{"id":29701,"date":"2015-12-25T05:41:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-25T12:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=29701"},"modified":"2016-11-04T01:51:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T08:51:23","slug":"creative-prompt-343-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/creative-prompt-343-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Prompt #343: Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nota Bene<\/em>: For those of you who don’t celebrate, I apologize. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Please select your own word and post a link to your response. I appreciate your understanding.<\/p>\n

Noel<\/p>\n

Nativity<\/p>\n

Xmas<\/p>\n

Yule<\/p>\n

Christmas tree<\/p>\n

Holiday music<\/p>\n

ornaments<\/p>\n

lights<\/p>\n

music<\/p>\n

family traditions<\/p>\n

gifts<\/p>\n

“Do They Know It’s Christmas<\/em>,\u201d a charity single released by Bob Geldof’s Band Aid 30<\/span><\/p>\n

Advent calendar<\/p>\n

Family gatherings<\/p>\n

cards<\/p>\n

greetings<\/p>\n

A Charlie Brown Christmas Movie<\/p>\n

cookies<\/p>\n

Christmas Eve<\/p>\n

artificial Christmas trees<\/p>\n

gingerbread house<\/p>\n

Christmas decorations<\/p>\n

Christmas cheer<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas<\/p>\n

A Christmas Story (1983 movie)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Definition: “Christmas<\/b> or Christmas Day<\/b> (Old English<\/a>: Cr?stesm\u00e6sse<\/i><\/span>, meaning “Christ<\/a>‘s Mass<\/a>“) is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ<\/a>,[7]<\/a><\/sup>[8]<\/a><\/sup> observed most commonly on December 25<\/a>[4]<\/a><\/sup>[9]<\/a><\/sup>[10]<\/a><\/sup> as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.[2]<\/a><\/sup>[11]<\/a><\/sup>[12]<\/a><\/sup> A feast<\/a> central to the Christian<\/a> liturgical year<\/a>, it is prepared for by the season of Advent<\/a> or the Nativity Fast<\/a> and initiates the season of Christmastide<\/a>, which historically in the West lasts twelve days<\/a> and culminates on Twelfth Night<\/a>;[13]<\/a><\/sup> in some traditions, Christmastide includes an Octave<\/a>.[14]<\/a><\/sup> Christmas Day is a public holiday<\/a> in many of the world’s nations<\/a>,[15]<\/a><\/sup>[16]<\/a><\/sup>[17]<\/a><\/sup> is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people,[1]<\/a><\/sup>[18]<\/a><\/sup>[19]<\/a><\/sup> and is an integral part of the holiday season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian<\/a>, Christian<\/a>, and secular<\/a> themes and origins.[20]<\/a><\/sup> Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving<\/a>, completing an Advent calendar<\/a> or Advent wreath<\/a>, Christmas music<\/a> and caroling<\/a>, lighting a Christingle<\/a>, an exchange of Christmas cards<\/a>, church services<\/a>, a special meal<\/a>, and the display of various Christmas decorations<\/a>, including Christmas trees<\/a>, Christmas lights<\/a>, nativity scenes<\/a>, garlands<\/a>, wreaths<\/a>, mistletoe<\/a>, and holly<\/a>. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus<\/a>, Father Christmas<\/a>, Saint Nicholas<\/a>, and Christkind<\/a>, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions<\/a> and lore.[21]<\/a><\/sup> Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.<\/p>\n

While the month and date of Jesus’ birth<\/a> are unknown, by the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church<\/a> had placed Christmas on December 25,[22]<\/a><\/sup> a date later adopted in the East,[23]<\/a><\/sup>[24]<\/a><\/sup> although some churches celebrate on the December 25 of the older Julian calendar<\/a>, which, in the Gregorian calendar, currently corresponds to January 7, the day after the Western Christian Church celebrates the Epiphany<\/a>. The date of Christmas may have initially been chosen to correspond with the day exactly nine months after the day on which early Christians believed that Jesus was conceived<\/a>,[25]<\/a><\/sup> or with one or more ancient polytheistic<\/a> festivals that occurred near southern solstice<\/a> (i.e., the Roman<\/a> winter solstice<\/a>);[26]<\/a><\/sup>[27]<\/a><\/sup> a further solar<\/a> connection has been suggested because of a biblical verse[a]<\/a><\/sup> identifying Jesus as the “Sun of righteousness”.[25]<\/a><\/sup>[28]<\/a><\/sup>[29]<\/a><\/sup>” (Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Post the direct URL (link) where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted (e.g. your blog, Flickr) in the comments area of this post. I would really like to keep all the artwork together and provide a way for others to see your work and get familiar with your blog or website.<\/p>\n

The Creative Prompt Project, also, has a Flickr group<\/a>, which you can join to\u00a0 post your responses. I created this spot so those of you without blogs and websites would have a place to post your responses.<\/p>\n

We are also talking about this on Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #CPP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nota Bene: For those of you who don’t celebrate, I apologize. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Please select your own word and post a link to your response. I appreciate your understanding. Noel Nativity Xmas Yule Christmas tree Holiday music ornaments lights music family traditions gifts “Do They Know It’s … Continue reading “Creative Prompt #343: Christmas”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[379],"tags":[8,79,311,72],"class_list":["post-29701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-379","tag-christmas","tag-creative-prompt","tag-creativity","tag-group-project"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}