Christmas Adam

[clueliss]

I'm going to guess that this Christmas Steve stuff probably ties back to the Feast of St. Stephen (or Dec 26 for the western church, Dec 27 for eastern church - yes I looked it up, but you can thank the Tudor farm christmas youtube someone shared elsewhere for it sticking in my brain).  If so, this would mean that "Christmas Steve" has very old origins.  

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

On 12/25/2015 at 2:24 AM, roddma said:

I think the Duggars mentioned they celebrated Christmas Adam on Dec 23, because Adam came before Eve. 'Eve' is short for evening, not related to religion.

My daughter (15) said the on the morning of the 23rd, It was the 1st I'd ever heard of that. I told her it was Festivus and he said in all seriousness, "mom you didn't even like Seinfeld"  I'm so proud that she knew where that reference came from.  Yes I never watched the show and had never heard of Festivus until a met a now good friend about 12 years ago. Here is her Festivus decorations.  They are Jewish.  

[Kjaerringa]

Norwegian families call this Lille Julaften, or little Christmas Eve. The celebration is not a new thing, but I had never heard anyone seriously call it Christmas Adam. Jokingly, yes....

 

[albanuadh_1]

First time I head of Christmas Adam was on FJ last year. Had totally forgotten about it. Anyone from Canada 'celebrate' this? ( Nova Scotian here).

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

9 hours ago, Whoosh said:

It does sound fun and I always felt like so much went into getting ready for Christmas and then it was just a huge scramble to try to squeeze all the family stuff into Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  I thought the phrase or name Christmas Adam sounded odd, but that is likely because 1) I have never heard it before and unfamiliar things often sound odd to people, 2) probably some stuff related to the fact that my Church taught stories from the Bible were largely allegorical and "eve" is an actual word (not just an abbreviation for evening) which means "the night before", so bringing Adam and Eve into the whole thing just seems odd to me personally (not saying it is odd), and 3) as a life long atheist, I never believed in any of it - so that may have an impact, too.  However, despite what it might be called and the fact that I personally think the name is a bit odd, it sounds like a great idea.  I am wondering - did your family do Christmas Adam stuff, Christmas Eve stuff, and then Christmas day stuff?  If so, it sounds pretty great, actually.

In my family, we always had all the before Christmas stuff like parties with school/friends/work, etc. earlier in December.  Then on Christmas Eve we would cram in going to church, neighborhood party with Santa visit, party at home of Aunt and Uncle with tons of people, huge meal, sometimes Santa, huge gift exchange, lots of "merriment", etc.  We would then schlep home exhausted.  Depending on age, you would wind up either in bed or in the basement wrapping presents for eons (and trying to remember which wrapping paper was from Santa after all that "merriment").  Then, we would all haul ourselves out of bed way too early for stockings, christmas breakfast, gifts, clean-up.  We would then make the few hour drive to visit the other side of the family for Christmas dinner, more gifts, etc.  An extra day thrown in there sounds pretty great.

Yep, we do all 3. And, when we were younger, we did the cousin gift exchange on the epiphany, aka Little Christmas. (There were 14 of us on my dad's side and doing it on the 6th allowed my grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles to buy everything during the end of the year/after Christmas sales. It was also kind of a tradition carry over from when my oldest aunt and uncle were young and they celebrated Little Christmas because my grandparents weren't able to afford buying presents before Christmas).

57 minutes ago, Kjaerringa said:

Norwegian families call this Lille Julaften, or little Christmas Eve. The celebration is not a new thing, but I had never heard anyone seriously call it Christmas Adam. Jokingly, yes....

 

Well, I mean we "seriously call it Chrisrmas Adam" as in that's the name we use every year. But it's not "serious," it's always said with a hint of the pun. I don't think anyone sit there and treats it with the same seriousness as one would expect with Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

[AlwaysExcited]

Christmas Steve sounds fun.

[accountingstar]

I was reading a blog that mentioned that they were celebrating Christmas Adam. I had no clue what holiday that was so I turned to google. I guess I am getting too old since I am out of the loop.

Quote

The day before Christmas Eve. Since Adam was created before Eve, and the need to be equitable in the holiday season, Christmas Adam creates further anticipation of Christmas Day.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Christmas+Adam

Quote

Christmas Adam is a colloquialism for the day before Christmas Eve or December 23rd. It is a rather new term. An online slang dictionary created a listing for it only nine years ago. Christmas Adam is not listed in any formal dictionaries and we had a hard time finding formal writing examples of its use.

The general consensus of the origin of the name is that in anticipation for Christmas to come, people were looking for a name for the day before Christmas Eve. Some were calling the 23rd Christmas Eve Eve. Then someone (or more likely several someones) realized that in Christian mythology God created Adam before he created Eve, so the day before Christmas Eve would be Christmas Adam.

It is hard to tell if this term has traveled outside of the United States, since it is too colloquial to be used in most writing. However, if you do intend to use it as a greeting, pair it with the appropriate adjective (e.g., Merry Christmas Adam in the United States and Happy Christmas Adam in other countries.)

http://grammarist.com/words/christmas-adam/

Sorry Christmas Adam, but I have to celebrate Festivus. I feel that Festivus should have some more decorations and cards. Even Rand Paul celebrates Festivus. Listen up marketers.

Quote

Sen. Rand Paul spent the day before Christmas Eve cracking jokes about his fellow presidential candidates and government spending, as part of a Twitter celebration of the “Seinfeld” holiday Festivus.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-rand-paul-celebrated-the-seinfeld-holiday-festivus-2015-12-24

 

[MisUndrstd]

The Duggars can think up more crap.. geesh! 

[Imaginary_Wonderland]

Never heard of this Christmas Adam stuff before. Weird. 

