Yep.So you're not just a miserable old git .... you were a miserable young git as well.
Perhaps I should have specified 'Father Christmas' rather than just Christmas, but my point still stands. If they can't stop themselves from spoiling Christmas for a lot of kids they should go and do something useful. After all, in spite of wokish pressure from some quarters, most schools still have their nativity plays to tell children the other story of Christmas, without the need to bring in a gormless and unthinking priest to preach it.This is the funniest thing I’ve heard, the secularisation of Christmas to the extent the Church/vicars should have nothing to do with it - You do realise that ‘Christmas’ is actually supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus?
Father Christmas isn’t a lovely tale for the millions of kids living in poverty who can’t understand why Santa favours other children over them or the millions of parents who feel under pressure to spend money at Christmas when they really can’t afford to. Maybe the ‘gifts of charity and kindness’ are better stories to bring our kids up on?
Not the first time a member of the clergy has tried to ‘reclaim’ Christmas and probably won’t be the last.
Pleased you got over your fear of men with beards, unless you don’t look in the mirrorWhen I was young, I was scared of men in hats and men with beards.
But you didn’t say that did you though, you said this:Perhaps I should have specified 'Father Christmas' rather than just Christmas, but my point still stands.
I was specifically responding to what you actually said, not what you subsequently decided you meant to say after seeing my initial response and making up a new point.It made me feel that some vicars shouldn't be allowed to have anything to do with Christmas! (this is apart, of course, from the vicars and bishops who should never be allowed near children
- but to say that vicars shouldn't speak out to kids not to believe in Father Christmas is secularising Christmas is, well...
It made me feel that some vicars shouldn't be allowed to have anything to do with Christmas! (this is apart, of course, from the vicars and bishops who should never be allowed near children).
Father Christmas is a lovely fairy tale for kids - it makes them happy, and I'm sure they go on sort of half believing it, or pretending to, even after they've started having suspicions! They might well realise that mum and dad eat the mince pies, and that the carrot for the reindeer ends up in the Christmas dinner - but it's like a comfort blanket to keep the myth going. A bit like God really - and vicars and bishops of all people should have the sense to realise that!
Indeed. I stopped believing at 5. It was about March, and my neighbour at the time, a much older boy, (about 9), out of the blue asked me If I still believed in Father Christmas. I just nodded shyly. He then told me, quite authoritatively that he wasn't real and that it was my mum and dad. I remember thinking "Yes, that makes much more sense." However I went on pretending to my parents that I still believed as I realised it was part of the Christmas fun for them.It made me feel that some vicars shouldn't be allowed to have anything to do with Christmas! (this is apart, of course, from the vicars and bishops who should never be allowed near children).
Father Christmas is a lovely fairy tale for kids - it makes them happy, and I'm sure they go on sort of half believing it, or pretending to, even after they've started having suspicions! They might well realise that mum and dad eat the mince pies, and that the carrot for the reindeer ends up in the Christmas dinner - but it's like a comfort blanket to keep the myth going. A bit like God really - and vicars and bishops of all people should have the sense to realise that!
A bit rich of a vicar to disclose that Father Christmas doesn't exist when he is actively pushing another person that doesn't exist!
Sad that you missed out Clamp. To believe in Father Christmas was one of the best things about being a very small kid. It didn't last long but I loved it. Well played my dearly departed parents.I never believed in him. And more importantly, I never will.