Madonna cancels Christmas

My family has come close to cancelling the holidays. We've cancelled most of the gift giving. We siblings will not be exchanging gifts. The children will be receiving about three to five small presents each when we open presents on Christmas. Our families keep expanding, but our wallets haven't, so we've all agreed unanimously to change the focus.

My husband and I are buying our son (who turns two in January) one item for Christmas. Our daughter gets nothing from us because she's a newborn and doesn't really care.

We're not really cancelling the holiday though. We're all getting together for Christmas, and we'll be celebrating family, not presents.

Cheryl at http://redpens-diapers.blogspot.com

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On man, I just love Christmas and everything that goes with it. I always have. My b-day is Dec. 27 so to me, it all goes together. I love buying things for people and wrapping and doing the tree and the yard. The only thing I do hate are the crowds at the stores. I shop all year and put things away and just love the "surprising" people with things they will really like. I do think though if it's not in your heart, why bother. I will always "bother" though. "Dashing through the snow".......

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I hate the gift giving of Christmas. My wife and I have stopped giving each other gifts, we go out for appetizers and deserts for our anniversary and birthdays. On my side of the family everyone is getting a nice framed picture of our 5 month old daughter, but that’s it.

My wife is nervous to bring it up on her side of the family because her mother is intimidating about the gift giving aspects of Christmas. It’s very important to her that her kids get whatever they want, and they’re both older than I am.

My attitude is that we are all adults. We all buy what we need when we need it. I will shop the sales on Friday for ME!

We do gladly buy gifts for our nieces and nephews, but will not be buying anything for our daughter this year or next.

Sandy – you are NOT a scrooge!

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I agree Rob that we "buy what we need when we need it" but Christmas is (to me) about getting things we normally wouldn't buy ourselves. Things that we "want" not need. I just think it's fun to surprise others. I'm not talking expensive things either. I think most people don't think ahead and it's the shopping and the crowds we don't like. I do it year round. I got my brother who LOVES hot-dogs this neat gadget that's a toaster for the hot-dogs and buns. I've had it for months now and I can't wait till he see's it. He will love it. It's that kind of thing I'm talking about.

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Christmas to me is about tradition and family. That happens to include gifts in my family, and since I love the excitement of buying and giving the gifts, I don't see that ending soon for me. I do focus more on the kids but I can't see totally cutting off the adults at an occasion where we all get together and traditionally exchange gifts. (We do this en masse at my parents' house every year.) Not everyone buys things though - some bake cookies or make jellies for everyone, etc. It's more about appreciating our family and delighting in how the little ones are growing.

The meaning of Christmas would get lost if we only focused on it on Christmas morning while opening gifts. Religious education, including information about Christ's birth, should be taking place well in advance of Christmas, and while discussing the upcoming gift-giving with excited anticipation, we can also discuss its connection to the religious basis of the holiday. I don't think it's so important that the "true meaning of Christmas" be the main focus while the kids are ripping open their presents. After all, most scholars don't even believe Jesus was born on or even near December 25.

My household includes multiple, very different religious backgrounds so Christmas isn't the only thing we celebrate. We have a fake lighted tree up all the time which we call the "blessing tree." It's especially important to do the lights and music and festivities at this time of year, because the days are so short, and we're stuck in the house so much, that without the celebrations it would be dark and dreary and depressing.

I don't know about Kabbalah, but it's news to me if Jewish people don't do gifts in connection with Hanukkah. I thought they had multiple days of gifts.

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"An off-shoot of Judaism, followers of Kabbalah observe only the Jewish holy days, which means no Christmas or Easter celebrations."

Er, couple of things wrong with this, at least the way it's written. First, Kabbalah is not an "off-shoot" of Judaism. People who practice Kabbalah are not "followers." Practitioners of Kabbalah are generally Orthodox Jews who include the beliefs and practices specific to Kabbalah with their study of Torah. You may find practitioners of Kabbalah in any synagogue.
Second, the way this is written makes it sound as if a non-Kabbalistic Jew WOULD celebrate Christmas or Easter. No Jewish person would celebrate those holidays (at least not in a religious sense), as they are strictly Christian. Although Jews may buy their Christian friends Christmas presents, or attend Christmas parties or whatnot, they don't celebrate the holiday themselves!

And SKL, Hanukkah is not a gift-giving holiday traditionally. It has become so for most Reform Jews and some others, simply as a response to the gross commercialism surrounding Christmas. In Conservative and Orthodox households, there may be special prayers, special meals, and other celebratory activities, but there aren't gifts involved. Hanukkah is an eight day holiday, but even in homes where gifts are exchanged, you don't get a present on every day (except sometimes for children, who might get small presents or chocolate coins or some such each day).

