I don't like "Santa"!

Have always preferred 'Father Christmas'.... rather than the other name but think I'm slowly learning to put up with it. What I cannot get to grips with in the invasion of the phrase...'Happy Holidays' that creeps in from all things American. I am no great church goer and if honest am a little ambivalent about religions. However, Christmas is based on a Christian festival with perhaps a few old pagan influences....and should be refereed to as Christmas. I am more than happy to wish anyone Happy Hanukkah or be respectful of Diwali or any other named festival being celebrated but I just cannot cope with the measly generic...'Happy Holidays'.

HildaW only time anyone wishes me “Happy Holidays” I am on the way to the airport for my “Holiday”

I suppose Americans call their holidays vacations, so they can use ‘holidays’ for festive days. In British English it’s more confusing.

I agree, though, that calling Christmas anything other than Christmas is annoying.

My daughter sent me this poem today which I thought was appropriate for this thread.

Mother Christmas

"Where art thou, Mother Christmas?
I only wish I knew
Why Father should get all the praise
And no one mentions you.

I'll bet you buy the presents
And wrap them large and small
While all the time that rotten swine
Pretends he's done it all.

So Hail To Mother Christmas
Who shoulders all the work!
And down with Father Christmas,
That unmitigated jerk!"

The 'Mother Christmas' poem was created by Roald Dahl in 1988 for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Quentin Blake - also patron of Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity - provided the illustrations.

www.roalddahl.com/blog/2014/december/mother-christmas

However, Christmas is based on a Christian festival with perhaps a few old pagan influences....
"Perhaps...* LOL
Christmas has sod all to do with Christ. If he existed his birth would have been some time in spring.

I grew up saying Father Christmas, but all my grandchildren have said Santa, so who am I to argue?

Its the midwinter festival ,pinched by Christians .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Sy6oiJbEk

What do you mean, there ain’t no Sanity Clause?

Please will someone explain why Christ's birth would have taken place in spring? I've seen the statement before, but not the explanation as to why it should have been in the spring.

Most Christians are aware that the early Church chose to celebrate the birth of Christ at mid-winter in order to prevent new converts in Rome continuing to celebrate Saturnalia. In other mission fields, Britain, Germany, Scandinavia the winter solstice was celebrated, so again celebrating the birth of Christ then made sense, mission-wise.

I think clever bods worked out when the appropriate comets and stars were in the right place with the moon in the right phase at about the right time and Jesus was born in April, probably a year or too earlier than thought. But I may be wrong!

I think historians use the Census of Quirinus mentioned in Luke 1:5 to speculate that His birth was in summer. There is also mention of shepherds watching their flocks in the fields, which would place it in the summer months. However, there is no definitive answer.

As children, growing up in the North, it was always Father Christmas.American films and music spread the use of Santa.Not that it bothers me.

It was always Santa Claus in my Scottish childhood. Even my Mum, brought up by her English mother, never mentioned Father Christmas.

I agree; he’s Father Christmas to me.

What ever your family calls him is fine by me! We know who we mean and so do the children. It's the spirit of Christmas which counts, not exactly how we style the giver of presents.

Please will someone explain why Christ's birth would have taken place in spring? I've seen the statement before, but not the explanation as to why it should have been in the spring.

There are a lot of bible historians who try to place bible stories at known locations and events. The "scene setting" around the story of Christs birth wouldn't have happened in mid winter if it had happened at all.

American films and music spread the use of Santa.Not that it bothers me.

Santa was around long before that!
America imported Santa Claus from europe then projected it back to us!

Havent fact checked any of it but an interesting read moofmag.com/2017/12/12/santa-claus-the-magic-mushroom-the-psychedelic-origins-of-christmas/?fbclid=IwAR1sxY6_mu88NwNtWyVe-RNckgbbpCXtwGnYnKk9hDPfBtVvV57RrKWRukw