Anonymous #1 4w

Christmas trees are very much so a culturally Christian thing tied to modern observance of a Christian holiday. That’s like saying sufganiyot and latkes don’t have much to do with Judaism or the maccabees. Whether or not jelly donuts are mentioned in the book of maccabees, when you put them on a holiday fest poster they become a symbol of Hanukkah.

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Anonymous #2 4w

I’m saying it’s a Christmas tree because it’s decorated with Christmas ornaments and a star. If it didn’t have those it would just be a pine tree and idk about you but I rarely see holiday posters with one big undecorated pine tree. If the tree weren’t decorated there would actually be nothing holiday about this picture at all it would just be winter.

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Anonymous OP 4w

Yea and that tradition is rooted in pagan beliefs. They would hang fruit, bones, talisman and wooden figurines. All before Christianity was even a thing then during medieval pagan times candles to represent the sun. Christianity adopted all this because it made it easier for people to convert when they didn’t have to stop all their traditions

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Anonymous OP 4w

And i totally get where you’re coming from but Christmas is a mainstream winter holiday that is so known and big non Christians still celebrate it and that tree is about as big of a representation of the religion as any other tree in the forest

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Anonymous #2 4w

Regardless of the origins of Christmas traditions and how many non-Christians observe them, in the modern day a decorated pine tree is a symbol associated with Christianity. By your logic they could put a non-denominational Santa Claus on that poster because Santa Claus as we know him today was made up by Coca Cola for advertising. Jack O Lanterns represent Samhain not Halloween, and sufganiyot are just jelly donuts which plenty of people enjoy and not a symbol of Hanukkah anymore than anything

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Anonymous OP 4w

Else fried in oil. But no that’s a little bit silly because even if a symbol was not representative of something in the past, even if it was representative of something entirely different, that doesn’t actually change what it represents today. Today a decorated pine tree with a star on top is absolutely representative of Christmas and therefore Christianity.

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Anonymous OP 4w

In the modern day a decorated tree is a symbol of winter and Christmas. Christmas is really not all that religious for the majority of people. Santa should be non denominational as most cultures have a version of him. There’s a difference between mythology and religion

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Anonymous OP 4w

And I’m saying you are looking at things as they were and not as they are. You are valid in feeling frustrated and tokenized but at the same time for most people the only part of Christ in Christmas is the first couple of letters

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Anonymous #2 4w

Christmas not being that religious for a majority of people is because we live in a culturally Christian country. If you went to Israel Chanukah also isn’t necessarily religious for a majority of people. Regardless of whether or not secular or people of other religions celebrate Christmas or have Christmas trees, Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating a key figure of the Christian religion and if a holiday poster has exclusively a symbol of Christmas then it’s not very non-denominational

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Anonymous #2 4w

If not because it represents a religion then because it represents one (1) of three holidays that happen during or around the holiday season (4 depending on when Diwali lands)

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Anonymous OP 3w

I mean even among Christians very few people have a religious association with Santa Claus…

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Anonymous #3 3w

Whether or not people personally view Santa as a religious figure when it comes to marketing and posters he is a well known symbol of Christmas and Christianity. Like chocolate coins and sufganiyot aren’t inherently religious either but if I see them together on a winter holiday fest poster I would assume they’re meant to represent Hanukkah and Judaism.

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Anonymous OP 3w

Hanukkah is a lot more religious than Christmas there is no version of Hanukkah outside of judaism but Christmas exists outside of Christianity

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Anonymous #2 3w

The only reason Christmas exists outside of Christianity in the western world is because the western world is so culturally Christian. There are also some very intensely religious parts of Christmas that are not heavily commercialized. I think sufganiyot and gelt are a fair comparison to Christmas trees because those are non-religious traditions which are very much so enjoyed by non-Jews and part of secular Jews celebration of Hanukkah. Neither Christmas trees nor sufganiyot are inherently

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Anonymous #2 3w

Religious but if you put them on a winter holiday poster they will be understood as symbols of religions

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Anonymous #2 3w

I mean I’ve had non-Jewish friends over for Ḥannukkah although we still did prayers so I guess that’s not really a counterexample

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