Simplify Your Christmas [Hardcover]

I have no objection to anyone's choice of religion, or the way they practice it; but you should do a little research next time into what is and is not Christianity. And please remember that the King James Version of the Bible is just that...King James I of England's version. He had it re-written from the Latin texts and had several parts changed and even excluded to suit himself. Pick up a Catholic Bible sometime if you don't believe me. You will find there are several more books than what is in a KJV. Also, from the original Hebrew scrolls to Latin to English, there has been a wealth of meaning lost in the translations. Especially since some words cannot be accurately translated in the first place.

But I almost felt depressed reading this book - obviously Ms. St. James really dislikes Christmas. The book was extremely negative about every aspect of Christmas, with the exception of encouraging outreach and giving to those less fortunate [something I actively support as well]. But she hates Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas dinner, giving or receiving Christmas gifts [even suggesting that we are "burdening" our loved ones by giving them gifts]. She hates pretty much everything about Christmas and apparently doesn't celebrate it.

There is also a strong Pagan/Earth Religion undertone to the book. Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ [or at least it WAS until it was hijacked by marketing executives...]. The author never once mentions the ostensible purpose of Christmas - Christ's birth. She does however have a chapter on celebrating Christmas for "Mother Earth", repeated mention of Christmas as "Winter Solstice" [a Wiccan/Earth Religion Holy Day], as well as another section on how to bury arrows representing prayers to the "Great Spirit". [I'm pro-environment myself, so I'm not discouraging the "be nice to mother earth" idea, but it was very awkwardly done in a book on this topic].

She is very "new agey" and apparently very non-Christian. While I have no problem with her personal religious choices, its kind of weird reading a book on celebrating Christmas by a non-Christian. Kind of like reading a book on Celebrating Hannukah written by an Atheist or something. I think some of the suggestions she makes might actually be offensive to more fundamentalist Christian readers as well.

Overall, I don't think this book was worth the money. I wish I'd taken in out at the library. It was still worth reading for the handful of good ideas I came accross, but overall it was pretty lame, slightly depressing, and gave me a weird vibe. I think _Shelter For The Spirit_ by Victoria Moran has MUCH better chapters on celebrating holidays, and she is very respectful of all kinds of different religious beliefs [including Christian]. I highly recommend her book.