Merry Christmas 2024

[JohnDe]

Christmas is a very special time of year.

It is filled with many emotions. Joy, happiness, sadness, and a new beginning.

And as a Catholic, I also have the religious meaning that plays a strong part of my family life.

I have friend's, customers, and family that don't believe in the religious side of Christmas, or they are of a different faith, but every year they still wish us a Merry and Happy Christmas.

Faith, understanding, compassion, and love is Christmas.

So, just in case I miss the day to wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas, I am taking the chance today.

And thank you all for creating a wonderful forum to debate investing ideas, sharing information, or just to talk about the world. You also Joe Blow, your commitment is second to none.

Love you all

Merry Christmas

What is the true meaning of Christmas?​

 

[wayneL]

Seconded, @JohnDe

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Lovely words and wishes @JohnDe . Thank you.

Happy Christmas to all in the ASF Family.

gg

 

[farmerge]

Christmas is a very special time of year.

It is filled with many emotions. Joy, happiness, sadness, and a new beginning.

And as a Catholic, I also have the religious meaning that plays a strong part of my family life.

I have friend's, customers, and family that don't believe in the religious side of Christmas, or they are of a different faith, but every year they still wish us a Merry and Happy Christmas.

Faith, understanding, compassion, and love is Christmas.

So, just in case I miss the day to wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas, I am taking the chance today.

And thank you all for creating a wonderful forum to debate investing ideas, sharing information, or just to talk about the world. You also Joe Blow, your commitment is second to none.

Love you all

Merry Christmas

What is the true meaning of Christmas?​

@JohnDe Just came across your Christmas Post.
Wonderful thoughts and wishes.
To you and yours I wish you the same
ge aka farmerge

 

[Sean K]

Nice post. Merry Christmas to all.

 

[Skate]

Skate.

 

[SirRumpole]

Merry Christmas to all.

 

[wayneL]

Those of us with faith, I am sure have many friends either of no faith or of other faiths... and visa versa.

Last week, I had a Jewish client that gave me a great big hug and wished me merry Christmas... And in return I wished her a very happy Hanukkah (it starts Dec 24 this year, so intersecting).

The great majority of my clients are either atheist or agnostic however, and have no problems with us wishing each other a Merry Christmas and I do receive some gifts from them (usually woobla, which may have something to say about my drinking habits )

Even in the past way I have had Muslim/Hindu friends/associates and have absent-mindedly wished these people a Merry Christmas they have always returned the greeting... Even if slightly bemused and never offended.

So, what do these idiots in the mainstream media think they're doing by writing articles such as the one below, which creates nothing but division and acrimony?

 

[farmerge]

Those of us with faith, I am sure have many friends either of no faith or of other faiths... and visa versa.

Last week, I had a Jewish client that gave me a great big hug and wished me merry Christmas... And in return I wished her a very happy Hanukkah (it starts Dec 24 this year, so intersecting).

The great majority of my clients are either atheist or agnostic however, and have no problems with us wishing each other a Merry Christmas and I do receive some gifts from them (usually woobla, which may have something to say about my drinking habits )

Even in the past way I have had Muslim/Hindu friends/associates and have absent-mindedly wished these people a Merry Christmas they have always returned the greeting... Even if slightly bemused and never offended.

So, what do these idiots in the mainstream media think they're doing by writing articles such as the one below, which creates nothing but division and acrimony?

View attachment 189985

Well, WayneL I am totally in agreeance with you.
A happy greeting from the heart is always received well and as with your clients given back.

The rubbish in The Washington Post would be taken by a few like minded deadbeats, but generally ignored.

 

[SirRumpole]

Those of us with faith, I am sure have many friends either of no faith or of other faiths... and visa versa.

Last week, I had a Jewish client that gave me a great big hug and wished me merry Christmas... And in return I wished her a very happy Hanukkah (it starts Dec 24 this year, so intersecting).

The great majority of my clients are either atheist or agnostic however, and have no problems with us wishing each other a Merry Christmas and I do receive some gifts from them (usually woobla, which may have something to say about my drinking habits )

Even in the past way I have had Muslim/Hindu friends/associates and have absent-mindedly wished these people a Merry Christmas they have always returned the greeting... Even if slightly bemused and never offended.

So, what do these idiots in the mainstream media think they're doing by writing articles such as the one below, which creates nothing but division and acrimony?

View attachment 189985

Would it be impolite and alienating if other faiths did not wish Christians a Merry Christmas I wonder ?

