It's time for Xmas rant - early enough, unlike my greetings...

First - for anyone starting with how Christmas is so Christian and holy - read the history (here excerpts) :

A winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures, in part because there was less agricultural work to be done during the winter. From a religious point of view, Easter was the most significant feast in the church calendar.[6] Christmas was considered less significant, and the early church opposed the celebration of birthdays of church members.[7] The prominence of Christmas in modern times may reflect the continuing influence of the winter festival tradition, including the following festivals:

Saturnalia
In Roman times, the best-known winter festival was Saturnalia, which was popular throughout Italy. Saturnalia was a time of general relaxation, feasting, merry-making, and a cessation of formal rules. It included the making and giving of small presents (Saturnalia et Sigillaricia), including small dolls for children and candles for adults.[8] During Saturnalia, business was postponed and even slaves feasted. There was drinking, gambling, and singing, and even public nudity. It was the "best of days," according to the poet Catullus.[9] Saturnalia honored the god Saturn and began on December 17. The festival gradually lengthened until the late Republican period, when it was seven days (December 17-24). In imperial times, Saturnalia was shortened to five days.[10]

Natalis Solis Invicti
Main article: Sol Invictus
The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and Mithras, a soldiers' god of Persian origin.[11] Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday.[12]
December 25 was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma.[8] It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered" despite the shortening of daylight hours. (When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 BC, December 25 was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21 or 22.) The Sol Invictus festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.[3] Several early Christian writers connected the rebirth of the sun to the birth of Jesus.[13] "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born . . . Christ should be born," Cyprian wrote.[3]

Yule
Main article: Yule
Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. Yule logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder, with the belief that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year. Feasting would continue until the log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days.[14] In pagan greater Germany, the equivalent holiday was called Mitwinternacht (mid-winter night), Wintersonnenwende (winter solstice) and there were twelve Rauhnächte (harsh or wild nights), filled with eating, drinking and partying.[15] As Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, its pagan celebrations had a major influence on Christmas. Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul. In English, the Germanic word Yule is synonymous with Christmas,[16] a usage first recorded in 900.

It is unknown exactly when or why December 25 became associated with Jesus' birth. The New Testament does not give a specific date.[13] Sextus Julius Africanus popularized the idea that Jesus was born on December 25 in his Chronographiai, a reference book for Christians written in AD 221.[13] This date is nine months after the traditional date of the Incarnation (March 25), now celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation.[17] March 25 was also considered to be the date of the vernal equinox and therefore the creation of Adam.[17] Early Christians believed March 25 was also the date Jesus was crucified.[17] The Christian idea that Jesus was conceived on the same date that he died on the cross is consistent with a Jewish belief that a prophet lived an integral number of years.[17]
The identification of the birthdate of Jesus did not at first inspire feasting or celebration. Tertullian does not mention it as a major feast day in the Church of Roman Africa. In 245, the theologian Origen denounced the idea of celebrating Jesus' birthday "as if he were a king pharaoh." He contended that only sinners, not saints, celebrated their birthdays.[7]
The earliest reference to the celebration of Christmas is in the Calendar of Filocalus, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome in 354.[3][18] In the east, meanwhile, Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus as part of Epiphany (January 6), although this festival focused on the baptism of Jesus.[19]
Christmas was promoted in the east as part of the revival of Catholicism following the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced to Constantinople in 379, to Antioch in about 380, and to Alexandria in about 430. Christmas was especially controversial in 4th century Constantinople, being the "fortress of Arianism," as Edward Gibbon described it. The feast disappeared after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned as bishop in 381, although it was reintroduced by John Chrysostom in about 400.[3]

So there you go. Christmas was Saturnalia, Sol invictii, Yule, and other 'Pagan' midwinter fests reinvented to make them Christian in 400 CE. Before that, it was celebrated in most cultures, for hundreds of years before it was invented that it would have to do anything with Christianity. And before the whole Christianity was invented.


Second, the whole post card business revolving around this socially accepted food and consumer binge party.
For some reasons, it's sooo obligatory to send christmas cards ... even the people that don't care about that particular festivity at all, and that don't subscribe to any christian religion.
And for some reason, some people take pride in communicating with some of their friends and relatives only once a year. It is for them such an important cultural relict or weird habit that they have to send the post cards once a year. They have never considered it my way : it may be important for you to make your kids respect your family values, but if you have nothing else to say to me in the whole year than "merry christmas" why bother at all? Didn't you think about how I was doing even once during the year? Excluding obligatory hallmark-festivities (anything that they try to make people send postcards for) -- I don't care to receive any birthday cards, easter cards, christmas cards... why is it so hard being a bit more spontaneous? Find something to write even when you don't "have to". Send the postcard when you enjoyed your weekend, when something fun happened to you, or when you thought of your friends ...

Which would also be valid for gifts - they are better when they are spontaneous. Even for kids.

Nevertheless ... I will bother to send some merry christmas cards anyway. It's just one of the things that one is socially expected to do... no matter if you care at all, or what you believe in.

Oh -- and having the obligatory xmas celebration be a 3-day weekend doesn't make this feel any better. We wanted to go to Cape Clear for this xmas ... can't go since can't get back on 25th. So a lousy 3 day weekend and on the Monday 25th pubs are closed on the rest of Ireland (would be open on Cape Clear).