As a minimalist since well before it became a thing, I don't give gifts because of special days - Xmas, birthdays, etc. So my Xmas stress due to shopping is nil. There is still some, but take the gifting nonsense away and it is OK.

@Mitch07102 - yes. Being thoughtful and generous whenever to mood strikes is preferable to any obligations based on the calendar.

I'm glad your daughter and grandkids could make the trip and I hope everyone feels better soon! Thanks for sharing.

@WilliamCharles Yes, Xmas at the airport sucked!! Yesterday was a bad day for flights all over, they were 4.5 hours late. Their flight to the US was late, and luckily their flight leaving for Omaha was also late. So they kept the same flights, but the timing. Kids were way beyond tired, considering their new home is 6 hours ahead of Omaha, they were up until almost 2 am.

I hear you. Please allow me to contribute the following. My closest relative is a felon, a drug addict and horribly abusive. I am working on ending that relationship. As for the rest of my family, they could not as much as trouble themselves to pick up the phone today.

Today I celebrate the absence of family. I also have a roof over my head and a working furnace, all of my needs are met, I make all of my own decisions, I get to have a nap this afternoon, the only hate I harbor is toward hatemongers and no one who knows me dares make a religious Christmas reference to me.

Life is not what I had planned but I am warm, fed and alive. I won't be featured on anyone's Christmas card this year, but I am still one of my favorite people and I can usually find a way to reframe any situation in my favor. Thanks for hearing me out. Chin up, gf.

I agree with you, however, I’m sure that you have observed that many, if not most; people validate themselves or their beliefs by invalidating others. A sort form of substantiation by negation from which they derive their temporary sense of identity.

@ASTRALMAX True! Certainly, we can do far better than this.

@Diaco The scapegoat in a variety of forms has probably existed before recorded history.

@ASTRALMAX Apparently, the word 'scapegoat' was first coined in the 16th century to describe the ritual animals that the Jewish community placed their sins onto in preparation for Yom Kippur.

@Ryo1 "In 1542 Parliament passed the Witchcraft Act which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later, but restored by a new Act in 1562.  

A further law was passed in 1604 during the reign of James I who took a keen interest in demonology and even published a book on it. The 1562 and 1604 Acts transferred the trial of witches from the Church to the ordinary courts. "

Alchemists the forerunners of today's chemists were branded as witches. Basically, anyone who was deemed by the Catholic Church to be a threat was declared a witch. Scapegoating belongs in the annals of history, however, today the language has changed and anyone who challenges those in authority is deemed "troublesome."

I took my dogs for a walk on Christmas morning and I saw many people out, probably on their way to visit their families. They all readily said 'Merry Christmas' to each other as they walked past. It was good to see many smiley faces.

@Gwendolyn2018 There is no evidence whatsoever that Jesus was born on Dec 25. In fact, the bible says the shepherds were tending their flocks by night which they did not do during the cold winter months. Dec 25 was not declared Jesus' birthday until 336 A.D. under Constantine in order to make it coincide with the winter solstice celebrations.

@Gwendolyn2018 Yes, there is evidence that Jesus was born, just no proof. There are many witnesses to the life of Jesus and he could not have lived if he was never born. Sure you can believe it is all an evil conspiracy pack of lies. But why believe that? There is no proof that Caesar ever existed either, or Plato, or Cleopatria, or Aristotle, etc. Maybe all of ancient history is just a pack of lies!

@Gwendolyn2018
I concur. I lived in a town back east where Elvis was around every weekend. I just wasn't sure what to think when one weekend, he was sitting on a parkbench and I went around the corner and there was another Elvis sitting on another park bench. This was hours from the south! The funny thing was that the first one sat in front of the courthouse, and the other right around the corner in front of the county jail....

@Gwendolyn2018 When did people ever claim that he was born on the 25th? Not in the bible surely. The Romans decided that. If he was born it was in spring or summer with sheep in the hills. I prefer the idea that he came from the East. Obviously, the entire religion was based on that dating from Egyptian times as so much is identical.

@Gwendolyn2018
And did you buy a copy? What an opportunity!!!

@Gwendolyn2018 I do know all of that, but thanks.

@Gwendolyn2018 No problem. I really like the idea of moving Christmas to summer when we are away on holidays and keeping the Celebration of the returning light.

@Gwendolyn2018
I will hit on her, but warn her that I don't carry it gun and am much harier

@Gwendolyn2018 The day after Winter Solstice I wish people Happy New Year. I think Dec 21 and June 21 should be international holidays. They should become Day #1 and Day #182 of a new calendar. There could be still 12 months with at least a holiday in each.

@Gwendolyn2018 This has absolutely nothing to do with apologist arguments for Jesus. I am not even Christian. I truly do not understand the paranoia of people, especially atheists, who emotionally insist that there never was a person named Yeshua who existed at all. Why is it so super important to believe that a mere man never existed? Why is it so important to insist that the New Testament is a total fabrication without a single shred of history? Why is it so super important to insist that all the people who testified to the life of a mere man were all a bunch of liars? Help me understand. No one has ever been able to explain this to me.

@Gwendolyn2018 That's right. Whether or not there once was an itinerant rabbi Yeshua ben Joseph is completely separate from whether or not he actually performed miracles, was the Son of God (which BTW was originally just a term applied to a prophet) died for our sins, was resurrected, etc. There have been over 200 false messiahs in history. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah 45:1 King Cyrus is named as the Messiah. They all existed, and they were all false (at least in the Christian sense of the word) and there is no reason to deny that they were ever born. BTW, no one is asking you to give up your atheism. Denying the birth of an historical figure is not a requirement for atheism.

@Gwendolyn2018 Are not all atheists ultimately Agnostic? Surely eventually one has to say what created what? Yes applies to a god as well as who treated him/her/it? But unless we believe it is all illusion (who created that?) we have to ask who or why or which or what (Some one, or nobody, knows I wot,..Is the Akond of Swat!) created whatever was created.

@Gwendolyn2018 Oh certainly not we we'd have the slightest chance to even remotely envisage.

@Gwendolyn2018 That I fully agree with. They create images of their Christ which bear no resemblance to what he probably looked like. But they claim that their god made humans in his image, no doubt clothed in a suit and tie,

@Gwendolyn2018 Yes they are though in a really weird way, I envisage a person pottering around in a workshop wiring things up, making little explosions and delightedly churning out universes, delighting in the puffs of coloured smoke emanating from cracks in the shell. Poof, there goes another one. The hippie in me likes the coloured smoke.