on 2021-10-15 10:38 (Reply)
Bravo! Well said!
#3 snopercod on 2021-10-14 21:23 (Reply)
The big risk is cancellation of gatherings at Church, with family, and with friends. Bulldog is spot on. Christmas is not about the gifts from stores, but the Gift of the God's Incarnation, for our salvation.
#4 Mark on 2021-10-14 21:54 (Reply)
I guess my neighborhood didn't get any of those dismal memos. Monday night, at our HOA's annual fall meeting, the question was raised "Shall we repeat the Outdoor Christmas Decoration Competition that was held (for the first time) last year?" And the response was a unanimous YES--bigger, better, with local "celebrity" judges (our city councilman, our community police officer).

It's nice to live in a place where folks would rather build up new, constructive traditions, and not tear down old ones. Hmm, wonder if the fact that we have SIX churches within walking distance might be a factor...
#5 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2021-10-15 07:19 (Reply)
The American people are still, by and large, Christians. They're also, by and large, done with Fauci. They're not going to tolerate being told not to congregate at church or around the dinner table.
#6 Maniac on 2021-10-15 09:26 (Reply)
Christmas will come. Even if I have to give my mom an orange stuck with cloves, just like she got when she was a little girl. We will get together and celebrate the birth of Jesus. Who needs Chinese stuff? It was weird last year not going to church on Christmas Eve. They had it but you had to get an evite to attend.
#7 Kf on 2021-10-15 10:59 (Reply)
It actually took a "note from a friend" to figure out Christmas is not about buying stuff?

Seriously?
#8 Deport Everyone on 2021-10-15 11:21 (Reply)
No. That's not what gave me pause, and it wasn't required for me to understand this.

What gave me pause was the fact that the news has been hammering this home relentlessly (in more ways than one, as other commenters have noted) and since part of what I do is to study trends in data, it's had some real meaning for me. So I had to think about what the REAL story was behind this "Christmas is at risk" thing was - and I realized it's just more of the same war on Christmas as it's always been...equating consumerism with the values of the season.

So this note gave me pause to stop and think about the larger picture as it relates not only to my job - but also to many others out there who often don't make that connection which many of us readily do make. That Christmas is, as "The Grinch" exhibited so well, about more than gifts and stuff.

It's nice that most of our readers understand this fact, and many already know this point. But most people out there are not like you and me. So I had to think about whether this was a note worth sharing. Eventually, I did (not only here) and I have gotten a lot of positive responses. In fact, only one (and if I count yours, possibly two, though yours is not really negative) negative one.

The negative one engaged a logical fallacy by complaining that "yes, yes, this is all well and good but you lost me with that part about it being Leftist FUD when Fox and its ilk spread 'the war on Christmas' meme every year. How is this different?"

Obviously, it's significantly different. Fox News is commenting on the very real leftist attack on religious belief by dumbing down language and removing all religious aspects to these holidays and just making them secular holidays. No surprise. As I pointed out, Leftists are lacking in God's love at heart. They SAY they 'care' and they SAY nice things about what government can do. They have made government their god.

But no.
#8.1 Bulldog on 2021-10-15 18:12 (Reply)

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