Christian Wins "Battle Over Christmas" Against Neighbors

[Katzchen24]

14 minutes ago, Briefly said:

Sometimes it seems to be by choice.  They get attention.  Or ignorance, I have one particular facebook friend that always, every year without fail will post about how we need to get rid of X-mas because that's part of the war on Christmas - taking the word Christ out of Christmas.  Last year, I replied to her with a link to a site that explained how the X actually was a shortened version of the word Christ.  I don't remember all the details, but the short version is that X-mas = Christ-mas.  She never answered me. As far as I know, she has not posted it yet this year.  She's actually the mother of a friend of mine but I somehow managed to friend her.

I've done the same thing. I have a few FB friends who post this kind of rubbish (mostly I just mute them so I don't have to see their stuff) and I never responded. I do now though. I can't let this kind of ridiculousness pass. A war on Christmas?? Haven't they been to their local Target or K-Mart in OCTOBER and seen the shit-tonne of decorations and trees and lights and the chocolates and listened to the terrible canned carols?? Put-lease. 

[Black Aliss]

21 minutes ago, Briefly said:

Sometimes it seems to be by choice.  They get attention.  Or ignorance, I have one particular facebook friend that always, every year without fail will post about how we need to get rid of X-mas because that's part of the war on Christmas - taking the word Christ out of Christmas.  Last year, I replied to her with a link to a site that explained how the X actually was a shortened version of the word Christ.  I don't remember all the details, but the short version is that X-mas = Christ-mas.  She never answered me. As far as I know, she has not posted it yet this year.  She's actually the mother of a friend of mine but I somehow managed to friend her.

That was our minister's take on it--that X-mas meant "10th mass" so it was a something something Catholic and Catholics are apostates, doncha' know.

IIRC, X,  the Greek letter Chi,  has been used since at least the 16th century as an abbreviation of Christ. So Xmas means "Christ is sent". Disclaimer: I am not a Greek scholar nor do I play one on Fj

[PennySycamore]

@Black Aliss, you are correct about X being Chi and its centuries long use as being an abbreviation for Christ. 

[47of74]

I used to work for an electric company. We once had a customer who claimed “discrimination” regarding her high December bill (she had a ginormous display of Christmas lights) and said we were prejudiced against Christians. The public utility authority didn’t agree.

I can see one Clark Griswold trying a similar argument.

“You serious, Clark?”

[Aine]

3 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Several years ago my parents moved to a neighborhood known for Christmas displays. I HATE IT. Whenever I visit for the holidays* there are lines of cars because I guess people like to drive around and look at lights? Their neighbor across the street has one of those setups that plays music and it drives me insane. You can hear it inside my parents' house at night if they forget to turn it off. I don't even like to go shopping this time of year on account of the Christmas music; why would you want that at your house?!?!

Anyway, the HOA sounds awful (that comment about bringing "undesirables" into the neighborhood!) But the neighbors themselves I have plenty of sympathy for.

My favorite part is the caption under the photo of Morris: "Before he became Mr. Christmas, Jeremy Morris made news for trying to ride a horse across the state of Louisiana to promote voting, despite his doctors warning him that injuries from a car accident made that a bad idea."

*I say "for the holidays" not out of political correctness but because this stuff literally goes up the day after Thanksgiving.

I didn't know the best reaction to this post- the 'Haha', the 'I agree', the 'Love'- all the good things!

I forgot about that caption because I was so mind blown by the end of the article- like what does that even mean?! How does horse riding in general promote voting? Unless you're as deluded as Roy Moore, I guess? But is it such a great strategy to do so against doctor's orders? I have many a friend from Louisiana, being from a bordering state and my housemate is from Baton Rouge- people from Louisiana make fun of themselves a lot and I like to give them some playful ribbing about things on occasion (with love) but they are also pretty anti-bullshit and straight shooters. It's kind of the thing I love about them because all the "keep sweet" and backwards compliments made with certain tones but with fake smiles like, "How precious!" and "Well isn't that just so lovely!", from Deep South states like mine send me batty at times. So I don't get how or why that strategy was a good idea and...look...I just don't understand on any measure. People even where I live, and it's more stereotypically 'backwoods' and 'redneck' than most of Louisiana would raise an eyebrow over that.

[applejack]

I followed a link to this on Twitter - I think I was reading @bestofnextdoor and this was retweeted by them. 

Good god, this guy is a dick. 

[Themanda Duggar]

I always think of Christmas lights as an homage to the Solstice, which probably is the real reason for the season for all of the holidays celebrated by northern hemisphere religions at this time of year, regardless of the mythologies created around them.  The light starts to return after the darkest day, and I think the urge to celebrate it is almost instinctive, and rooted in our sociobiological needs for things as basic as vitamin d and community interaction.

[LittleOwl]

Meanwhile, in the Town where I live : https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/17271995.the-display-appeared-on-the-front-of-a-home-on-erleigh-road/?ref=mr&lp=8 

[GenerationCedarchip]

One of our pastors was talking about being a good witness of Christian and actually mentioned this story in Sunday school.  It was an example of how NOT to treat others.

