Tell HN: Merry Christmas

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Holiday greetings & community appreciation

  • The thread is dominated by Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays wishes in multiple languages, often paired with gratitude for the HN community as a rare, high‑quality corner of the internet.
  • Several people describe HN as their “morning paper” or a long‑term constant in their lives, and thank moderators and contributors.
  • Some explicitly include non‑Christians, wishing “season’s greetings” regardless of belief.

Nerdy Christmas creativity

  • A huge number of comments are ASCII or Unicode art Christmas trees, snowmen, and related scenes, often with programming or math jokes (binary trees, Merkle trees, Monte Carlo “Tree Santa”, Doom BSP trees, quad trees, Advent‑of‑Code vibes).
  • Others share code (BASIC tree generator, web component for Christmas lights, terminal adventure game, three.js visualizations) and assorted puzzles/quizzes.
  • Some riff on OOP/typing jokes (class ChristmasTree extends Tree, traits/interfaces), or quines/obfuscated code shaped like trees.

HN infrastructure & Christmas theme

  • Users notice the annual Christmas theme: slightly redder header and red/green story numbers.
  • A brief “restart” to switch themes prompts discussion of zero‑downtime culture: many argue occasional brief downtime is fine, even healthy, for a simple monolith like HN.
  • There’s a short tangent on FreeBSD, containers vs jails, and the pride in running HN on bare FreeBSD.

Religion, scripture & science

  • Multiple Bible passages are shared (especially from Luke), along with theological reflections on the meaning of Christmas, humility, and justice.
  • Some self‑identify as non‑Christian or merely “spiritual” but still find certain verses insightful.
  • There’s debate over whether Christmas/Easter have pagan origins and how much Christians integrate modern science (e.g., Big Bang) with faith.
  • One subthread examines textual variants and translation differences in Luke 2:14.

Loneliness, grief & mutual support

  • Several commenters share spending Christmas alone due to distance, illness, immigration timing, or family estrangement; others respond with empathy and blessings.
  • Stories of coping with the first Christmas after a parent’s death, or a tough year of stress and health problems, are met with encouragement.
  • A memorial is posted for a past HN user known for organizing holiday help for those in need, and for others who continued that tradition.

Traditions, culture & media

  • References include classic Christmas music and choral performances, movies (e.g., Muppet Christmas Carol, Gremlins), NORAD Santa tracking, Santa flights on flightradar, Yule/Saturnalia/Yalda, and regional quirks like stores closing for religious observance.
  • Some note discomfort with current geopolitics and Christian nationalism, while others emphasize the largely secular, family‑oriented nature of modern Christmas.