Epic Christmas avatar adventure!

[Slinker]

Yay, now we are showing the world the true meaning of christmas!

Nice work Candy and Alpha!

[williamthebloody]

What is Will's supposed to be? Ol' Bloody Bill need one, too! ...but his avi is the absence of one!

yeah, i'm all abstract like that. and not lazy. nope. abstract.

[alphatroll]

does anyone else run into trouble with an avatar over 65x65 pixels? some of yers are a *lot* bigger...... (avatar anxiety? )

[Slinker]

Do not worry comrade! The people will give you a FUN and EASY guide in how to upload bigger avatars.

For Soviet union!



First, upload your image here http://imageshack.us/

(Sidenote: anyother websites you can upload images, like facebook, works aswell. But for keeping things easy we will work with imageshack.)

Second, Once uploaded, click on "+ Show advance linking" below the window.

Third, copy the link below where it says the following DO NOT Use Link Below when posting. Use FORUM Links above for posts!

Third plus one more, now journey into Profile and paste the link to Link to off-site Avatar.

[Candy]

Yay, now we are showing the world the true meaning of christmas!

The true meaning of Christmas is changing your avatar?

And here I thought it had something to do with religion. Silly me.

[alphatroll]

you've been watching too many Charlie Brown specials, Candy

1: there is no "christ" in "christmas". if he did really live, most historians agree he was probably born in the spring, most likely april. i'm not a historian tho so you'll have to ask them if you want to know more.

2: how many "christmassy" things have anything to do with christianity anyway? just the nativity scene, wise men, and the star or angel on top, all tacked on by early missionaries to get folks to forget what it was really about. decorated evergreens, bells, big guys in red fur coats, deer with big antlers, yule logs, holly & ivy, cranberries, mistletoe, wreaths, feasting, spiked warm drinks, etc- all come from pre-christian euro-pagan rituals to ensure that life didn't *completely* end in midwinter. since relatively few people today follow religions based on that, then for the rest of us christmas is a non-religious "seasonal" holiday. anyone who says "jesus is the reason for the season" is sadly misinformed.

so unless you're into the "old-time religion", x-mas is just a chance to have fun. make the most of it!

[alphatroll]

Do not worry comrade! The people will give you a FUN and EASY guide in how to upload bigger avatars.

all is clear now, comrade Slinker! your re-education has opened my eyes

[williamthebloody]

you've been watching too many Charlie Brown specials, Candy

1: there is no "christ" in "christmas". if he did really live, most historians agree he was probably born in the spring, most likely april. i'm not a historian tho so you'll have to ask them if you want to know more.

2: how many "christmassy" things have anything to do with christianity anyway? just the nativity scene, wise men, and the star or angel on top, all tacked on by early missionaries to get folks to forget what it was really about. decorated evergreens, bells, big guys in red fur coats, deer with big antlers, yule logs, holly & ivy, cranberries, mistletoe, wreaths, feasting, spiked warm drinks, etc- all come from pre-christian euro-pagan rituals to ensure that life didn't *completely* end in midwinter. since relatively few people today follow religions based on that, then for the rest of us christmas is a non-religious "seasonal" holiday. anyone who says "jesus is the reason for the season" is sadly misinformed.

so unless you're into the "old-time religion", x-mas is just a chance to have fun. make the most of it!

i have personally decided to "segregate" the holiday into sections:
christmas=jesus + church, etc
x-mas=santa + decorated trees, etc
personally, i do x-mas, and i've always done so. i wasn't raised as a church goer. i didn't even know "what christmas was all about" until i was older and started asking about it (who the heck IS jesus??). but i was raised with santa. ^^

[Candy]

...big guys in red fur coats, deer with big antlers...

"Santa Claus was an evolutionary creation, brought about by the fusion of two religious personages (St. Nicholas and Christkindlein, the Christ child) to become a fixed image which is now the paramount symbol of the secular Christmas celebration." -- Copypasta'd from Snopes

But in my opinion, Christmas has lost its meaning. It's all about the corporations sucking your wallet dry. Even before I'd renounced my faith as a Christian (this'll be my first Christmas as a nonbeliever), I didn't really get too sentimental about it. The most emotional moment this year will probably be seeing my sister again, since she decided to stay in Alberta while the rest of us moved to BC.

