History Main / TrueMeaningOfChristmas

* ''TheFairlyOddParents'' combines this one with GroundhogDayLoop: Timmy wishes it was Christmas every day to get more presents, but this means Santa ends up getting overworked and he gets less and less presents. When the other holidays come after him, he learns the TrueMeaningOfChristmas.

** Another Lewis piece, "[[http://thewordsmithsshelf.blogspot.com/2010/12/xmas-and-christmas-lost-chapter-from.html A Lost Chapter from Herodatus]]", satirically compares the dueling holidays of "Exmas" (secular) and "Crissmas" (religious) on the fictional island of Niatirb.

** And in the beginning it's inverted--Jack does understand the meaning of the Christmas feeling and deeply wants it, he just doesn't understand exactly where it comes from. His attempts to make Christmas are what cause the titular nightmare.

* A strange muisical example happens in The Who's {{Tommy}} in the play, album, and movie. In an opera that is otherwise not at all about Christmas, there is a single song titled, appropriately enough ''Christmas''. The main character's parent(s) ponder if Tommy realizes that it's Christmas and if he experiences any of the joys of the holiday.

** It's deeper than that--they're also worried that he'll go to Hell. "Tommy doesn't know what day it is/He doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is/How can he be saved from the eternal grave?"

** Another Lewis piece, "[[http://thewordsmithsshelf.blogspot.com/2010/12/xmas-and-christmas-lost-chapter-from.html A Lost Chapter from Herodatus]]", satirically compares the dueling holidays of "Exmas" and "Crissmas" on the fictional island of Niatirb.

ChristmasInJapan is different.

* Played with tongue firmly planted in cheek in the 2010 ''{{Leverage}}'' episode, "The Ho Ho Ho Caper", when crazy hacker/MagnificentBastard Chaos(played by WilWheaton) is arrested for attempting to rob the Federal Reserve on Christmas. Alec(whose van Chaos blew up earlier in the ep) was there to deliver the coup de grace:

* Played with tongue firmly planted in cheek in the 2010 ''{{Leverage}}'' episode, "The Ho Ho Ho Caper", when [[spoiler: crazy hacker/MagnificentBastard Chaos(played by WilWheaton) is arrested for attempting to rob the Federal Reserve on Christmas. Alec(whose van Chaos blew up earlier in the ep) was there to deliver the coup de grace:
-->'''Alec''': It looks like you forgot--
-->'''Chaos''': DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!
-->'''Alec''': --The True Meaning of Christmas!]]

* There are three Christmas Specials surrounding an animal (usually a donkey) that spends most of the special being shunned by his peers and ridiculed but in the end ends up escorting Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. They are RankinBassProductions' "{{Nestor The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey}}", {{Disney}}'s "The Small One" (directed by DonBluth), and "The Little Brown Burro".

** The first season episode "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo" plays this a bit straighter: the town descends into PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad over what symbols can be used for Christmas without offending anyone (non-Christians don't want religious stuff, Christians don't want Santa, environmentalists don't want Christmas trees, etc.), wrecking the whole holiday. Eventually [[RefugeInAudacity Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo]] appears and tells everybody to stop focusing on what's ''wrong'' with Christmas and pay attention to what's ''right'' about it, like giving and baking cookies. Though, for added effect, the credits are interrupted with a brief cutaway to Jesus, [[ForgottenBirthday singing a sad "Happy Birthday" song to himself]].

** The first season episode "Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo" was a self-aware parody of the commercialization of Christmas, with Mr. Hankey delivering a speech at the end about how Christmas is the time of year for everybody to forget their differences and bake cookies, etc. Cut away to a brief scene of Jesus, alone, sadly singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.

->''Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is about?''

* [[CSLewis C.S. Lewis]], in his 1957 essay "What Christmas Means to Me", argues to the effect that there are actually three different things that go by the name of Christmas: a religious festival, a popular holiday, and a commercial racket.

* [[CSLewis C.S. Lewis]], in his 1957 essay "What Christmas Means to Me", states that there are actually three different things that go by the name of Christmas: a religious festival, a popular holiday, and a commercial racket.

* The UrExample would probably be "YesVirginia, There Is a Santa Claus," which dates from 1897. It's more about the meaning of Santa, of course - but in his role as a representation of belief, of trust in human goodness and in all the beautiful invisible things that cannot be simply found or recorded, but that require faith to exist. Good stuff.
** [[FridgeLogic Of course, however,]] if she actually did read the reply, and she understood it, she would have immediately realized that he was saying somewhat explicitly that ''Santa Claus doesn't actually exist.'' I don't think the deeper message about the power of belief really would have been much comfort to her under the circumstances.

** [FridgeLogic [Of course, however,]] if she actually did read the reply, and she understood it, she would have immediately realized that he was saying somewhat explicitly that ''Santa Claus doesn't actually exist.'' I don't think the deeper message about the power of belief really would have been much comfort to her under the circumstances.

** In the original ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' cartoon, the cast goes to Earth and learns about Christmas. It ends with ''Skeletor'' saving a bunch of kids from Hoarde Prime. Skeletor was not very happy about it, and not too many viewers were, either.
** What's amazing is that you can trace Skeletor's change of heart to the kids telling him the Christmas Story pretty much directly out of the Bible ("There were some shepherds..."). Yes, that's right. In the very last episode ever, Skeletor found religion.
** [[TheNostalgiaCritic "Christmas time?! I'm Jewish!"]]

** Which isn't actually correct. The date was actually chosen as a Mass for Christ, hence the name, not about his birth.

** [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses "Christmas time?! I'm Jewish!"]]