OT: BAH, HUMBUG!!

I am about to spend my third Christmas in a row in a nursing home and the second one where I am at right now. Year One, it was right aftter I broke my ankle and leg and was shared a room with a confessed bank robber who the week after New Year,s threatened to kill me. I was move to a different room, but she attempted to set my bed on fire and was removed from the facility.

I am at a different facility this year, but last year, I was not invited to the Christmas Party because I didn't have a wheelchair to go in. Also my roommate then and now is Jehovah's Witness, a religion that doesn’t celebrate Christmas or Birthdays. So no little trees or cards on the closet door. For my last birthday, they ripped up the carpet in front of my room, so visitors weren’t allowed. The one before that, I was in isolation with an infection.

It really wasn’t important until I couldn't celebrate it.

It may not be decent, but the only place I will be happy is my home.

I miss not having any TV channels that show movies, my DVD collection, quiet, my cat and my housemate. Jack, my 91 year old friend, had been sharing my home since 1982. He is also a movie lover. He can remember seeing silent movies in tents. He snuck into GWTW in 1939. He gave up his fancy uniform as a Brooklyn Paramount usher to join the Navy in 1943 and in 1947, screentested for the movie "The Unsuspected," but lost the part to Ted North.

I like to watch movies around Christmas that takes place around Christmas but is not necessarily seen as Christmas movies...



Nick and Nora Charles Christmas in The Thin Man 1934


Christmas mayhem in The Man Who Came to Dinner 1942


Devil's Island Christmas in We're No Angels 1954

Well, in the first place, conservative "Christians" are all about being persecuted even though they are by far the largest religious group in the U.S. However, when they don't get their own way or are told that they cannot impose their religion on unwilling subjects, they get all whiny about having their religious rights taken away.

In the second place, instead of atheists having too strong a voice in our society (a statement that is part of the victim claiming I mentioned in the first paragraph), it is more than possible that they won the school prayer case because they were right and the forced prayer rules were wrong. Also, that using government to promote one religion is also wrong as is a company that promotes the owners’ religion to their employees.

I don't really see how they can claim Christmas as a Christian observance, in the last place. There are just too many social, political, and, yes, even theological reasons to sit out the season. Let's take the birth narratives, for example. Of the four gospels in the Christian scriptures, only two talk about the birth of Jesus. The only other mention outside of the gospels is St. Paul in Galatian 4:4 when he says the Christ came when it was time, "born of a woman." Now, back to the gospels, Matthew and Luke. The two accounts are impossible to reconcile. They both agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth and that Mary and Joseph were his parents. But then things go off in all directions at once. Matthew tells of the family living in Bethlehem, the star, the Magi, the slaughter of the innocents, the trip to Egypt, and the return to hide out in Nazareth. None of this is in Luke. Luke has it that the family already lived in Nazareth, came to Bethlehem for the census, had to stay in a stable where Jesus was born, were visited by shepherds and angels. None of this is in Matthew. Continuing with Luke, after Jesus' birth, they returned home without any detour to Egypt. Nativity scenes invariably bring these two accounts together showing the manger scene along with the Magi kneeling and the star overhead in a ridiculous attempt to harmonize the two very different accounts. Even further, if conservatives really read their Bibles like they claim they do they would know that the purpose of the birth narratives was to show that Jesus was the new Moses and new King David. Similarly, the official biographies of many Roman emperors featured starry displays. Nowhere is the sentiment that god-loved-us-so-much-that-he-came-to-Earth-as-a-tiny-baby, nor that it represents the spirit of sacrifice or giving. The entire modern Christmas scene is a commercial creation. Nothing to feel warm and fuzzy about.

I love finding movies that are "Christmas" movies but aren't know as such. Thanks for the recommendations. I have always wanted to see the Bogart version of We're No Angels, and have not seen The Man Who Came To Dinner. The Thin Man I have seen about 20 years ago, but none of the rest, yet. I have them all recorded from TCM so maybe I will get to them around Christmas.

I'm Christian and while I feel the commercialism of the holiday is at an all time high, I believe the United States and other countries that celebrate the season would be far worse off without Christmas. There would be a huge blank space at the end of the year. I imagine New Years would pick up the slack though. I love the season, and Advent is the beginning the Christian church year.

My favorite holiday is still Thanksgiving though, as out of all of the traditional American holidays it is the least commercialized. Sure, Black Friday encroaches on it, but it's not Thanksgiving related. It's still a family focused holiday and a time of togetherness even though stores have attempted to subvert this by having their sales on Thanksgiving Day now (I believe that these stores should be boycotted summarily).

At least now, businesses do not have to be neutral regarding "Christmas". The First Amendment does not apply to privately owned businesses. They just do so because they believe it will help their bottom line by saying "Happy Holidays" or whatever. That's their right. We'll see what this Supreme Court case has to say about the wedding cake for the gay couple. It's to be ruled on very soon. Part of the discussion is whether the cake is a first amendment display of art. Who knows.

Hardly, the peak of her success. Lacey Chabert played Claudia Salinger, the youngest of five orphaned siblings on the TV show Party of Five from 1994-2000, a period of six years. During that series, she won or was nominated for 8-10 best young actress awards.