NZFF

I don't follow any particular religion, but if I had to put my hand up, it would be Christian based.
And along those lines, I'm a little Mythed with Noel Leeming and their "Merry Techmas"
Haven't seen any other complaints about it (don't do social media)
But, I do wonder what the reaction would be if the same treatment was applied to any non-Christian festival....

I get annoyed about the on-going americanisation of NZ - e.g. Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Friday.
Just a new way of getting money out of people, and no connection to us Kiwis.

Christmas has lost a lot of spirit (except for the alcohol side, of course), with the Boxing Day Sales, etc. You don't see actual presents any more ... just gift vouchers to use in the post-XMAS sales.

I could launch into a diatribe about Christmas and Christianity, but there's no point upsetting people. We do not celebrate Christmas in our house.
But yes, my feeling, even before my beliefs and knowledge of history, was that Christmas was (and is) just a money grab like many of the other 'holidays' mentioned. For me personally, it was always a time of great strife in my childhood as divorced parents resulted in custody arguments for 'The Day Of'. No good memories there and frankly I'm glad to be out of it.

My other problem (1st world problem!) is that here in NZ it is summer at Christmas (just wrong!) and I am 'forced' to take two weeks off work. Well, my interest lies in aviation activities, and I sure as hell can't afford to fly for two weeks which means I remain at home and get bored. And as my wife will attest, if I am bored I can get grouchy! At least this year I have my paragliding, but the weather here needs to 'play ball', and at the moment it is not! (raining, again, for I think the third day now)

I agree with all the comments. The "Americanisation" of NZ is a shame. It started with television whereby we drifted away from the quality British programs to trashy, cheap American TV.
Then came the Shopping Malls and the associated shopping rituals with it's excess consumer mentality.
As for Xmas itself I think most believe that it's Santa's birthday and not Christ's.
Our kids are now grown up. Five in all in a blended family situation. I was fortunate in that my ex and I had an amicable split and get on fine to this day. All though things could get frosty at times we always managed to sort something out and she was very good at trying to work with my roster and not against it. I guess being an ex flight attendant she knew all to well the life limitations associated with them.
My current partner is also from a split marriage, so, organisng a get together with the whole blended family and with the restrictions of my flying roster, has been most challenging.
Now the kids have partners and three of them have partners that came from a split parent family background. You can imagine the complex matrix required to all catch up on Xmas day.
We now spread the Xmas catch up over both Xmas and boxing days.

Having said all that I cannot believe that I paid $100 for a dead bit of pine!!! Whatever happened to $10.

cowpatz wrote: I cannot believe that I paid $100 for a dead bit of pine!!! Whatever happened to $10.

That's why you see people parked up on the road between Nelson and Mot 'procuring' their own bit of pine...

We do christmas in our (parents) house but it's got nothing to do with the traditional reasons for christmas. Given the nature of my work, it's a time where the family can just be together and catch up. We usually have a few family friends over who are all retired with adult children so they're often by themselves. That's what christmas is to me, a time to be with family and friends. Of course as I'm typing this, I'll be in Indonesia for christmas so it'll be a BBQ with the other ex-pat pilots and probably working the days either side

A 'post-modern' Christmas has always been a tricky time of the year. (By 'modern' I really mean 'divorce', almost 30 years of negotiating holidays etc.)

Lately, though, we've settled on a 'secret santa' arrangement, where each adult gives/receives one gift, either making something or sticking to a limited budget. All my kids are definitely adults. That means that any kids tend to be very spoilt. This year my son and his wife won't be here, with three of my grandkids, as they've moved to Australia, so here we have 8 adults and one 16-month-old.

This year I'm gifting to my daughter's partner, they live in a tiny home at the end of the driveway, so I figured something which doesn't take up any space. Then I thought, stuff that, so I'm building a diorama of their tiny house as it looks after the apocalypse. Hey, I'm a pensioner with nothing but a 3D printer and an airbrush...

Merry Christmas to you all, however you perceive it.

Some interesting comments, opinions, etc.
I really didn't expect so many.....nice to know you are all still out there.
I'm not dragging this out, I said what I said, you replied....thank you.