[alphatroll]

- - !WALL OF HOPELESSLY PEDANTIC TEXT WARNING! - -

sorry to break it to ya Candy, but the Snopes definition is complete unadulterated B. S. (tho in their defense they just copied it from the widely accepted B. S. definition that others created.)

not only is St. Nicholas' historical existence deeply in question, the older stories about him are not in the remotest way similar to what we think of as "Santa". even the stuff about him giving coins or gifts to poor children is a very late addition. according to the earliest legends, he was actually a zealous prick who burned heretics with the best of 'em. hope that doesn't ruin anyone's comfortable delusions, but it's pretty much all there is about him that sort of passes for history.

the Christkindlein part is what the early missionaries told the northerly pagans to get them thinking in Christian terms without breaking up the party altogether. naturally, all made up whole cloth & completely irrelevant.

pagan tradition does, however, include an interesting figure associated with restoring fertility for the next year, invoked at the winter equinox when signs of life seemed at a minimum. all the parts about his enormous organ have been dropped by non-pagans, but he was a big burly, virile guy with a beard, which was often red or black but sometimes white to fit with his wintery associations, and because the "proven" older gent was generally considered ideal for a good fertile union. he often had antlers as an extra phallic symbol and sometimes even a stag's head, but those have been switched over to his pets nowadays. he wore a big shaggy coat 'cause it was winter, and it was often stained red with blood due to his habit of proving his virility in the hunt while he wasn't giving it to mother earth (of course, blood is a big time fertility symbol too, especially the menstrual kind). he even had a snazzy chariot (sometimes a flying one!) pulled by various beasts depending on the source. to a large degree he was similar to the classic "master of the hunt" figure, just loaded with winter and fertility details. as far as i know the only "gift" he delivered was to his lady-friend, though he may have shared the other kind of meat (from the hunt) as well; feasting was another of his favorite activities (thus his girth). imagine the Ghost of Christmas Present from Dickens for a recognizable "middle ground" between the old god and the modern santa.

gotta give the old missionaries *some* credit tho--at least they managed to get the name changed, with hardly any references to "yule" anymore. they didn't fare so well with the one they arbitrarily associated with christ's ressurection--"Easter" is the name of a goddess of spring, as you'll know if you've read your Gaiman* and they *totally* blew it with halloween, to the point where even their new imposed "Christianized" name is barely recognizable. they didn't even manage to touch May Day, and all they managed with Groundhog Day was to make it seem unimportant. the best they could do with the summer solstice and Lammas (August 1) was to more or less erase them from most people's memories.

*p.s. isn't *anyone* else excited about the Coraline movie opening in February? i mentioned the trailer in the movie forum weeks ago and no one's seemed to notice! we gotta give it up for the Gofflin, folks!

[The Flying Dracula Hair]

But in my opinion, Christmas has lost its meaning. It's all about the corporations sucking your wallet dry.

Fah, Capitalism wrested Christmas from the religious and gave it to everyone else. Now it's about good will and presents.

And like Alfafa mentioned, it was "stolen" anyway.

[Slinker]

For me christmas is good times. If you don't have a good time you aren't doing it right. Better luck next year!

Everything else like silly questions like what it is about can go to some dark place and rot.

[Candy]

For me christmas is good times. If you don't have a good time you aren't doing it right.

Heh. Technically you could say that about any time of year, but yeah.

[The Flying Dracula Hair]

GOOD TIMES

[alphatroll]

absolutely to all of you. my whole point was just to help break the claim that a certain religious group has placed on most peoples' favorite holiday. unless you're a practicing euro-pagan of some sort, it *is* just all about fun, and even for them it's still *mostly* about fun

And like Alfafa mentioned, it was "stolen" anyway.

Alfalfa? are you calling me Alfalfa now?

"Bitter pill, Mr. Hair. Bitter pill."

"Yes it is. And it's JUST Hair."