(no subject)

[can_be_more]

Explain this holiday to me now, please. You know the one. The one with snow and trees and overweight men in bad suits with worse facial hair. I'm new! I don't know these things!

Comments

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can handle this one.

*rubs hands together*

This holiday celebrates the shortest day (and longest night) of the year, when the Goddess/Mother Earth/'Virgin' Mary gives birth to the Sun/Son, as days begin to grow longer again. The tree is green while everything else is dead and bare, to remind people that spring will eventually come.

The fat guy in the suit... well, he's... yeah, that's a tough one. The overweightness is a sign of affluence, feasting at a time of year when food stores were limited. I think the facial hair is just to keep him warm. Or possibly a mask, because he's supposed to represent the spirit of giving, and seeing his face would make him a person, not a symbol. The suit is from Coca Cola. He doesn't get paid for his job, so it's really not surprising he had to take corporate sponsorship.

[ten-and-chips.livejournal.com]

[looks up from where he's headdesking] Thank you, Tara.

[can_be_more]

So the sheep and chipmunks are sacrifices to the Goddess/Mother Earth thing? That would make sense, I guess.

And the portly man in the stupid suit is a cola salesman. Okay. Got it.

[chasingangela]

Pretty much, yeah. 'Cept we don't really do the sacrifices so much.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Well, not any more. Unless you count the Christmas trees.

[brambless.livejournal.com]

The chipmunks are totally new to me, but the sheep... okay, I got nothing there.

The 'portly man' is Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, depending on where you live, and he's not just a cola salesman - he's like, an overnight express delivery service for presents all over the world. But just once a year. He used to make the presents himself, but now he just distributes stuff from commercial toymakers. Kind of like the free samples you get in the mail, only wrapped up with pretty bows. And he breaks into your house to leave them there, which frankly has always creeped me out.

[can_be_more]

He breaks into homes?! To leave things?

PROFESSOR TICK, I HAVE A TOPIC FOR YOU!