to wonder why people think that Christmas has been "banned"?

[queenoftheknight]

Why do people say that Christmas has been banned, when it quite clearly has not? There are Christmas trees and lights in every town centre and the shops are full of Christmas stuff.

Why, do people believe a myth, rather than what they can actually see? Or do they somehow, not connect the two experiences?

This baffles me, every year.

...and for the record, no one has ever told me that I am not allowed to wish someone a happy Christmas....ever.

Because they read it on facebook, so it must be true.

Because Facebook is gospel

Because they read the Daily Mail.

Because those people are gullible, easily indoctrinated and entirely uncritical in their filtering of media information.

and they can vote

Some people believe everything they read in the Daily Mail even after it has been explained a million times that it was never true in the first place. Nobody renamed Christmas as Winterval, nobody banned tinsel because it was offensive to other religions, nobody decided that 'mistletoe' was a swear word...

Because Christmas has become the new Silly Season as far as the ghastlier elements of the media are concerned. It helps them keep their rabble-rousing, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, xenophobic and nationalistic agenda brewing nicely too.

Every single year someone comes up with the same bloody nonsense. Every year it is disproved.

Do they?

This is an old article from The Guardian but it debunks the whole "Winterval" myth nicely.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/08/winterval-modern-myth-christmas

Summerisle - I thought the news was particularly miserable and pessimistic recently .... I have stopped reading / listening to the news because it's spoiling Christmas!

I don't know anyone who thinks Christmas had been banned. Weird.

Because they read the Mail and the Express, and the true died in the wool Mail or Express reader loves to be miserable. You can ruin their day by pointing out all that Christmassy stuff in the shops, those decorations in the streets, those churches openly planning Christmas services and the ghastly lefty BBC's plans to show carol services and such.

I was definitely around in Birmingham in 1998 and the Winterval thing was quite an issue. I think because the Council did have a very politically correct culture around festivals such as Diwali etc.. So I can understand how this myth has become urban legend.

I guess I just don't understand why people believe something that is totally at odds with what is in front of their eyes, and pretty much every other sense that a human being has.

It totally baffles me.

Our school doesn't do a nativity. hasn't for many years although not for religious reasons (whole school visits the local church several times a year, school has a 'Christian ethos' etc). They do a panto/show instead, they are always comical and fabulous and give the children much more scope to perform and much more fun to watch for parents and yet still seasonal.

But on the original question I have never heard of people thinking Christmas is banned, who are these people?

Tbh it doesnt feel like xmas yet. Wheres nov gone?

These silly stories are another form of Christmas tradition, aren't they?

They appear every year, even though people know it's not real. And MN gas at least one thread about it every year.

Christmas traditions can be so comforting.

My DD's school does a modern version of the nativity every year. Eg, focussing on the three kings journey and singing songs about what a bloody long way it is. Just because not every primary does the traditional Away in a Manger version doesn't mean nobody does it anymore.

I agree with the explanation above too, that some xenophobic people just really like to think that the world has been taken over by a shadowy cartel of Muslamics who enjoy making everyone miserable and are in the process of banning Christmas and outlawing Easter eggs.

It's weird.

I had it with my dad.

Much the same with the poor health and safety council who seem to spend most of their time pointing out that no they have not banned various things!

It's fucking ridiculous but good luck getting through to them.

I've had a eoman on facebook bombard me with anti-Muslim crap over the past week or so, saying they are trying to ban Christmas and that we should be worried for the future of our children

I guess I just don't understand why people believe something that is totally at odds with what is in front of their eyes, and pretty much every other sense that a human being has

For the same reason they think they are likely to get killed by a terrorist, despite knowing the tiny number of poor souls who have been. The same reason they think they are going to die of Ebola. And the same reason they think there's going to be 8 inches of snow this weekend can you tell my colleague reads the Daily Fail