I don't think any Christmas special was actually forbidden in our house, just some were more welcome than others.
I just remembered, we used to have Valentine's Day parties. When we were in elementary school or so, my sister and I would both invite all our friends, and we'd serve heart-shaped cookies and cupcakes with pink frosting and stuff like that, and watch a Chipmunks Valentines special. (There was one other cartoon Valentine's Day thing -- maybe the Smurfs?) None of our other friends had Valentines parties, and I suspect much of the rationale for having one was that, by the time it got to be February in New Jersey, everything was just cold and grey and wet and dismal, and a pink party seemed like a good idea.
Christmas is a firm overlay on other traditions already
Any tradition is. Chanukah is lighting candles at solstice time. Thanksgiving is the same as a thousand other harvest festivals. Spring festivals likewise. People explode and burn shit to celebrate military victories. People honor their dead in ways that almost invariably seem odd to outsiders. Cultures adopt and adapt customs every time they encounter another culture. All of it is "pagan" because that just means "pre-monotheistic".
It's when traditions are
invented
that it gets weird. Though Kwanzaa might catch on better now that they have that great cake...
I just remembered, we used to have Valentine's Day parties. When we were in elementary school or so, my sister and I would both invite all our friends, and we'd serve heart-shaped cookies and cupcakes with pink frosting and stuff like that, and watch a Chipmunks Valentines special. (There was one other cartoon Valentine's Day thing -- maybe the Smurfs?) None of our other friends had Valentines parties, and I suspect much of the rationale for having one was that, by the time it got to be February in New Jersey, everything was just cold and grey and wet and dismal, and a pink party seemed like a good idea.
That's a good example of a religious holiday that ended up cultural. Well, if it ever
was
particularly religious. It certainly isn't (to my knowledge or experience) now.
Off to Wikipeida...
Right now, NORAD says that Santa is at the International Space Station. Which is pretty cool.
t edit
There's even "video," and Santa has a bubble space helmet on.
Also? Russia is BIIIIIIG.
On Christmas Eve in our town, the fire department (which is all volunteers) decorates one of the trucks and someone dresses up as Santa and sits on the back, and they drive around town sounding the siren and waving at people in the windows. (I'm not sure what would happen if there were an actual fire while this was going on -- I think we only have two fire trucks.)
Volunteer fire departments back one another up. When one is occupied there is another designated as on call.
I remember the siren at the fire station that would go off and alert any volunteers within earshot to come on in (if they didn't, they'd get a phone call as follow-up). It reached pretty far out into the farmland, which was where most of the volunteers were working.
Well, FUCK. I screwed up the frosting.
Dammit, dammit, dammit