But let's face, for the majority of us, it's just a holiday, but a holiday can be Merry and safe etc if done with goodwill.

 

[wayneL]

Would it be impolite and alienating if other faiths did not wish Christians a Merry Christmas I wonder ?

I personally would not be offended in the slightest. Its more of a delight if they actually do.

We have a Sikh/Hindu community close by and do partake of their restaurants close by and have become friends. It would be remiss of us not to wish them a happy Diwali at the appropriate time... and they certainly do appreciate the thought.

But let's face, for the majority of us, it's just a holiday, but a holiday can be Merry and safe etc if done with goodwill.

I've just finished listening to a 2 hour long podcast between a person who calls himself in atheist and an evangelist Christian. Super interesting from my point of view and had much discussion about the role of Christianity in society even if one is not a believer.

FWIW

 

[Sean K]

Those of us with faith, I am sure have many friends either of no faith or of other faiths... and visa versa.

Last week, I had a Jewish client that gave me a great big hug and wished me merry Christmas... And in return I wished her a very happy Hanukkah (it starts Dec 24 this year, so intersecting).

The great majority of my clients are either atheist or agnostic however, and have no problems with us wishing each other a Merry Christmas and I do receive some gifts from them (usually woobla, which may have something to say about my drinking habits )

Even in the past way I have had Muslim/Hindu friends/associates and have absent-mindedly wished these people a Merry Christmas they have always returned the greeting... Even if slightly bemused and never offended.

So, what do these idiots in the mainstream media think they're doing by writing articles such as the one below, which creates nothing but division and acrimony?

View attachment 189985

One of the local councils in Melbourne are saying 'Happy festivities' or some such crap.

 

[farmerge]

One of the local councils in Melbourne are saying 'Happy festivities' or some such crap.

@Sean K is this council loaded with non-Christian types who are perhaps dead against the values and principles that we were brought up??????

 

[Sean K]

@Sean K is this council loaded with non-Christian types who are perhaps dead against the values and principles that we were brought up??????

I don't think it matters. They have previously celebrated all other culturally significant events by the traditional name of the event.

Can you see a Jesus anywhere in that celebrate montage?

 

[farmerge]

I don't think it matters. They have previously celebrated all other culturally significant events by the traditional name of the event.

Can you see a Jesus anywhere in that celebrate montage?

View attachment 189988

Just a sad state of affairs for this time of the year.

 

[Joe Blow]

Merry Christmas to everyone who visits ASF, registered or not!

Thank you for being a part of this community, and to those who post, thank you for your posts. You help keep ASF alive.

A special thanks to those who have volunteered their time to help manage ASF (past and present) and those who have assisted financially in one way or another. Your support is always appreciated and never forgotten.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous and profitable 2025.

I hope to see you all back here in the new year. 2025 promises to be a year to remember, so let's discuss it as it unfolds.

 

[basilio]

Wishing everyone on ASF a great Christmas. Hope the families play "nicely" (yeah ...) .

I thought this Christmas story was mad enough to post to make everybody else's look good.

The Christmas that went wrong: A piglet set our presents on fire​

On the family farm, homebrew and live animals turned a candlelit celebration into an inferno

Fanny Johnstone
Tue 24 Dec 2024 02.00 AEDT

My brother and I grew up on a self-sufficient farm in Cornwall in the 1970s. Behind our cottage, the yard was busy with pigs, which came in from the fields in the evening to sleep in the pigsty. Ducks sailed the duckpond, geese ruled the homefield and we hand-milked our cows in the byre. We loved our animals. Sick hens or piglets were brought in to convalesce next to the Aga in our kitchen, scattered corn sometimes germinating between the flagstones.
Each Christmas, our tree stood in a bucket wrapped in red crepe paper, a pool of straw lying around its base, with our presents on top. We would decorate the tree with the glass baubles and 1930s celluloid toys that our grandmother bought during her boho life in pre‑war Berlin. So pretty. As darkness fell on Christmas Day, we would light real candles on the tree and bask in the magic.

When I was 11, our Bermudian cousin came to stay. Craig adored coming to his cousins’ mad little farm in Cornwall. He and our dad could get pretty rowdy; everyone in our family likes a drink and a lot of homebrew was drunk.
Our beloved sow, Porcina, had given birth to piglets just three months earlier. One of them was brought in by my dad and handed to Craig, a gift tag attached with a ribbon around its neck. My parents figured that a piglet would be just the thing to honour his visit. Craig named him Chauvy, which was short for Male Chauvinist Piglet.

