Let’s move Christmas

[MissMuffetisin]

It’s crazy to have it in December. The weather can be awful - snows already forecast for the end of the week. And we’re all travelling, trying to shop, attending parties on icy nights. According to my ( admittedly brief) research, scholars think Jesus was either born in September or spring - far mores sensible times of year to have Christmas. Would work for the southern hemisphere too. The consensus seems to be the Romans changed it to December to fit with there solstice festival. They’ve been gone a while now, surely we can change it to a more temperate time of year !

Absolutely not. Without Christmas to look forward to, winter would be a long dark, damp miserable experience every year.

Bit warm for snowmen in September and Father Christmas would get overheated in his big red suit.

It's where it is precisely because we all need something to look forward to in the dark depths of Winter.

And that is exactly why we have Christmas in the mid winter. Before Christianity there was a pagan festival at this time because we need lights and food and partying in the darkest time of year.

The whole point is that it’s almost mid winter and it’s not even a Christian holiday.

The evergreen trees and the lights are pagan traditions of keeping nature “alive and in the home” during the long dark of winter.

The reason they settled on holding a feast at this time of year is exactly because everything is a bit shite weather wise. People needed a bit of cheer. A suckling pig, a flagon of fermented turnip, bit of pagan jiggerpokery, and bob's yer uncle, everyone had something to look forward to.

Welllllllll beginning to see your point

You only get sprouts in the winter.

However, I can understand some people would use that to argue that we should move Christmas to another time of year.😂

Or... you could move to the southern hemisphere?

Absolutely not. Christmas needs to be in the depth of winter to cheer everyone up. Also all the twinkly lights etc. need dark nights to really do their best work.

Come to think of it we spent Christmas in Florida one year and it did seem very odd , gardens full of inflatable santas with sun and palm trees. I’m just always convinced family will be trapped in the snow and unable to make it home ! I’ve probably been watching too many Christmas movies ☃️❄️🌨️

The Christian festival merged way back with the old pagan Midwinter festival - goodness knows anyone in Northern Europe has always needed something to cheer up the gloomy dark days. All the greenery elements, the ‘holly and the ivy’, the mistletoe, and the Yule Log have pagan origins.

In Sweden they still call Christmas Jul. (Pronounced Yule).

It’s noticeable that Christmas isn’t such a major thing in Southern European countries, where they never had such cold, dark winters.

Christmas in Midwinter is designed to keep you motivated and active during the long grim months. It makes you socialise, eat, dance, clean your home. By the time it's over at least the light is clearly brightening earlier. Imagine October to February with nothing to look forward to!

There's loads of other things at other times of year - Harvest Festival, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Valentines, Easter

I actually think it should be moved to the end of January. It would still provide the mid-winter cheering benefits, but there would be less misery afterwards because it would be a month nearer to Spring. Also we could decouple it from NYE, and therefore have two winter holidays.

I’d like to move it. Either to Mars or to once a decade would do…

"Christmas in Midwinter is designed to keep you motivated and active during the long grim months. It makes you socialise, eat, dance, clean your home."

Only on Mumsnet

"Christmas" is just the veneer we've pasted over our traditional midwinter festival. All communities I'm aware of where it gets grim in midwinter have a similar festival. You need something!

Just go back to calling it Yule (and I'm sure it had another name before that) and celebrate with food, drink, cheerful decorations to remind you of continuing life, socialising and merriment and scrap the shitty bits. And do online shopping for people you like.

Apart from Easter they are all in the winter proving the point. Easter is also based on the pagan Eostre (I think) celebrating spring and new growth hence the bunnies, chicks and eggs which have no Christian significance.

Edit: Harvest Festival is in the autumn and celebrates gathering in the produce needed to keep the population during the bleak winter. It all ties in.

We have three Christmases per year - actual Christmas, Easter, August Christmas.

Each one has tonnes of house decorations, presents, clothes, food, drink, games, two-weeks off work. Don't move Christmas, just add another one.

Oooh no! Christmas breaks up the long dark winter nights and as soon as it's over, we can start to look forward to Spring. It's a no from me!

I had Christmas in Australia once. It's in the middle of summer there, which is great, all outside on the beach, lovely salads, very weird brass bands playing Silent Night in 30 degree heat in Fremantle Market...

but then the looooooooong greyness of winter! Even in Oz you need a little something to help get through the sheer misery of damp cold.

So let's keep it where it is, giving us a little bit of light and something to look forward to to get us through the grim.

I've often thought that preparing for Christmas keeps us occupied during the cold, rainy, winter weather and distracts us from the long, dark nights.

I find it hard to imagine traipsing around the shops on bright, sunny evenings. And Christmas trees and twinkling lights wouldn't have the same impact.

I'm aware that people in sunnier climes also celebrate Christmas but I still can't quite get my head around it.

God no! as awful as winter is, it would be even more awful without christmas.

Years ago there was a Christmas shop near London Bridge. I recall walking around it on summer day when the temperature outside was in the high 20s with bright sunshine and the disconnect was considerable. DM said the same when she emigrated to Oz and seeing Santa and Christmas lights when everyone was walking around in shorts and tees.