'What Is Christmas Really?'
Formal, Funny, Friendly and Feisty Answers to the Meaning of Christmas!

Christmas Sayings Help Us Answer 'What Is Christmas?'
If you live in a country where Christmas is celebrated your answer will probably be "Of course!"

However, can you sum up all that is Christmas in a single sentence? No? Not too many people can. "Christmas" means something different to everyone.

First, 'the voice of the people' has a few things to say on what Christmas really is. The Urban Dictionary (at www.urbandictionary.com) has a fairly irreverent user-rated (and user-edited) definition of what Christmas really means:

"Christmas: The celebration of the birth of commercialism... Oh yea, and Jesus."

The above definition is currently the most popular meaning of Christmas, as most users laugh themselves silly when they read it - or at least crack a smile.

We'll get back to Urban Dictionary in a moment, but first let's see what the regular dictionary says Christmas is. Looking the word Christmas up on Dictionary.com, it says:

"Christmas: the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts."

Looking at this definition of Christmas, most people can relate to what it says. It states what appear to be simple facts.

It is an annual festival and it is a celebration of the Christian church of the birth of Jesus.

It is a legal holiday - for which we are grateful because most of us get this day off as a holiday from our job.

However, what the dictionary doesn't say is that Christmas has a 'back history' (the history of Christmas - which is quite interesting and occasionally surprising) ... and Christmas means a lot of things for many different people.

All fact and no fun is no fun.
~ Linda M. Hammond ~

Although the word Christmas is missing from the above saying, it applies to Christmas and can be counted as one of the funny Christmas sayings. There are more aspects of Christmas than a diamond has facets. There are facets of faith, of fun, of love, presents, family, time, affection, and spirituality and more.

A holiday with such an array of variety is hard to be found any other time of year. You should take the best parts of Christmas and enjoy them to the fullest. Only let others see the facets they enjoy without limit. There is something in Christmas for everyone. So, enjoy the fun and the facts of Christmas, they do not contradict each other, but blend together well.

For many more people, though - and children in particular - Christmas is the best time of year: PRESENTS!!!

Printable Christmas Trivia Games
- What Do You Know About Christmas?

Impossible Christmas Trivia Game

December 25th Trivia Game

 

10 Christmas Definitions According to the Urban Dictionary

Back to the above-mentioned 'voice of the people' (Urban Dictionary). On this impudent and flippant source we find these answers to the question 'What is Christmas?':

1) "Christmas: Corporate America's birthday."

2) "Christmas: A celebration of humanity dating back thousands of years. It originated as a pagan celebration of the birth of the Sun, as it was celebrated on the winter equinox, and after that point, days got longer. When the Catholics / Christians took over these pagan peoples, they replaced their holiday with their own Birth of the Son, (as in of God) to make the transition to Christianity's traditions easier."

3) "Christmas: The day we celebrate the birth of a man who loved every living thing with the genocide of pine trees."

4) "Christmas: A celebration to a pagan god known as 'Capitalism'."

5) "Christmas: Solstice (winter in the north, summer in the south) reinvented by Christian masterminds to allow Sin and Guilt to replace existing, more wholesome and life-loving traditions."

6) "Christmas: A cleverly deployed marketing scheme beginning late November and carrying on into January."

7) "Christmas: The only day I am a Christian."

8) "Christmas: The Punch line at the end of the Joke. Could this year get any worse? Oh look, it's Christmas!"

9) "Christmas: Just another day in the life for me."

Those are nine of the top ten, but the last one is fairly strange - more strange than funny actually. Or maybe not ...

Imagine that you are someone in the far future on the SS Enterprise, Millennium Falcon, or whatever Sci-Fi universe you prefer. You have no clue what Christmas really is, so you look it up in your 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Read the following definition slowly and say the words out loud to get the puns and double meanings of the words. (Even then, it's STILL pretty weird):

10) "Christmas: Now human beings worshipped the great god Santa, a creature with fearsome claws, and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve, people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the Turkey people for Christmas dinner. Like savages! We must appease The Great Santa in honor of Christmas, before we can eat the turkey people!"

One wonders: What was that guy taking? But, hey, it takes all kinds (of Christmas sayings).

Famous People's Interpretations of Christmas?

In order to provide you with the best information possible on the true meaning of Christmas, we have done some real digging.

We thought, h'mm ... let's ask some of the most clever, charitable, funny, sexy and influential people that have ever walked the earth.

Surely they must know!

However, and unfortunately, some of them are dead!

But why let death stop us! Death is just a relative thing after all!

However, in case some celebrity is ... let's say anatomically challenged ... we'll provide you with an answer that would surely be in both their - and Quotescoop.com's - spirit. Fiction never hurt anybody, right!

So with this in mind, let's leave the scene for good old Mr. Albert Einstein :-)

1) Christmas is Relative Chaos!
- The Meaning of Christmas According to Albert Einstein

As we all know Einstein is famous for an immense mental capacity in what was later discovered to be a really tiny brain. Yes, his brain power was huge, but his brain tiny!

Anyway, if we were to imagine how Einstein would approach the meaning of Christmas, what would it be?

Well, since he's dead, and cannot answer this question, we have taken the liberty of representing someone who has pondered about Einstein and Christmas.

If Einstein could have a say in this, he would probably like the answer to be precise, and preferably in terms of numbers.

You know a proper result! Something that could be underlined twice!