[Howl]

Living in a city where people officially want to keep things weird, there was a parallel situation on a block-long narrow street not too far from the University (37th St).  It was lined with small 1930 houses and had a blend of long term residents, students, renters and what not. They got in the habit of doing light displays along with eccentric nativities and whatever else crossed their minds.  For example, in one backyard, there was a nativity with a large fish (the Blessed Sturgeon Mary) sitting beside the manger, watching over tiny wrapped cheeses (The Baby Cheeses). 

This went on for 20 years, until traffic just got too crazy, then they blocked off car traffic, and people walked, but then there was no place for all of the visitors to park and some people on the block hated the hordes, so 37th St. went dark. 

Here are some articles about it: 

The Miracle of 37th Street: A Festival of Lights

Wiki (!):  37th St.

My mountain bike club does a Jingle Bell Ride.  We're found a suburban neighborhood with low traffic, but where a lot of the residents put out Christmas displays and we have a group ride through that neighborhood. Lots of enjoyable stuff but nothing over the top. 

 

 

[Soulhuntress]

Would it be wrong for a neighbor to invite the nice local Pagan community over for all 8 Sabbats and do an outdoor ceremony to the Lord and Lady?  I am Christian but that would be my first instinct with a douche like this

[Palimpsest]

Back to the original article.

18 hours ago, Aine said:

even being very honest about moments when neighbors and the HOA probably did some things they regret in retrospect.

I'll say.  Suburbia behaving badly.  I think more than a few people need their brains tested.  I strongly resent this quote:

Quote

"Even before Mr. News Grabber moved in here, he was threatening lawsuits because of his display coming under attack. Great way to introduce yourself into a new neighborhood, right?" the Birds write. "This guy claims to be a Christian conservative. The crap he's pulling is what a liberal Democrat would pull."

Say what!  Not this liberal Democrat.  And then Mr. Bird threatened guns.

But as for Mr.  Morris, he can take his Christmas lights and shove 'em where the sun don't shine.  I'm not sure where in the Bible it says that threatening law suits in advance of moving in to a neighborhood is Christian.  Or that any"ministry" involved being an arsehole.

And surely his legal costs must cut into all the $$ he supposedly raises for charity.

It reminds me of that old carol:

"It came upon the Christmas dear
That glorious time of fights
Of arseholes bending to new lows
To sue their friends for lights
"Peace on the Earth, goodwill to men"
Let all the lawyers sing
The HOA agrees to say
We're tired of Xmas bling.

Still through the darkened nights they come,
With noisy kids in tow;
And still that dreadful music floats
O'er all the peaceful world.
Around that calm and peaceful town
They drive with revved up cars,
And ever o'er these noxious sounds -
We wish we were on Mars."

My apologies to whoever wrote "It came upon the midnight clear."

16 hours ago, ViolaSebastian said:

Some say that the three wise men brought gold, frankencense, and myrrh. But I have it on good authority that they brought a Frosty the Snowman inflatable, a plastic snowman and reindeer to put on the roof of the manger, and an aluminum Christmas tree. True story. 

A family in my town was SEVERELY traumatized when someone shot the inflatable Frosty the Snowman and Santa in their front yard.  They wrote an angry letter to the local paper before they remembered they had given a BB gun to their older son for Christmas.

Then last year the same paper reported that the lights on the town Christmas tree were vandalized.  Vandalized, I tell you! 

A thorough investigation was made by the police into this example of the War on Christmas.  The forensic evidence was carefully examined, and the suspects identified beyond a reasonable doubt, but no arrests were made.

Here's a mugshot of one of the culprits though:

Spoiler

 

 

[TheOneAndOnly]

Can't we all just have a Patrick Swayze Christmas?

 

[47of74]

Of course there's this guy...

Our property class professor showed us this video during class. 

I think after a day or two that would get old for the neighbors.

[Four is Enough]

There's an incredibly huge and tacky block long extravaganza of lights in Baltimore City as well. Rumor has it that if you buy a house on this block, you must agree to put up a Christmas display. ( I am not sure if this is true.)They have lights strung across the street from house to house. They have STUFF on every front lawn, porch, window, roof.... and it draws hellish crowds. 

 

 

Because it's Baltimore, it's tacky AF. Christmas trees of welded bike parts and broken tools, the Christmas Crab with lights, you name it.

If I lived anywhere near this spot, I'd move. I don't mind Christmas decorations but I look askance at any house that is so over-decorated. Less is more, people.

[Glasgowghirl]

I have nothing against people having lights and decorations but if you want to go to that extreme then move to a remote area with no neighbours to annoy. Their was a guy in my home town a few year ago that ended up being told by South Lanarkshire Council to tone his display down because his house was next to a road notorious for road accidents and the neighbours in the small housing estate were complaining about people driving down their street at all hours of the day and some of the musical decorations would not shut up. The man used the excuse that he had a charity tin next to the decorations and that it was raising money. 

Most Christians celebrate Christmas without resorting to annoying half the neighborhood.