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I'm with Joy on this one... My birthday is the 28th (Happy Birthday, Joy, from one Christmas Baby to another!!!), so it's a run-together for me, too.

I enjoy all the music, lights, and yes, the gift-giving. I will not now, nor will I ever, apologize for that. I get that the day has become more and more commercial, and more and more ridiculously PC ("family trees", Lowes? come on), but it's up to us, as parents, to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas, as well as enjoying a little excess.

And I don't mind the excess one bit - all through the rest of the year, I'm pinching pennies, denying ourselves our wants because we don't *need* it, so I don't have a problem going a little overboard during this time.

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Cheers and Happy Birthday LS. My uncles b-day is the 28th.

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I would not walk across the street to see "Madonna". What a complete hysterical lunatic!

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She also crowned herself the, "abassador" of the Jews.... Jewish people think she's a joke, and Jesus Christ simply waits for her to come to her senses.

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I LOVE CHRISTMASS NOT FOR GIFTS BUT BECAUSE LIKE IT SAIDS CHRIST-MASS OUR JESUS CHRIST WAS BORN ON THAT DAY AND WE TOO DO NOT EXCHANGE GIFTS ANYMORE BECAUSE ITS JUST TO EXPENSIVE EVEN TO BUY FOR THE LITTLE ONES I KNOW IT SOUNDS SAD BUT ITS ISN'T ABOUT THE GIFTS ITS ABOUT CHRIST ALLTHOUG I DO BUY MY KIDS CHRISTMASS TOYS AND GIFTS BUT THE FAMILY GETTOGETOGETHER NO ONE DOES AND BY THE WAY WHAT HAPPEN TO MADONNA'S CHIN IT LOOKD HORROIBLE AND SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE HAD A BAD FACE LIFT SHUUUU NASTY

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Cancelling Christmas is not the answer. If you are raised a Christian it is your duty to celebrate it. It doesn't mean "getting" gifts either. The idea of Christmas is to give to those who are needy. Not to think of yourself or yours. It is about helping others. So, to cancel Christmas is just as selfish, because you're not thinking of others but of yourselves, and how it affects/inconveniences you...but then again, Madonna has no morals...who'd expect anything more from her.

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Rent the movie "The Bishop's Wife", at the end is a beautiful description of giving....these are the gifts we give, whether we give to workmates, friends, and especially to family. Giving at Christmas didn't start with us....."For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son"

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In my family, we have cancelled Madonna. Once we cancelled her, we started to enjoy people who actually had talent!

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The Children's Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

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I am a non religious jewish person never married with 2 kids one 15 and 4. My parents are conservative so we do celebrate the jewish holidays with them, on xmas eve though I make a ham with fixings and treats, they have stockings and I wanted to instill that Santa comes to all kids house no matter what religion. Even my 15 year old who is old enough now not to believe in Santa and my 4 year old is autistic and doesnt understand the concept of holidays she loves the celebratory spirit and any type of party. We also watch the 25 days of xmas every year even though I have most of the movies as well as our 1st xmas with my daughter I bought a family present of a collection of Muppet shows which was extremely expensive then. My kids do get a present or 2 for Hanukkah(and a previous poster was right, it was never meant to be a gift giving holiday it became one after ww) we also celebrate on a smaller level Kwanzaa and talk about Ramadan.
I unfortunately being sick don't have the resources except at home to teach my kids the value of giving, but I have taught them the diversity of different cultures in celebratory manner. We also celebrate half birthdays in our house too. My kids have grown up extremely well polite and considerate , and my 4 year old with autisim has fantastic manners and anything she gets she is extremely grateful.
I agree holidays should be about family but so should every other day. Whether you have children or not, no one has any guarantee of how long they have so I have the mindset of of celebrating my children everyday.

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WELL NOW WE ALL JUST BETTER STOP! HOW SILLY I FEEL GIVING MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS GIFTS. LET ME KNOW WHEN MADONNA IS JUMPING OFF A BRIDGE SO I CAN TOO !

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I think Madonna is a bigot.Maybe on her daughters 16th B-Day she should pass down her Erotic Book to her daughter. Madonna is Trash and I can't see her teaching her kids Morals and Values

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Christmas is a beautiful holiday. It's unfortunate that society has trivialized the meaning of Christmas to gift giving and getting gifts. Christmas is not about gift-giving. It's not even about family. It is about the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Maybe if people remembered that, Christmas wouldn't seem so burdensome to them.

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She's a freak. Christmas is for the KIDS. Cheap witch.

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