A Mistletoe under the McMaster Arch.
The most romantic place on campus to kiss. Wouldn't you agree? :kisschristmas2:



Edit: I didn't think this thread would be so controversial and get into the whole religious debate, but I guess it's good to get these perspectives out there. =S

maybe if you're a 12 year old girl

I was a bigger fan of when the engineers drove a car thru it and then left the alarm on the whole day at the end of last year.. i think that was a better use of the arch but to each his own i guess.

Awww, come on guys, it's a cute idea. There's all sorts of Xmas deco out, why not? Actually, I think it would be fun to do some Christimas-y (or at least general holiday stuff). Let's throw some lights up outside and a tree in MUSC (for a toy drive?).

All the malls and things do it, and as we all know, university is a business. There's more people coming through everyday than most places, why not have some fun with the biggest holiday time of the year? There are, after all, three, four (if you count new year's) coming up, never mind exam-end party time.

Tape a plastic one up, but make sure you don't kill the hundred year old stones.

Originally Posted by maverick1990

I was a bigger fan of when the engineers drove a car thru it and then left the alarm on the whole day at the end of last year.. i think that was a better use of the arch but to each his own i guess.

that was so god damn annoying for us who lived in edwards

Originally Posted by britb

All the malls and things do it, and as we all know, university is a business. There's more people coming through everyday than most places, why not have some fun with the biggest holiday time of the year? There are, after all, three, four (if you count new year's) coming up, never mind exam-end party time.

Because if we even remotely celebrate something related to christianity on campus you'll have the PC police on your ass faster than you can say Merry Christmas!

Originally Posted by DannyV

Because if we even remotely celebrate something related to christianity on campus you'll have the PC police on your ass faster than you can say Merry Christmas!

*Guys with nightsticks come up* "You mean 'Happy Holidays.' "

Originally Posted by Mowicz

*Guys with nightsticks come up* "You mean 'Happy Holidays.' "

No, no. You mean to say "Have a happy nondenominational winter holiday."

That's a really cute idea! :3

Oh, fine, do some garland or something. Even christmas lights aren't christmas deco per se - you see them at Halloween, New Year's, all sorts of things.

There's already some obviously XMAS stuff around, I don't see a problem with it (like the Mills toy drive thing in the front). If people want to put up some Hanakkah stuff (I can't spell >.<) or something for Kwanza, why not? But come on, let's get something up at least. The majority of the student body is celebrating something, let's have some fun with it. I'm not saying choke everyone, but really, the biggest time of the year and I get no tree? Throw some lights up in the MDCL atrium, you know those pines are beginning for it.

If people were really concerned about the religious thing, why not make seperate sections or displays? It would represent everyone's holiday (everyone in this case being people who are celebrating something right now) and make sure nobdoy get's choked by xmas. It could be a lottery, so no one gets preference.

Actually, the 'Happy Holiday" really bugs me. What's the problem with saying "Merry Christmas/Happy Hannakah (still can't spell...)/etc." anyway? It's a nice thing to say to someone. Even if you don't celebrate it, isn't the intent to say something nice enough? How can you possibly be offended by someone trying to wish you a nice time?

Originally Posted by britb

Oh, fine, do some garland or something. Even christmas lights aren't christmas deco per se - you see them at Halloween, New Year's, all sorts of things.

There's already some obviously XMAS stuff around, I don't see a problem with it (like the Mills toy drive thing in the front). If people want to put up some Hanakkah stuff (I can't spell >.<) or something for Kwanza, why not? But come on, let's get something up at least. The majority of the student body is celebrating something, let's have some fun with it. I'm not saying choke everyone, but really, the biggest time of the year and I get no tree? Throw some lights up in the MDCL atrium, you know those pines are beginning for it.

If people were really concerned about the religious thing, why not make seperate sections or displays? It would represent everyone's holiday (everyone in this case being people who are celebrating something right now) and make sure nobdoy get's choked by xmas. It could be a lottery, so no one gets preference.

Actually, the 'Happy Holiday" really bugs me. What's the problem with saying "Merry Christmas/Happy Hannakah (still can't spell...)/etc." anyway? It's a nice thing to say to someone. Even if you don't celebrate it, isn't the intent to say something nice enough? How can you possibly be offended by someone trying to wish you a nice time?

If you wanted to wish them a good time that would be fine. You can say enjoy the season. By mentioning something related to a faith you are "imposing" your faith on someone else....or something like that.

Originally Posted by britb

Actually, the 'Happy Holiday" really bugs me. What's the problem with saying "Merry Christmas/Happy Hannakah (still can't spell...)/etc." anyway? It's a nice thing to say to someone. Even if you don't celebrate it, isn't the intent to say something nice enough? How can you possibly be offended by someone trying to wish you a nice time?

Happy Holidays doesn't bother me as much because it's kind of like a 'catch all' term. Don't get me wrong, I agree that people are overly stupid about being politically correct (which is a running joke in this thread), but I find it much more offensive when someone does something deliberate.

Case in point: Xmas. When you say this, you're saying "I'm going to celebrate your holiday but will remove the whole point of the holiday from the word and then rub it in your face." It goes beyond being 'politically correct' where you use a 'neutral word' since you're actually going as far as to bastardize a religious word in the process.

It's like calling Chanukah "Happy Fun Candle Time," or Kwanzaa "Black Time" except if I ever said these things in a serious context (ie. not in an attempt to explain my point) I'd be labelled an anti-semite, or racist.

Xmas irritates me far more than "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" because it's deliberate...though the attempt to remove any notion of Christmas, Chanukah etc. is pretty irritating too.

That is true...give or take the fact that the university emblem has a pretty obvious cross smack in the middle of it.

I didn't think this thread would be so controversial and get into the whole religious debate, but I guess it's good to get these perspectives out there.

Originally Posted by britb

Actually, the 'Happy Holiday" really bugs me. What's the problem with saying "Merry Christmas/Happy Hannakah (still can't spell...)/etc." anyway? It's a nice thing to say to someone. Even if you don't celebrate it, isn't the intent to say something nice enough? How can you possibly be offended by someone trying to wish you a nice time?

Yeah, but it's still inconsiderate because you assume they celebrate Christmas or Chanukah. It's just much easier to say Happy Holidays, because that INCLUDES everyone, and doesn't (unintentionally or intentionally) exclude. If someone came up to me and said Happy Kwanzaa just because I look like I belong to a certain ethnic group, I'd be like, "wtf are you talking about??"

When I see Christmas decorations up in some of the offices all I can think is "you could have been doing work instead of setting up decorations". Hopefully student volunteers offered to do it for the school, but who knows.

None of that shit should be up anywhere around campus. Holidays are personal issues, and the school shouldn't take sides by promoting any. It isnt an issue of oppressing Christianity, or discriminating against students who dont celebrate the holiday, it is more of an issue of "Why arent you doing your job?".

As individuals, do whatever you want. But as a representative of the university(faculty,st aff, ect), just do your job.