Posted by PeterH on October 30, 2006 at 16:49:59 from 81.155.56.226 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Christmas (and what came before) posted by Rob Marshall on October 30, 2006 at 14:06:06:
there's something more spiritual going on
carols give me a warm feeling
This is what I meant when I said, in a posting which seems a century ago but may have been yesterday, that the whole Christmas religious/not religious thing is incredibly complex. It isn't straightforward - people still cling to something, yearn for something, that is not physical but is detected by the emotions. I am not suggesting that this is necessarily a 'religious' experience, but it does make me distrust dogmatic statements about Christmas, from whichever 'side' they come. Of course, I get an emotional impact from reading Ransome, and I would not pretend this is a 'religious' experience - although I don't know . . . . 'Our reading today is from Chapter Five, verses 10 to 16 of We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea', followed by 'Eternal Father, Strong to Save'. Sounds cool to me.
BTW, if I may chip in on the 'antler' discussion, the latest craze in the UK is to decorate the front of your house at Christmas with coloured twinkling lights, illuminated signs, plastic Santas climbing plastic chimneys etc. There is one near where I live that we all call 'Blackpool'. When this year's lot goes up, I'll take a shot and post a link to it.