To be surprised that the Royal Mail Christmas stamps are all religious?

[stampsurprise]

I thought for a change I'd get proper Christmas stamps this year. Didn't expect them to be all religious and no choice!

Is this usually what's on offer? I don't object personally, but I think most of those I send to won't care for a religious stamp.

Christmas = Christ Mass, as far I understand it you celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's a religious feast

It isn't. 95% of people who celbrate christmas couldn't give a flying fuck about Jesus. It's a secular holiday.

@FudgeDrudge

So I guess that makes Pride not an LGBT+ thing because so many people go that aren't LGBT

No. What an inane analogy.

Or St Patrick's day not an Irish thing as its celebrated so widely in the USA

By Irish communities. Your analogies need work.

Christmas is no longer a religious event. Any fool can see that.

Christmas is no longer a religious event? Ok. Bless you.

This has made me laugh out loud. Thanks op

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4420896.stmm_

"A Christmas stamp which many Hindus said was "disrespectful" to their religion has been partially withdrawn.

The Royal Mail has agreed not to replace the 68p stamp, which depicts a Hindu couple worshipping the baby Jesus, when current stocks run out."

^ Maybe the RM should stick to Madonna and child. When they try to go inclusive (in 2005) they get it badly wrong!!!

Bit of tangent, but I can't remember the last time I bought stamps, probably the same year I wrote a cheque.

Oh believe me, St Patrick's day is celebrated by many many people, not just Irish communities.

Not as widely, sure, but in the same way that Christmas is celebrated by non Christians in the UK!

You can't even name the festival without using the word Christ!

Threads like this crop up every two years!

I’m surprised people haven’t noticed that they alternate and have been doing so for yonks

@Dishwashersaurous

This has made me laugh out loud. Thanks op

Any time! And a Merry Christmas/Yuletide/Saturnalia/festive season/consumerporkinggreedfest to you too 🎄🌲🤶

The conversation goes like this:

Happy festive period! Have a great time whatever you celebrate.

You can't say that, it's annoying and woke.

OK, I'm an atheist but I don't mind saying Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas!

HA! you just proved it's a Christian festival calling it Christmas. You lose.

OK Happy Festive Period!

You suck, wokester.

Happy Christmas

repeat ad naseum.

I just thought the RM might do something more inclusive for people to put on their holiday cards.

Inclusive? Inclusive of who? It's a Christian celebration. Holiday cards? They are Christmas cards, not holiday cards.

When they try to go inclusive (in 2005) they get it badly wrong!!!

And that's why I avoided the whole shebang by sticking to plain ones

How about some nice robin stickers? That way you could put the stamp in the right hand corner and the robins on the left to jazz it up a bit

@WhatATimeToBeAlive

I just thought the RM might do something more inclusive for people to put on their holiday cards.

Inclusive? Inclusive of who? It's a Christian celebration. Holiday cards? They are Christmas cards, not holiday cards.

But it turns out they alternate them every year. I wonder why they don't have the courage of their convictions?

Yule didn't 'transform' into Christmas just like the Greek gods didn't 'transform' into the roman gods that they were based on. They are two separate entities, people still celebrate pagan Yule so it hasn't transformed and vanished.

Plus Japan has started celebrating Christmas yearly with traditions of buying a Christmas cake and eating KFC on Christmas day even though they are mostly followers of Shinto, Christmas is fast becoming a nonsecular event, even Atheists celebrate Christmas.

Oh believe me, St Patrick's day is celebrated by many many people, not just Irish communities

Yes, but they are all celebrating the same thing...all thingsIrish. To make your silly analogy work, 90% of people of those celebrating would have to either not believe in Ireland or not care about it in the slightest, and instead be celebrating something entirely different.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

When they try to go inclusive (in 2005) they get it badly wrong!!!

And that's why I avoided the whole shebang by sticking to plain ones

How about some nice robin stickers? That way you could put the stamp in the right hand corner and the robins on the left to jazz it up a bit

Now THAT is a smart and helpful idea! I just wanted to jazz up the cards a bit. I am so not the art and crafty type I didn't even think of stickers

cute

I see people are taking full advantage of the opportunity to be snit-bitches here.

I think the OP probably knows about the Christian basis of Christmas! Point is though, while some people celebrate it in a religious way, for a lot of people even if they refer to it by the same name, it's a secular thing. I think rather than alternating, RM would be better doing a mix of Christian and secular imagery each year.

At least 50% of them, when I was there, didn't have a clue that it was an Irish thing at all, they just went out to party. And half of the rest of them thought I should be right in the heart of it all - I'm Scottish....

But you can make fun of my 'silly analogies', at least I have an understanding (as do most of the country) that Christmas is a Christian festival, in a Christian country, despite the fact that many people that celebrate it aren't Christians themselves.

I love special stamps. I have Harry Potter, Star Wars, Romantic Poets.

Next time they do a secular Christmas set, stock up.

I love both Robins and Madonna and Child.

**It isn't. 95% of people who christmas couldn't give a flying fuck about Jesus. It's a secular holiday.

Why do you still call it Christmas then? Call it a New PS5 day if you don't give a flying .... and don't offend all the Christians.

@FudgeDrudge

You do know Christmas is a religious festival - don't you?

That's bullshit, it is not. It might have been at one time, but things change, and now Christmas is for the vast majority, not at all religious. Most people do not attend church, or pray, or do any religious obervance of any kind.
Christmas is about family, food, presents, fun. If anything its closed now to its pagan roots than anything else.

Very much still is in our house and among our friends and relatives.

You know where the Christ in Christmas comes from?

https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/no-christmas-under-cromwell-the-puritan-assault-on-christmas-during-the-1640s-and-1650s/s/*_

"Pro-Christmas riots
Worse was to follow in 1647 – despite the fact that, on 10 June that year, parliament has passed an ordinance which declared the celebration of Christmas to be a punishable offence.

On 25 December 1647, there was further trouble at Bury, while pro-Christmas riots also took place at Norwich and Ipswich. During the course of the Ipswich riot, a protestor named ‘Christmas’ was reported to have been slain – a fatality which could be regarded as richly symbolic, of course, of the way that parliament had ‘killed’ Christmas itself."

Interesting it was nearly stamped out here once. I watched a documentary about Charles Dickens last night "The Invention of Christmas".