Do you celebrate Christmas?

[Aloka]

Hello friends, how are you today? Do you celebrate Christmas ?

[philg]

As a Buddhist I don't see anything 'wrong' in going along with much of Christmas, although I wouldn't go to a church service any more. It depends what you mean by 'celebrate Christmas'. If you mean the whole religeous thing, then obviously no. The rest, of giving gifts and seeing family, is ok as it is one of the only occasions when family have time to get together. It's tricky when people work and can't get away at the same time and mostly our families have been in work where they can take time off at Christmas.

As a primary school teacher my Christmas would start after Autumn half term when we would begin to learn carols. December 1st was when classroom decorations needed to be up, then the cycle of rehearsals, making cards, carol concerts for parents, and so on. Decorations would need to be taken down before the end of term, so Christmas was sort of packed away, and then the one at home started to gear up. When the children were young we had to go to their carol concerts and nativity plays. And so it went on. And on.

[Aloka]

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I don't have any family. I exchange Xmas cards with catch-up messages and also have long phone calls with old friends who have moved to other places in this country or abroad.

Other than that I tend to watch some of the rather dull " Xmas entertainment" on TV for a couple of days while eating too much chocolate!

[Olderon]

I try to minimize this as much as is possible with family, family-in-law, and spouse addicted to the practices of the Holiday.

Examples and details: My wife and members of her family donate in my behalf @ Christmas what they would spend on Christmas gifts to charities, which they deem appropriate: For Example: Goats for 3rd World Families in need of sources of nutrition (milk), etc.

I have offered my wife a trip to any store she cares to visit where she can choose whatever she wants, but so far this has not been very fruitful. I think she chose to do this just one year. I don't find this an unreasonable request as she grew up with a family tradition of having gifts to open on Christmas morning and she longs for that experience.

This year I selected several outside thermo-metallic temperature sensing devices from an online store (Amazon) that sells such things, since our outdoor thermometer's bi-metallic strip has failed due to extreme cold. But so-far this year she has not been able to make up her mind and decided instead to focus on the many ways I have disappointed her or caused her psychological distress as a "husband". In response, I offered to work on the top two behaviors she cited, which were causing her discomfort and to search for a marriage counselor acceptable to us.

As for my four children, seven grandchildren, two greatgrandchildren, and two Sons-in-Laws.: I send them each a generous check to the extent that I can afford for their birthdays and Christmas. (So far, no complaints.)

I ask that none of my children send me gifts explaining that as a Buddhist we are taught that "Birth" is a significant part of the "Samsaric Cycle of Suffering" which we have re-entered due to our failures to achieve the perfection of enlightenment in our previous lives. Otherwise we would never be reborn to endless suffering, unless we choose to do so as Bodhisattvas for the sake of teaching The Dhamma to all of Humanity. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ and therefore falls into an example of that process of suffering according to my understanding. So, why celebrate a being's entry into the stream of suffering, Samsara.

During Christmas week my wife and I watch various theatrical versions of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", also variously called "Scrooge", which we both find entertaining and inspiring.