#Xmas ad

[misforgotten2]

X-Acto mundo!

The Saturday Evening Post - December 7th 1946

[highbrow-hepcat]

[celesse]

The fastest overnight delivery in the world! 🎁🦌💌🔔

[wordfromoursponsor]

"There's a Christmas rush on telephone wires, too. Help keep war-crowded circuits clear on Dec 24, 25, and 26. Please use Long Distance only if it is vital. War needs the wires--even on holidays." (1940s)

[viejospellejos]

Los 10 mejores comerciales de Navidad de la historia:

[annamariedarkholmes]

x-men + text posts (3/?)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

my 13th annual joe iconis christmas extravaganza fanart; heartwarming reunions, lights strung around everything, wroles to live & die for, annie golden angel is there

[stone-cold-groove]

Now for Christmas.

[ballwizard]

my bag is fucking awesome

[kiochisato]

𐙚　ⵧ　Edeleth Icons　☆ ⵧ　rq by @demeurel ! no kin / me 4 edelgard unless u're whisper ! ♡　rb & cr to use　...⠀click me !

[misforgotten2]

The last label one of these ever made read "TRASH BIN OF HISTORY".

Life - December 13, 1963

[sag-dab-sar]

The Need to Recognize Christmas' Preferential Treatment 🎄

Christmas is seen as "stolen" from pre-Christian traditions or described as "not really Christian". Some of it is legitimate (e.g with specific local or national folk traditions), a lot of it is pseudo-history (e.g Mithras birthday, an entire Christmas tree, lights) but frankly neither actually matter. Because, in our modern world, Christmas holds a prestigious place due to Christianity.

.🔹.

Here are examples that showcase Christmas' ubiquitous, unquestioned place in many Culturally Christian nations and why we need to recognized its ubiquity:

Appropriation of Judaism, re-imagined for Christmas exists like this. @/koshercosplay has basically an infinite amount of examples to use for these posts and even gets sent asks of more examples.

There is no Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu or other religions' holidays reserved as an official federal holiday in the US. So all non-Christian religious holidays are labeled as "accommodations" while Christmas is a given.

While my post targets the US because thats were I am from, this isn't US only. Christmas is a public holiday in a large protion of countries around the world (see map).

Hallmark Christmas movies, that are made by the dozens at this point and are a US Christmas staple, are propaganda longing for a better ""family friendly"" white washed Christian version of America that never existed.

Hallmark has added anti-semitism into it's Christmas movies.

A Hanukkah presentation was banned in a Florida school meanwhile the same school was celebrating Christmas activities and decorations. Justified by Florida's Parental Rights Bill ("Don't say gay" bill) "obligating us to follow the 5th grade standards [...] At this time, a Chanukah presentation is not in our standards." It was only reversed to to social media outcry.

Something similar also happened in a Vancouver school where Christmas decorations were allowed because they "aren't religious" while Hanukkah ones were explicitly denied.

Fasting and breaking for prayer during Ramadan is seen as an inconvenience to employers, who need "guidance" on how to "accommodate" their Muslim employees. And has led to Muslims being straight up fired. Whereas Christmas decorations, events, or music in a work setting is fine.

Universities won't hold classes on Christmas but will reverse their practice of not holding classes on Yom Kippur & Rosh Hashanah because not holding classes on those holidays is "intended to insure greater continuity in the academic schedule and minimize course disruption for students." Those two holidays are a debate at the university— Christmas is never a debate.

Not holding classes on Eid al-Adha is also controversial! This also included reversing the decision to not have classes. The decisions to not hold classes on the holiday is a debate at the school board— Christmas is never a debate.

To make it all worse in the US: Christian Nationalism is dramaticlly increasing x x x

.🔹.

No matter what pagan-ness or secular aspects can be found in Christmas it has a privileged special place in our culture— that is afforded to no other religion— specifically because it is Christian. There are a few examples where this isn't the case (e.g Japan) but those are very few and far between

In my strong opinion: if you choose to celebrate the holiday, as a Christian or non-Christian, you should recognize the special spot & privilege it has.

You shouldn't dismiss that fact and the above examples because "pagan origins" or "celebrating it in a secular way"

Maybe next time when your classmate, your child's classmates, or you sibling's friend want to put up Hanukkah decorations in school next to the Christmas ones you can speak against the school administration that bans it, or against the teacher who gets upset at the idea.

Or perhaps you can be the person at the school board meeting who points out that Christmas isn't any more special than Yom Kippur or Eid al-Adha so why are those debatable when Christmas isn't.

Recognizing these things is not raining on Christmas' parade nor does it mean you should feel guilty for celebrating, its simply a matter of expanding you view of the world and learning the obstacles other people face.

.🔹.

P.S

Recognizing its preferential spot is paramount imo but if you'd also like to touch on the history of the matter:

Here is some info on the "Christmas is stolen" argument, as well as tracing secular and religious history of the holiday.

The origins of Christmas and its traditions are marred with psudeo-history plastered all over news websites, blogs, and supposedly reputable sources. But many of this comes down to secondary sources citing each other in a loop without primary sourcing. Here is an example of how that can happen (not xmas related).

-

-Dyslexic, not audio proof read- | -repost-

[cookinguptales]

I would also just like to state for the record that when my grandmother died and when I wrote this post a few days ago, a lot of people reached out to me and so even though I've really been struggling for the past couple weeks, I am also simultaneously like

everything is hard rn but my friends are so good to me ;;

[harpsona]

Merry Christmas 🎄

[spudbiz]

Murad Cigarettes - December 11, 1920

[now-winter-comes-slowly]

So @moonshinemagpie just drew my attention to this lovely 80s Japanese Christmas hit, Yamashita Tatsuro's Christmas Eve. Both song and video (the latter a famous ad for JR Central's Xmas Xpress train service) are delightful: the perfect synth arrangement! The missed connections! The rushing through a busy train terminal dropping parcels! The utter joy on her face at the end!

And it occurs to me that, with some rare exceptions*, I really don't know (or share here) very many Christmas/winter pop songs from outside the UK and USA, and should remedy that.

*e.g. Youp van 't Hek's infamous Flappie, which you can hear in the original Dutch or in this English cover by Todd Rundgren, but be aware that it's probably the only Christmas song to require trigger warnings for both animal death and patricide, or to have resulted in a smalltime annual crimewave...!

Ahem. So my request here is: please share your international Christmas/winter pop favourites, and if you'd like to share why they're particularly special to you that would also be lovely. I'd particularly welcome songs not in English, and please don't be deterred from submitting covers either.