[UtahDan]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

Bingo, sans the strong southern accent. She became born again several years ago.

My wife's family is firmly entrenched smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, and while all but my wife and her sister are Catholic, they tend to take on much of the local flavor in day-to-day manifestation of their religious fervor (for example, they all pray vocally at restaurants).

I don't mean to offend and fully assume that my SiL had picked up the idea from Bible Study class. Frankly, I'm tolerant enough to suffer a wide variety of religious observances, and have done so in my life. But the overwhelming majority of them, while odd and outside of my full understanding and appreciation, at least introduced some form of reverence for and humility before deity.

That said, my first thought was, “Hasn't everyone done enough to remember and honor the "true meaning" of Christmas?” We put up a tree topped with a star, we sing and listen to the carols celebrating His birth, we set up nativities throughout the house as a constant reminder, we attend special religious services solely to honoring and remembering the reason for joy at this time of year. To me, after all this, a cake with candles and singing Happy Birthday trivializes and dumbs down the event, aside from being in extremely poor taste (and very cheesy).

If people really want to draw nearer to the "real meaning" of Christmas, why not read from scripture, re-enact the Christmas story, and sing some of those carols we've come to love over the centuries?

Next Christmas is really going to be interesting.

Do you anticipate there will be a funeral at Easter? That could be just as fun.