Texas Hippie Coalition Shirt

Texas Hippie Coalition Shirt

There’s a Texas Hippie Coalition Shirt of tradition of going out for Chinese food on or around Christmas in the US. So far as I can tell, this largely originates from large cities and in particular from Jews living in New York. Consider the cultural landscape of the earlier part of the 20th century. Jews, of course, do not celebrate Christmas, so they’d be more likely than the Christian majority to go out to eat then, as opposed to their celebrating neighbors who are likely at home with family, roasting their own turkeys and such. And where do they go on Christmas? Well, most restaurants are going to be closed, because their predominantly Christian proprietors and employees are also at home. The major exception, then, was Chinese restaurants. The immigrants running those places were less likely than average to be Christian, so they had no cultural tradition of shutting down on or around December 25. So if you’re a Jewish New Yorker who wants to go out for dinner on Christmas, it’s Chinese food or nothing. This practice may have been popularized in particular by Calvin Trillin, the noted food columnist for the New York Times. He was himself Jewish and wrote a marvelous column about his wife wanting a “traditional holiday dinner.” What she was talking about was the idea, coming in from outside their cultural world, of turkey, mashed potatoes, and so on, but to Trillin, his traditional holiday dinner was going out for Chinese.

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Texas Hippie Coalition Shirt hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt

I adore the world of Christmas traditions, which vary from Texas Hippie Coalition Shirt to country … I also enjoy the ancient pre-Christian traditions behind most Christmas customs. Diwali is a lovely tradition that coincides with autumn and shares a lot of imagery (IMO) with Hanukkah, the tradition of my own ancestors. (We made a bigger deal of Christmas at home.) I am all for the human impulse to fill the winter months with light and celebration. I’ve always considered them “the holidays,” and I have no personal desire to put Christ in Christmas. I also don’t want my government to do so. I’ll gladly wish you “Merry Christmas” if I know it’s your tradition. But it’s not mine. That’s not persecution, and it’s only traditionalism if it’s your tradition. Christmas presents have nothing to do with Christianity. Neither do almost all of the Christmas customs of hanging holly and mistletoe, decorating trees, drinking egg nog, Santa Claus, jingling sleigh bells. etc. In the religiously strict Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrating Christmas was illegal, as their leaders recognized that almost all of the festivities were continuations of pagan practices. Merchandisers have gotten rich by popularizing the giving of gifts at Christmas and they spend heavily every year to promote this secular mania. So feel free to give Christmas presents to any of your friends and relations regardless of race, religion age or sexual orientation.

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