I just asked my mom her opinion on the Christmas specials. She said that the only one that she has to watch each year is Miracle on 34th Street, and that any Charlie Brown anything we watched was because of our dad. Which doesn't help much for figuring out any sort of rationale. She had no idea that Charlie Brown Christmas even mentioned Jesus. I think I'll ask my dad when he gets home.

(My mom grew up in a city with a pretty small Jewish population, and in her family, they didn't have a Christmas tree or anything, but they did hang up stockings for Santa. My dad grew up in NY, and didn't do any of that stuff. My sister and I never had stocking or Santa or any of that -- it was just accepted that "Jews don't do that." There was one Jewish kid in my grade whose family put up a Chanukah tree, but we all teased her about it -- like, I remember once, when we were arguing something about Jewish traditions, and she offered what her family did, another Jewish girl responded, "You don't count -- your family has a Chanukah bush.")

"You don't count -- your family has a Chanukah bush."

Heh. Love the phrase "Chanukah bush."

Oy. Why do I read comment threads? On that Christmas special article, there were quite a few comments that were various versions of "Why don't you let your kids celebrate Christmas? All other American kids celebrate it! Just don't celebrate the religious parts." Frequently justified with, "I'm an atheist, and I celebrate Christmas."

Stuff like this is why I shouldn't read comment threads. Makes my head hurt. Also, why I frequently hate December. (In real life this year, I've only had to explain to two people why I don't celebrate Christmas. Both of them were taking that same reasoning -- Christmas is an "American" holiday now, separate from the religious one, and so there's no reason why Jews shouldn't celebrate it. With one insisting that American Jews should celebrate it, since "all" other Americans do.)

Well buttercream frosting base is in the fridge and cooling down while butter comes to room temp. Smoked turkey is defrosting. I've got the iTunes set to shuffle and it's stringing together some interesting choices. Right now I'm at Take That's "Back to Good."

Yes, I have a weird thing for Brit boy bands.

I should go wrap presents but for the moment I think I'll sit here and piddle around the 'net.

Heh. Love the phrase "Chanukah bush."

That's what my FiL calls it, usually with a leer, bless his naughty little heart.

That's the thing a lot of people don't seem to get about Christmas. You can have a religious holiday or you can have a universal holiday. But you can't have both.

Both of them were taking that same reasoning -- Christmas is an "American" holiday now, separate from the religious one, and so there's no reason why Jews shouldn't celebrate it. With one insisting that American Jews should celebrate it, since "all" other Americans do.

Buzzah? Since when? And WTeffingF?

Seriously, people boggle.

OK, in his (slight) defense, the one of the people making that claim wasn't American. He's from Japan, had celebrated Christmas all his life, and was just told a few years ago that it was a Christian holiday. He'd never heard that before. I asked him why non-Christian Japanese people celebrate it, and he said, "Because Americans do."

The other person, though, was American born and raised.

Our biggest client is headquartered in Houston. At the beginning of each day, someone goes on the PA to lead the company in prayer. One of my bosses (who is Jewish) talked to them about this - my boss told then he had no problem with an ecumenical prayer, but since their prayers explicitly mentioned Jesus they were non-inclusive to those who weren't Christian. The response that he got was to the effect that "America is 98% Christian, so if the prayer is not inclusive to those 2% who aren't, that's just too bad."

There was some state legislature (I forget which state) that used the exact same argument for their Jesus-prayers.

That's the thing a lot of people don't seem to get about Christmas. You can have a religious holiday or you can have a universal holiday. But you can't have both.

Maybe you can. Thanksgiving is country-wide but it was always a big deal at church. And I don't think Jehova's Witnessesses celebrate it at all what with its pagan origins.

My personal favorite is the people who freak out about Christmas being excluded from advertising by the pervasiveness of "Happy Holidays." Really? I thought the commercialization of Christmas was a bad thing.

The Japanese co-worker gets a bye, then- the other one though... that's just such a weird mindset.

Oh, and in trolling my news sites, found this story that actually made me feel good about people in general:

Shuttered bakery reopens, rehires workers