Christmas 

You know it's coming

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1. THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH DID NOT LIKE CHISTMAS TREES.

Evergreen trees used to be seen as pagan symbols that had no place in a religious celebration. As far back as 1647, preacher Johann Conrad Dannhauer of the Strasbourg Cathedral criticized trees as “child’s play” that were getting more attention “than the word of God and the holy rites.” In North America’s Plymouth Colony, Puritan governor William Bradford railed against the tree’s “pagan mockery.” The trees’ connection with the celebration of the winter solstice, which generally fell on December 21 or 22, was seen as antithetical to a proper Christian gathering. But as the tradition persisted, church leaders decided that if they couldn’t beat the decorated trees, they would adopt them as part of their own Christmas celebrations.  ... Read More »


Reposted from merelygifted

The Christmas tree in Bailiff Bridge is shining a metaphorical light on the West Yorkshire village, having been described as “the worst in the north” after it was decorated only a third of the way up.

Council bosses say the issue with sprucing up the spruce is that the natural tree has grown too tall, meaning it is unsafe to decorate the higher sections “as they can’t be reached by any maintenance vehicles”, according to Calderdale council’s cabinet member for public services and communities, Jenny Lynn.

“It’s Elf and Safety gone mad,” said the local Conservative councillor George Robinson. “It is clear that it is the worst Christmas tree in the north. When I saw the tree, my heart went into my stomach, the Christmas spirit left my body – I was just left with a Scrooge-like feeling. The lights go a third of the way up the tree, there are two stray baubles on there, clearly a token gesture: in some ways, you wonder why the council bothered.” Read More »


Reposted from merelygifted