No one noticed that my hockey stick, with its crepe paper red suit and nylon beard, had fallen against a candle

Chauvy had a laugh being chased around the kitchen, with everyone going a bit Christmas mad-dog and having a lovely time. Eventually, he fell asleep on some presents on the straw. Darkness fell and we forgot about him. It was time to light the candles. Yay!

I was excited about one particular present propped up by the tree, dressed up in crepe paper as Father Christmas, which I hoped was a longed-for hockey stick.

It’s risky lighting candles on a dried-out Christmas tree surrounded by straw in a small draughty cottage. But this didn’t deter my family. We have never been put off creating something magical just because it’s risky. The candles were lit and the tree looked amazing.

Then – with perfect comic timing – Chauvy stood up, pushing one of the branches with a candle on it into a dangling nylon ribbon … which promptly caught fire. The candle fell on to the straw, some of which went up in flames. Chauvy eyed this with some alarm and bolted.

Amazingly, for an often irresponsible family, my parents had put a jug of water within reach of the tree, just in case. The fire was easily extinguished, but everyone was so busy finding Chauvy that no one noticed that my hockey stick, with its crepe-paper red suit and nylon-wool beard, had fallen against a candle at the back of the tree and was also now suddenly, and seriously, on fire. As the nearest to the kitchen, I rushed to the sink, got the washing-up bowl and, with all the accuracy of an 11-year-old girl in a panic, threw dirty dishwater (and the bowl) violently at the back of the tree. It didn’t put the fire out, but it did push the tree over, breaking those precious Berlin baubles, melting celluloid decorations and half‑drenching the presents that weren’t already smouldering. My father and Craig doubled over with laughter. I cried.

My brother ran to the workshop and got the fire extinguisher; Chauvy was carried back to the safety of the pigsty; and, after the fire was out, my mother swept everything up and put any soggy presents in the bottom oven to dry off. With the tree re-erected and the house safely not on fire, I snuck in my first taste of alcohol – disgusting – and opened my slightly singed (and thus unreturnable) hockey stick.

It was the wrong one.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

and a Happy Hanukkah to those of the earliest Abrahamic faith.

 

[wayneL]

and a Happy Hanukkah to those of the earliest Abrahamic faith.

Controversial:

Can a Christian also celebrate Hannukah, as well as Christmas? Christians have all sorts of views ranging from religious Zionism, to outright anti-Semitism. On the other side there are also various views from Talmudic blasphemy, to Messianic Judaism (Jews who believe in Jesus).

Confusing.

I have said many times on this forum that there are no "The Jews". This applies many times more in the first century Levant. There were actually several branches of Judaism, Pharisees, Essenes etc etc...

...and since roughly 33AD the followers of Jesus.

Going back a little bit, every single book of the Old Testament of our bible (with the exception of one, IIRC) was written by Jew.

Jesus himself, a Jew that celebrated Hannukah and Pessiach.

Every single one of the apostles including Paul, Jewish.

All of the early followers, Jewish.

Every single book of our New Testament was written by Jews.

Catering this is the fact that modern-day Judaism does not reflect the Judaism of the first century. What we have now is Rabbinical Judaism which reflects an innovation subsequent to the distruction of the second temple... from this we have the Talmud, from which has developed a certain amount of bilateral animous, whether justified or not (complex).

Notwithstanding all that, there are many Christians that regard Christianity as the fulfillment of Judaism.... And that is likely to trigger some.

Indeed, the ministry of Jesus was prophesied some 700 years before (Isaiah 53 and elsewhere... which is studiously ignored by Talmudic Jews)

Isaiah was of course... a Jew.

I've ranted on a little bit longer than I intended and I have actually forgotten my initial point I wanted to make , but for y'alls consideration.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Controversial:

Can a Christian also celebrate Hannukah, as well as Christmas?

should a Christian celebrate Hanukkah?

as a liberation by the Macabees to restore the 2nd temple from the Selucid Greeks*, it's low on the list. To the Jews who had seen the first temple, established by Solomon and David only to have the Assyrians** sweep in and deport many, it was a fulfilment of dreams, identity and faith. Then the Romans established control and things went horribly wrong by 70 AD. (and in the time leading up to this event, Jesus, well versed in Rabbinical law, lived his life on Earth).


* not a Palestinian in sight.
**not a Palestinian in sight.