Winterlight Trees or CHRISTMAS TREES????????

Right on Don. I will try not to shop or frequent any place that does not use the word Christmas in it's ads. Winterlights, festive season, holiday season, etc. does not reflect this Christian holiday. Other faiths can have their own holidays but this a Chrisrian country. In the rush to sell more and not offend anybody bussiness is ruining the meaning of Christmas. It seems it is some very famous man's birthday. Let's celbrate it as such. Nuff said.

Christmas Trees would be for a couple of weeks at the end of December, Winterlights would be from now to the end of March, and would not necessarily involve trees at all. Winter lights can be on houses, rooftops, garden fences, posts, "Christmas" trees (conifers), deciduous trees, bushes, or even the Sikh Temple. Why restrict yourself, be inclusive?

p.s. If you want to celebrate Christmas as a holiday with a true Christian meaning then you shouldn't be putting lights on a tree in the first place. It has its origins in thoroughly pagan Norse religions that worship the God Odin (Wodin).

Canada is not a Christian country, I have checked the Constitution Act just a couple of days ago and Christianity is NOT mentioned in it. Canada may be a country with a majority of people who are NOMINAL Christians, but real Christians are quite thin on the ground.

Canada is multicultural whether you like it or not, and Jews DO have Hannukah at this time of the year, and Wiccans DO have the solstice at this time of the year and others DO have their midwinter celebrations, including those of us that just want a family meal with our children without any religion involved at all.

And we the taxpayers will get to pay for it all...
surely they could think first and put it where it really counts...
No I am not against lights, or trees..I like them just like everyone else..... but with so much need out there is this really prudent???

That is an excellent point Gofaster. If all the money spent on Christmas trivia, and some of the money spent on unneeded presents were to be given to alleviate hunger, then we would have a Christian Christmas.

Celebrating Christmas is one thing. Lighting up the northern as well as the far southern cities during the darkest part of the year is another.

Snow flakes are not synonymous with Christmas. Snowflakes is synonymous with winter. Winter solstice is symonymous with long nights without light in the north.

In Niagara Falls, for instance, the festival is in its 24th year and goes from November 4th to January 8th.

http://www.wfol.com

And here is Maryland .... http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/poi/default.asp?POI_ID=261&TOC=107;84;99;261;

Is it commercialized? Yup. So are birthdays ... and Valentines ... and Canada day ... and Thanksgiving .... and having meals out ... and having meals in ... and buying cars .... and buying clothes .... and travelling .... we live in a commercialized world ... its how the rest of the world makes its money ... we cut down trees .... they buy lights and decorate things around where they live .... it's called the new economy ...

but I digress ..... ;-)

The only thing I have a bit of concern about is the amount of electricity used. However, we waste a lot of energy for other reasons which do not lift our spirits as much as driving past a nice tree lined street with lights on.

I don't think that the lights on the trees in front of city hall can be mistaken for Xmas trees. Neither can those in front of the court house. They are on year-round.

We used to have a relatively lively winter carnival here ..... I thought it would grow over the years .... but instead it failed ....

So did Oktoberfest ..... this year we had no fireworks on Canada day .. last year we quit having the Santa Claus parade .....

our night clubs have virtually disappeared with the exception of 2 or three ......

We have almost taken the trend of cacooning to its ultimate .... PG is not a "FUN" place to be when it comes to celebrations .....

:-(

BTW, my hats off to those few people who try to raise the spirits of those living here .... seems that there are not too many who want or need their spirits raised .... they have found more private ways of doing that.