Comics I Don’t Understand

Christmas!

Cidu Bill on Jul 6th 2010

“It’s a Christian holiday, Tiffany. How unbelievably stupid would I have to be not to know that?”

Filed in Bill Bickel, Christmas, Greg Evans, Luann, comic strips, comics, humor | 29 responses so far

29 Responses to “Christmas!”

kjwhisper Jul 6th 2010 at 09:41 am 1

It’s a pagan holiday, Charlie Brown:
http://shortpacked.com/comic/book-10/04-hamalanche/paganholidaycharliebrown/
Dan W Jul 6th 2010 at 09:43 am 2

Even if she couldn’t think of whose it is, she could have said “It’s universal” or perhaps “International.” Obviously not everyone celebrates Christmas, but enough people around the world do that it’s a reasonable response.
Daniel J. Drazen Jul 6th 2010 at 11:00 am 3

As Tiffany prepares for her summer internship working for Sarah Palin.
Mark M Jul 6th 2010 at 11:37 am 4

Tiffany is quite bright.
Scott Jul 6th 2010 at 11:48 am 5

But Jesus was an American, everyone knows that.

From “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” - a TV guy is interviewing a cheerleader.

TV Guy: Who was the greatest American?

Cheerleader: (obviously flustered). Uh, uh, Jesus!

TV Guy: Thank you!

From 30 year old memory.
Powers Jul 6th 2010 at 11:58 am 6

Nice touch — the girls are both wearing the suits they were trying on in last week’s Sunday strip. =)

Anyway, I think Luann was just so flustered that she couldn’t think of the proper retort. Or the cartoonist had to find a way to make Tiffany win even though she’s the one in the wrong here.
kjwhisper Jul 6th 2010 at 12:38 pm 7

I’d like to think Luann is about to say, “It’s a Christian holiday”, but then she remembers that a lot of athiests celebrate it as well. She doesn’t want to give Tiffany any more ammo for a retort, so she’s trying to come up with an answer that’s all-inclusive. About 30 seconds after the strip is over, she probably comes up with Dan’s “it’s universal” answer.

Why does Tiffany think every holiday needs to belong to a particular group?
Keera Jul 6th 2010 at 01:29 pm 8

kjwhisper @7, I don’t consider getting a day off work because of someone else’s god “celebrating”, but I guess I could.

I interpret Luann’s lack of response as a moment of conflict: Is Christmas Christian or secular? Is it about Jesus or Santa? And isn’t Santa American? Hrm…

With each generation, the origins of something fade more and more, until the real meaning is lost, even to the intelligent. (My pet peeve in Norway is that folks now think Jesus was born on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day (as per tradition, not as per logic), because they no longer know what the Eve part means.)
Tom Jul 6th 2010 at 03:09 pm 9

Perhaps the notion here was, “put the girls in swimsuits, no one will read the text.”
PeterW Jul 6th 2010 at 03:25 pm 10

Santa is Turkish, actually.
Fett101 Jul 6th 2010 at 03:44 pm 11

@Keera, except many non Christians do the whole tree, gift, and Santa thing. I’d call that celebrating.
Kamino Neko Jul 6th 2010 at 04:06 pm 12

St Nicholas, the real man, was Turkish. Santa Claus, the present-giving sort-of-mystical character, is descended from a Dutch take on him.
Mark in Boston Jul 6th 2010 at 04:49 pm 13

We (Americans) got Christmas from the Germans and Dutch, and later from the English who got it from the Germans. Long story, but 500 years ago the English celebrated Christmas. Then a bunch of Puritans got together and decided that nobody should celebrate Christmas (other than by praying and maybe going to church), and the English kicked them out and they came to America. Then some Puritans still living in England decided nobody should get drunk or have fun on Christmas, so by 1776 England and the English-settled parts of America had laws banning Christmas celebrations. But the Germans and Dutch living in America still had their fun, and starting around 1810 or 1820 the English began to revive Christmas celebrations, and then Washington Irving (visiting England) wrote a book about Christmas, and then Queen Victoria married a German prince who introduced Christmas trees to England, and then Charles Dickens wrote a book about it and Clement Moore (or someone) wrote a poem about it, and then Thomas Nast drew pictures of Santa Claus, and then Coca-Cola drew new pictures of Santa Claus, and then Montgomery Ward published a booklet about a red-nosed reindeer, and then Johnny Marx wrote a song about that reindeer, and then Charlie Brown felt sorry for a Christmas tree, and then Stan and Kyle and Kenny and Cartman helped Jesus and Santa reconcile their differences, and then…
Jay Jul 6th 2010 at 05:27 pm 14

Santa Claus is Polish. He lives at the North Pole.
Marshal Jul 6th 2010 at 05:51 pm 15

Mark in Boston(13),
“and then Johnny Marx wrote a song about that reindeer”

I believe you mean Johnny Marks.. The rest sounds about right.
I think Burl Ives is in there somewhere.
.
Nick Theodorakis Jul 6th 2010 at 06:08 pm 16

St. Nicholas lived in what is now present-day Turkey, but there were no Turks in Asia Minor at that time.

