not to jump to conclusions

I haven't read "Jesus Is Satan," so I can't say what the thesis of that book is. As I'm getting into "The Plotted Course" (pg 37), he (author Thayalan K. Reddy) is making more intimations that Jesus really was a patsy of the devil as well as the Romans (that 40 days he spent in the desert with Beezelbub wasn't a Test of Faith, it was a stategy retreat). But then the book is rife with snarky narrative such as "Perhaps the only dissimilarity between Jesus and Koresh is that Koresh actually died for his beliefs; Jesus, on the other hand, faked his death." (pg 7) Ultimately I guess I'll have to call up Mr. Reddy and ask "so what are you REALLY trying to say?"

I guess your doc friend was being facetious, cuz what does the commercialized version of xmas have to do with religion? Besides, couldn't you just celebrate xmas as a commemoration of the birth of an important historical figure without assenting to any claims of divinity? And besides xmas (and Easter, but how many nominal Christians go all out for Easter?), the rest of the holidays are pretty godless. They're rites of intensification (Thanxgiving, New Years) or rites of reversal (Halloween, Mardi Gras), but there's not much god involved.

He or she can always celebrate a made up holiday like "Festivus" from Seinfeld.