When i first read the thread title I assumed it was about someone called Adam who was visiting for Christmas! So I clicked wondering who this Adam might be, since they seem to have an endless stream of random guests, and I think I must have courtships on the brain lately cos I was hoping it might be interesting speculation about an Adam. Definitely wasn't expecting all this Adam before Eve nonsense.

Here we have St. Stephen's Day after Xmas, or Stephen's day. I quite like the day, more relaxed and less craziness and hectic panic over cooking etc. They call it Boxing Day in the UK, no idea why. I'm not sure what American's call the day after Xmas.

[Jeebusismycopilot]

When I was living in Newfoundland, we called it Tibb's Eve.  Basically an excuse to relax and celebrate with friends. 

[Bad Wolf]

It's called boxing day because the staff in the big homes had to work on Christmas day. The day after, they could visit their families and were given a box with food and or a money bonus. It's a legal holiday like the day after Thanksgiving.

[FlamingFundie]

37 minutes ago, Imaginary_Wonderland said:

Here we have St. Stephen's Day after Xmas, or Stephen's day. I quite like the day, more relaxed and less craziness and hectic panic over cooking etc. They call it Boxing Day in the UK, no idea why. I'm not sure what American's call the day after Xmas.

We call it December 26th. Aka, The Day To Return Everything That Didn't Fit or We Didn't Like.

[Lynn18]

We call Dec. 26th my FIL's birthday...he's 92 today!

[Jingerbread]

20 hours ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Look, I'm all for being upset about the molestation. But blindly hating everything they do and using it as a means to "prove how awful they are," when also stating that it's only them that these "forms of proof" exist with is not only obnoxious, it's unnecessary.

I also find it insulting because, no matter how much you claim it only applies to them, your decision to hate their tradition just because it "confirms your biases" can be seen as you attacking anyone who has EVER made that joke.

As stated before, my family has celebrated Christmas Adam for centuries. It's a fun family tradition, and the joke is just that -- a joke. I have never heard anyone before this year even suggest that it could be seen as "anti women." It's a play on words, it's a fun joke with ties to the biblical creation story, and there is NOTHING about the tradition that is inherently against women.

Finally, I see NO WAY that this tradition can possibly be anything against women. It's not like they're playing games that attack women, or making jokes at the expense of women, or whatever.

I really think you need to sort out your priorities if THIS is the reason you're getting your panties in a twist. 

Your family may have celebrated it supposedly for centuries even though there isn't anything to back up this "holiday" being centuries old, but your family isn't the Duggars.  You might feel warm and fuzzy about them, but there's no way in hell I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to people who protect a molester and continue to make it all about poor Josh when the victims clearly haven't moved on as much as they're expected to claim.  If you want to give them benefit of the doubt and believe women are more equals in their world, go ahead.  I'm not going to, and my biases are completely founded and based in their actions and their refusal to acknowledge what they've done wrong and continue to do wrong.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

1 hour ago, Imaginary_Wonderland said:

snipped

Here we have St. Stephen's Day after Xmas, or Stephen's day. I quite like the day, more relaxed and less craziness and hectic panic over cooking etc. They call it Boxing Day in the UK, no idea why. I'm not sure what American's call the day after Xmas.

Some of us also call it a great day to get Christmas ornaments, gift wrap, cards, and decorations at a big discount. My mom is a big collector of Hallmark ornaments. Today was her big day to get them at 40% off. Tra-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.

[Karma]

I've never heard of Christmas Adam. I'm Australian ,but my in laws are/were English, and my MIL has never mentioned it either.  Like in the UK, we call 26 Dec Boxing Day. It's a public holiday here, and I've always heard the same reason for it's name as @Bad Wolf mentioned above.  Until this year local shopping centres were closed on Boxing Day, but this year our local Westfield opened.  I did the same as @WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? 'S mum and walked down to get half price cards and decorations for next year.

[physicalscience]

The hubs and I are thinking about celebrating Christmas Lilith instead.

[Jeebusismycopilot]

We call December 26th Boxing Day in Canada as well but I also know it as St Stephen's Day - mostly because of "Good King Wenceslas" 

[EmCatlyn]

2 hours ago, Jingerbread said:

Your family may have celebrated it supposedly for centuries even though there isn't anything to back up this "holiday" being centuries old, but your family isn't the Duggars.  You might feel warm and fuzzy about them, but there's no way in hell I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to people who protect a molester and continue to make it all about poor Josh when the victims clearly haven't moved on as much as they're expected to claim.  If you want to give them benefit of the doubt and believe women are more equals in their world, go ahead.  I'm not going to, and my biases are completely founded and based in their actions and their refusal to acknowledge what they've done wrong and continue to do wrong.

 

If I may jump in here, no one has disagreed with your statement that the Duggars tend to treat women as second class citizens.  The disagreement is over whether Christmas Adam is a misogynist "holiday" or not.

IMHO-- Since the idea of Christmas Adam does not appear to have originated with fundies--much less the Duggars--and there is evidence that people who are not misogynists have celebrated it for at least a decade, then I think it is pretty clear that the "holiday", in spite of its reference to Adam coming first, is not, in general, a misogynist celebration.

The Duggars may very well like the idea that Adam comes before Eve and they may have loved the idea that this is a cause to celebrate Adam's pre-eminence, but that doesn't change the nature of the "holiday" in general.   Even assuming that the Duggars focus on the superiority of men over women on "Christmas Adam" (and we don't know that they do so on this day more than another), that doesn't mean it is a misogynist holiday, only that some misogynists celebrate it with misogyny.

That being said, the Duggars are definitely at fault for their handling of the molestation issue and many other things.  No one is disputing that.

[Dollypeeps]

Never heard of Christmas Adam myself I'm Scottish though. 

Boxing Day here and it's really left over day as we refuse to cook anything day for us lol!!!