Nick
Detcord Jul 6th 2010 at 07:04 pm 17

December 25th was celebrated by Northern Hemisphere pagans long before Christians got to it. The reason for the celebration was that December 25th was the first day primitive people could be sure the sun had reversed course and the days began getting longer (by about 1 second on this date). Likewise, the ancient Roman Winter holiday known as Saturnalia - celebrated between the 17th to the 23rd of December. Eating, drinking, making merry, visiting friends and giving small presents were a part of the Roman celebrations.

The genius of the Christians was that they learned not to subdue pagan holidays, but to subsume them into their own calendar, with a turn toward the new faith. It is unlikely that tribute (Roman taxes) would be collected at the Winter solstice as the shorter days and colder weather would have made traveling more difficult. It is much more likely that they were collected around now (Summer) and that if Jesus had a birthday, it would be about, well, now.
Chakolate Jul 6th 2010 at 07:34 pm 18

I don’t want to interrupt the Christmas history session, but since when is a raspberry typed as ‘phoot’???

Pbthbthppbth to that.
George P Jul 6th 2010 at 08:12 pm 19

Detcord, the Winter Solstice happens on December 21st or 22nd, not the 25th.

Saturnalia was (or is, depending on your local bars) a Roman holiday celebrated from December 17th to the 23rd, and had nothing to do with the Solstice other than coincidence. It was (is) about drinking and having a good time, and was a time when masters and slaves exchanged roles.

Of these two, I (and most others) think it is more likely that Christmas was timed to catch the hard-drinking Saturnalia crowd rather than the hippies lighting candles at midnight on the Solstice.
mitch4 Jul 6th 2010 at 09:05 pm 20

Did all of you catch the “Where were you last Christmas?” dialogue from the Kagan hearings?
Frank the curmudgeon Jul 7th 2010 at 12:05 am 21

St. Nicholas was not a Turk. He was most likely a Byzantine Greek. The Turks did not arrive for another 500 years.
Igelino Jul 7th 2010 at 03:44 am 22

George, the solstice actually happens on January 1st. Over the years, calendar engineering has improved. Nowadays our calendar engineers design a fudge factor of about 6 days into our calendars. ; )

It’s still not perfect. About ten years ago we had problems because various calendar engineers couldn’t quite agree on the universal constants.
Detcord Jul 7th 2010 at 04:40 am 23

George P (19)

“Detcord, the Winter Solstice happens on December 21st or 22nd, not the 25th”.

Yep, I know. If you re-read my post, you’ll note that I said the Celebrations began when the Sun began to rise again. That rise is difficult to discern until a few days have passed after the Solstice and it’s only really apparent around December 25th. So, no, December 25 is NOT the Winter Solstice, but the first day primitive people can feel assured the Sun isn’t just going to vanish after the Winter Solstice.

It was a big holiday, which is why the early Christians subsumed it into their calendars. A very accommodating and clever strategy - IMO.

According to Wikipedia, “Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BC to raise [Roman] citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.” So it predates “Christmas” by a few hundred years. Again, the Christians simply redirected the established holiday into their own calendar. If you can’t beat ‘em, get ‘em to join you. A clever, and successful, concept.
Detcord Jul 7th 2010 at 04:46 am 24

Chakolate (18)

I think Tiffany is giving the pouty version of phooey, rather than a raspberry.
Tom T. Jul 7th 2010 at 06:51 am 25

Bill’s proposed retort doesn’t really help the situation.

Luann: “It’s a Christian holiday!”
Tiffany: “So how come school is closed on Christmas?”
Luann: “Um, it’s….”
Buzz Killington Jul 7th 2010 at 11:05 am 26

“It’s a Christian holiday, Tiffany. How unbelievably stupid would I have to be not to know that?”

I don’t care how stupid she is, she looks great in a bikini!
Keera Jul 7th 2010 at 04:15 pm 27

Fett101 @11, I call it caving in. Actually, I call it an excuse to get together with loved ones, same as with Thanksgiving. I mean, since the boss gives me the day off, anyway.
Chakolate Jul 7th 2010 at 05:31 pm 28

Detcord (24) ‘Phooey’ doesn’t have the tongue sticking out, does it? Tiffany in the last panel is definitely making the mouth move of a raspberry.
Rid Jul 8th 2010 at 01:41 pm 29

No, it’s a Christian holiday, through and through. This is why it galls me every year to see public displays for it. That kind of discrimination should not be allowed - Christmas represents an oppressive genocidal religion, and if you want presents and cheer THAT badly, you can make your own holiday for it. The government needs to uphold separation of Church and State, and cut Christmas out of America.