[formergothardite]

There is a town in NC where the whole town seems to decorate for Christmas. I have gone a couple times but waiting for hours to drive slowly through a town isn't my idea of fun. I know some people who live right outside the town and hate the entire season because getting to and from their house is a nightmare. 

https://www.mcadenville-christmastown.com/

[Howl]

Just remembered that the Pedernales Electric Co-op in Johnson City, TX puts on the most astounding light display.  We stumbled across it a few years ago. It's truly magical. 

Heart of the Hill Country: Johnson City Lights Spectacular

[Ozlsn]

On 12/11/2018 at 10:40 AM, Aine said:

They only turn it all on for maybe 3 hours per night in the month of December. It's Australia too so Christmas is in the Summer and it's daylight savings time so it goes from maybe 6-9pm each night, enough time for people to get home from work, and the weather is good so the residents usually hang outside and their kids play.

This is the point where I go "you come from a lot further north than where I'm living" - it's not even fully dark by 9pm here. Our local equivalent goes from 8.30-11pm, and the council has finally gotten around to running shuttle buses from parking to the ends of the street to cut down on the traffic. 

We don't have a lot of decorated houses in my area, but the two I love both have hand-made animated (i.e. they move - one has an entire train circuit) decorations from the 60s and 70s. I will really miss them when the owners move on.

[Emilycharlotte]

On 12/10/2018 at 6:52 PM, Maggie Mae said:

Just another example of why Evangelicals are dicks. 

The guy in this story is a dick, among other things.

Saying that all Evangelicals are dicks is hate speech. 

[PennySycamore]

@Howl, if I ever had occasion to be in that part of Texas during the holidays, I'd definitely make the trip to Johnson City to see their lights.  It look really cool!

On the other hand, as @formergothardite says, the light display in McAdenville is a traffic nightmare.  We were going to go once years ago on the way back from a Christmas trip to Maryland, but we hadn't gone but a few blocks when we knew it would take hours to go through.  We still had an hour or so of driving to do so we said "Not worth it" and turned around (with difficulty) and continued on home.  I think my husband must have gone to see the lights when he was at Davidson.  

We used to drive around and look at Christmas lights when I was a kid.  There was this one house that had such deliciously tacky decorations.  There was not one thing tasteful about this house.  We kids loved it!

My husband put up some of the Moravian star and the icicles that he hangs from the eaves every year .  I put my dad's electric candles in the front windows just after Thanksgiving and hung the wreath I ordered from Vermont yesterday.

I'm wondering if the neighbor's inflatables will make an appearance this season.

[Aine]

On 12/11/2018 at 9:21 PM, Ozlsn said:

This is the point where I go "you come from a lot further north than where I'm living" - it's not even fully dark by 9pm here. Our local equivalent goes from 8.30-11pm, and the council has finally gotten around to running shuttle buses from parking to the ends of the street to cut down on the traffic. 

We don't have a lot of decorated houses in my area, but the two I love both have hand-made animated (i.e. they move - one has an entire train circuit) decorations from the 60s and 70s. I will really miss them when the owners move on.

I may be making an incorrect estimate. They are definitely on for more time during dusk then full night time. Maybe it's 7-10 or something. It's not totally dark at Christmas time in Australia by 9. I haven't been home in many years.

[Maggie Mae]

2 hours ago, Emilycharlotte said:

Saying that all Evangelicals are dicks is hate speech. 

Part of their religion includes erasing other cultures, so that is pretty dickish to me. Notice I didn't say "Christians are dicks."

[Hane]

My daughter and her family once lived in a cul-de-sac of Victorian houses. They lived in the top floor, in what was originally servants’ quarters. (Gorgeous, spacious apartment with exposed brick, open plan, modern stainless steel kitchen, Palladian windows in the baby’s room, claw foot bathtub—but I digress). The house, whose owners were an artist and an architect, was the most beautiful and meticulously renovated one in the neighborhood.

And right smack next door was the Christmas House. Every winter until a couple of years ago, when the elderly owner passed away, this house was plastered over with metric butt-tons of the brightest, cheesiest Christmas decorations and lights in the known universe. Whenever I visited, I used to think of the Sesame Street song, “One of these things is not like the other...” The owner raised tens of thousands of dollars for local charities, so I feel a little Grinchy pointing out its cheese factor.

[formergothardite]

15 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

We were going to go once years ago on the way back from a Christmas trip to Maryland, but we hadn't gone but a few blocks when we knew it would take hours to go through.

My memories were mostly going a couple times when I was young. I think it was typically with a church group. My parents may have taken us once or twice but spending hours in traffic with whiny children was never their idea of fun. But my memory was that you spent most of the time in heavy traffic. It seemed like it would take forever to actually get to the lights part. I really don't remember that much about the lights. I do remember that they have some lovely older homes in the town.

. I'm not sure what they do in that town if you just don't want to decorate. There is no way you could host a party or even leave in the evening during the entire month of December. I suppose the people who move there know that if you move into that town you better be super into Christmas lights.