Atheist Ireland Forum

Hello. Is there any shops in Dublin that have any kind of "festive" greeting cards with no religious images or the word "Christmas" ?

Personally myself I don't worry to much about being politically correct on such issues. Besides Christmas was taken by Christians from other cultures and religions I don't see why atheists can't take it from Christians.

The winter festival was taking by Christians was it not? I thought the "Christmas" name refers to the Christian element?

Or does the word "Christmas" predate Christianity and their celebration?

Other members here could discuss this at more length than I could.

I don't know but the etymology of the word "Christmas" does suggest "Christian" associations. I'm sure you'll agree though that Christmas is much more than a word and its etymology is only one aspect.

However I think the important things to take is that Christmas isn't an entirely Christian invention. It is an amalgamation of various practices from other religions and cultures that evolved over time e.g.

The date was an approximation of the winter solstice and celebrated by Pagans and actually probably not Jesus's birthday.
The use of fir trees was adopted from Pagans too.
A mid winter feast was a common occurrence and helped ease the transition of pagans by the Romans to Christianity.

This is opposed to the notion that this was celebrated by Christians every year since 24th December 0000 that my little sister thinks happened.

From my understanding these are the accepted beliefs of credible historians.

Sources:
http://www.essortment.com/all/christmaspagan_rece.htm
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/ ... lStory.htm

Yeah definitely, the "festival" many people around the world celebrate around mid-winter is more than just a mythical birth date of the suppossed founder of Christianity but I'm just looking for cards without the word "Christmas"

There are a couple of UK companies that do them.

The NSS has some here: http://www.secularism.org.uk/greetings- ... cards.html

Cool Cards have some here: http://www.coolcards.co.uk/acatalog/Ath ... .html#aCP3

This site has some pictures that you can print yourself if you have a colour printer & glossy photo paper: http://printingchristmascards.com/secular.html

It's very hard to de-christianise our daily speech so why not just recognise it as part of history. When we say 'goodbye' are we really saying 'god bide with thee' or whatever it meant originally.
In the Post Office today I asked for any non-religious cards (I know, I was in a bad mood - it's a very small local office, by the way.) I got offered quite a nice selection of winter scenes etc. On the way out I heard the Post Mistress (surely, they're not still called that) say to the person behind me: 'Isn't the weather desperate, Father Larkin.'
Serves him right.
Happy christmas!

Hmmm....

http://www.atheist.ie

Yep. I'm with you on that. There's another thread on Christmas so I won't repeat it here, but as mentioned the festival of Christmas has been almost completely stolen and borrowed from festivals and cultures all over the world. It's very easy to celebrate christmas without the influence of religion, even if we use the word christmas.

I still say, 'Jesus Christ!!' if I stub my toe. Doesn't mean I believe he was the son of god.

This is a bit tame from athiests in fairness. Christmas specfically relates to Christianity. The festival's of course got a wider and broader history but you're still using the Christian name.

Oxfam and Barnardos have "Season's Greetings" cards sans the word "Christmas" or any religious fluff.