Taking the Christ out of Christmas?
Every year there are news stories about whether the political correctness of "Happy Holidays" has gone to far, but the North Fork Bank on Court Street in Carroll Gardens has a unique approach to this debate. It appears Jesus is missing from the bank's plastic creche display. Either they are taking Christmas literally and Jesus will appear in their window display early on the morning of Dec. 25--or something's afoot.
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Yes folks! It's an all out war on Christmas! We should all go down to Northfork bank and protest.. NOW! (I am kidding of course)
I laughed out loud when I heard that Bill O'Reilly and other conservative types had actually *boycotted* Target because their advertising said Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. What a frickin' joke those people are.
Anyway, it's actually quite a common tradition to wait until X-Mas to install the baby jeebus in the manger. That's when he was born, after all.
Humm... I thought people waited to put baby Jesus out because they didn't want anybody stealing him.
Target is getting it from all directions then. They had that whole mess with the morning after pill back in October.
O'Reilly is such a stinking hypocrite. He was after all selling "Holiday" ornaments for your "Holiday tree".
I had a small nativity set growing up.. and yep baby jesus wasnt set up until Christmas day. The thing I am the most disapointed about is the absence of christmas lights on Court Street.. (you know the ones that hang across the street with the garland on the electric poles??) all we got this year were the crappy white snowflakes far and few between. meh
Huh, when I was growing up, Jesus was always put out with the rest of the figurines. I kind of like the idea that he shows up on Christmas Day, builds up the excitement a bit.
I've had Christmas in California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. This is the first time I've actually notied this tradition. Thanks for pointing it out :)
where i grew up, we always had jesus out from the beginning, but the 3 wise men didn't show up until jan. 6, which is when catholics celebrate their arrival. my church was actually pretty funny about it - on dec. 25 they would start their pilgrimage at the back of the curch and every week they moved a little closer to the nativity scene in the front. by new year's day they were always poised on top of the organ.
Years ago, when I was a young fellow coming of age in Baltimore I had a drunken episode involving the manger scene at a local church. You see, my tight knit group of friends were all starting to grow up and move on, some were getting married or getting jobs, and we were drifting apart. It wasn't like it had always been - the guys hanging out, drinking, then meeting up at the diner afterwards for fries and gravy.
Anyway, one night I was feeling particularly pissed off about the way things were going and I got really drunk. Walking home, I came upon the manger scene. Something went off inside of me and I started to punch out the Three Kings, Joseph, Mary, the Shepards - even some of the animals. Then, I took off all of my clothes, swaddled myself in the baby Jesus's cloth and fell asleep in his makeshift barn crib. Until the cops came, that is.
When I was growing up Catholic, my mom always held back on the baby Jesus until "Santa" arrived. I think it was a bit of subterfuge to link presents with Jesus...
1. Christmas
2. Presents
3. ????
4. Jesus!!
Brilliant!