Now, to set the proper atmosphere, we want you to imagine that you are standing next to a deeply concentrated Einstein who is scribbling away at a blackboard, mumbling to himself:

"So let's see. There are six billion people on Earth. Probably about six per family on average, so there are one billion homes. Some of these homes are city apartments twenty feet apart, but the people in igloos or jungle huts or desert tents are more widely spaced, so let's assume the homes are about a mile apart on average.

Santa has one night to visit them all, we'll say twenty-four hours because it's not night everywhere on Earth at the same time. So, he has to fly one billion miles in twenty-four hours."

He wrote "SANTA = 41,666,667 MILES/HOUR" on his blackboard and underlined it.

"At that speed, friction with the atmosphere will generate intense thermal energy, and twenty-four hours of that will release enough heat to melt the Earth's crust.

And the billion takeoffs and landings will cause two billion sonic booms. By December 26, the Earth will be reduced to an endless sea of molten lava and loud noises."
~ Thank you, James "Kibo" Parry for this answer to what Christmas is ~

Even though the answer to the meaning of Christmas is somewhat cold and dark ... or warm and red ... all depending on which way you approach it, it does seem well thought through.

Okay, let's leave Einstein to his scribbling, he is probably very trying to save us all and turn our eye to another view on the meaning of Christmas.

This time the answer this answer will also be warm, but not burning though.

Warm in spirit!

2) Christmas Is A Time to Let Love Shine!
- The Meaning of Christmas According to Mother Teresa

Who would be a better representative of the true charitable spirit of Christmas than the archetypical mother of all mothers, Mother Teresa.

To Mother Teresa Christmas was not equal to Christmas trees, turkey and presents. It went deeper than that.

Christmas was a very important time for Mother Teresa and she strongly held on to her own traditions which, not surprisingly, were equal to giving love.

Mother Teresa's Christmas tradition dates back to Christmas day in 1948 when she, according to herself, started on the first chapter of her life's work: Helping and fighting for the poor, the suffering and the underprivileged.

For the rest of her life she dedicated Christmas time to being with those she felt needed her beingness, her unconditional love and her help the most.

Here is the meaning of Christmas according to Mother Teresa:

It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you . . . yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.
~ Mother Teresa ~

So how did Mother Teresa view Christmas?

Well, viewed from a spiritual perspective, Christmas is a time to be a vehicle for love.

To be something for others if you can, and channel love to those who need it.

At Christmas some people are lucky to be among loved ones, however, not all are that fortunate. Mother Teresa saw it as her job to be a vehicle for love and channel it out, into the people, she felt were most in need of it.

If that doesn't make living worthwhile, I honestly don't know what would!

And for something completely different even though all that love, is unspeakably lovely, and we would love to swim in love all the time!

3) Christmas Is A Time for Complete Stupidity!
- The Meaning of Christmas According to Monty Python

Who better to take the piss out of the meaning of Christmas than Monty Python!

Were here at Quotescoop.com are big Monty Python fans and in case you're wondering about Monty Python's interpretation of What is Christmas?, we're proud to present it here.

According to the extremely ironic Monty Python crew, Christmas is so lovely that it deserves a place on stage in Heaven ... literally.

So what is Christmas to this satirical troupe of British comedians, well, just mention a few universal pleasures:

• Breasts, breasts and breasts - lots of them - and preferably artificial, shiny and same-size!
  
  
• Tony Bennett or (is it really Tom Jones?) - well, whatever the case, as long as the name starts with "T", happiness is near, and ecstasy a reality!
  
  
• 3 sexy wise men doing the grocery shopping for you!

Feel like in heaven already?

Good!

Then check out the Monty Python Christmas video below (which is actually a scene from their film, The Meaning of Life.)

Yes, dig in and rejoice in this delightful, yet somewhat disconcerting interpretation of Heaven where it is Christmas everyday!

 

4) Christmas Is the Right Time to Come!
- The Meaning of Christmas According to James Bond, 007!

Here is yet another not so deep meaning of Christmas.

Or perhaps it's indeed very deep, all depending on your position! ;-)

According to Mr. Bond, James Bond, Christmas doesn't have to happen only once a year. However, it probably doesn't happen every day either, as it does in Heaven (see the Monty Python song above). Unless you're very lucky of course!

In bed with Dr. Christmas Jones, James Bond has just proven that Christmas ... if you try hard enough ... comes all the time!

Here is a sequence from a pillow talk scene between James Bond and Dr. Christmas Jones in the film, "The World Is Not Enough!":

James Bond: "I was wrong about you."
Dr. Christmas Jones: "Yeah, how so?"
Bond: "I thought Christmas only comes once a year."

And the moral of the story, 'We should all make Christmas come everyday'.

Yes!

We here at Quotescoop.com are sure that the world would be a much better, happier, perhaps a bit more tired though, place!

5) Christmas Is Lots, and Lots of Santa
The Meaning of Christmas According to W. C. Fields

American comedian and writer W. C. Fields has his own interpretation on 'what is Christmas?' and what would make a lovely Christmas.

To W. C. Fields, Christmas equals a true bounty of Santa ... and a drink or two of course.

Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seen only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven.
~ W.C. Fields ~

The philosophical question we may ask ourselves then is, 'Does lots of Santa in your house really equal more pleasantness?'

For instance, what if you had 10 Santas, 100 Santas or even a 1000 Santas standing belly to belly in your living room?

Would this make a heavenly Christmas?

Well?

Well ... let's put it this way, if you're in to manly beards, healthy chubbiness and the color red, Santa might just be your thing. The more the merrier.

And who are we to judge then! :-)


We hope you found this page on the meaning of Christmas useful, or at least fun. If you desire more Christmas thoughts, Christmas quotes and Christmas sayings, feel free to explore the links below.