Question for NonChristians: Do you Celebrate Xmas?

MacAllister said:

Not a Christian. But I quite cheerfully celebrate Christmas. I'm not in the least put off by the religious overtones, any more than by the Santa Claus and Rudolph connections - and celebrating Christmas whilst not believing in flying reindeer doesn't give me any more or less angst than not being religious.

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Nothing to add. Just, pretty much, this. +1

Yup, I'm a Christmas celebrator too. I'm atheist, but I love the hymns and the very special joyous mood everyone gets in. The tree, the gifts, the candles, candy, and so on are just cultural and familial traditions to me, not religious at all.

Actually, I usually go to church too on christmas. The only time of the year that I do, and it is because the rest of my family does it. If I didn't I'd be labeled a contrarian, and I wouldn't want them to think such a negative thought on such a great day More, and more though, I find myself tapping my foot at the messages.

JimmyB27 said:

Well, the Christians stole the date from the Pagans and installed their own trappings of a baby in a manger and three wise men and all that. Why shouldn't we atheists steal it and add our own trappings of Father Christmas, Coke Trucks and Slade?

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That is too funny and so right!

I'm Jewish, and heck no! If someone invited me for tree decorating, or holiday dinner, or some other cultural type celebrations, I would go in the interest of sharing in the cultural practices of friends and loved ones. Other than that, for me Christmas is a day best spent seeing a movie and going out for Chinese.

Kitty's List Of The Only Things She Likes About Christmas: How The Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon, Fairy Tale of New York, egg nog, stollen, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, fairy lights, piney smells, Linus's monologue from A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Christians and the Pagans, and the overabundance of cookies.

I ADORE Christmas, Hanukkah (in all it's spellings), and all the holidays year-round that I'm not pulling from my gourd just at present that recognize their tradition by celebrating. Wanna see why? (the answer is below)



I was raised Episcopalian. I'll stand beside my Episcopalian mother in church at midnight this Christmas Eve (which will make her very happy, and that will make me happy), with my happy Episcopalian husband beside me (just one of those coincidences my mother adores so, and why not?). And I'll meditate on what I want and need for myself and others this coming year, and on what I'm so thankful for, and on trying to whine less than last year. Mostly, I'll do my own spiritual thing. I don't feel I'll get anything less from the service than the other congregants, or that the service will be disserviced by my presence.

I, personally, *very* much appreciate an annual spiritual holiday to make sure I check in and align what's important to me. It's easy to slip, right? It sure is for me, and I'm someone who can get mired up in other stuff and get pulled away from her core. As a person who doesn't consider herself of any religion, including agnostic or athiest, I'm happy to appropriate Christmas as a holiday in order to do so with my loved ones. It's worked well for us, and we're really not so different, my family and I, standing in that church. It's not the same religion, but the belief really isn't so far apart.

But, even if that all blew straight to dust, and I turned into the thing that crushed all religion to smithereens? The holidays, I would whip my dragon-tail around and protect them with my fiery breath. Because of Thing One and Thing Two, pictured above (my nieces, 3K miles away). That's what I'd still believe in, if I had to pick a holiday to go with my beliefs. It's them two mini blonds, and sure- the retail idustry has got me by the balls. I need my holidays. Otherwise, I'm just the weird aunt who *apparently* can't remember when the birthdays are. She just keeps sending boxes...

Giant Baby said:

As a person who doesn't consider herself of any religion, including agnostic or athiest

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Uh, hopefully this won't end up in a dreadful derail, but this is basically the definition of atheist.

scarletpeaches said:

I'm a Christian and I don't celebrate Christmas because it has nothing to do with Jesus.

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I'm the other way around! I'm a non-Christian but for me, Christmas has EVERYTHING to do with Jesus.
I'm so glad that my atheist mother sent me to a Christian school because the carols, the story, the magic of Christmas in the religious sense is implanted in my soul and I just love it. When I hear Christmas carols (I mean real carols, not songs about snow or Santa) my heart melts and I cometimes cry.

When my kids were little we used to spend Christmas in India, in a spiritual comunity that was more Hindu than Christmas based. But at Christmas it came alive. We had a woman who was a brillian singer and choreograoher and she produced Nativity playes with all the children - up to 50 kids! She worked miracles. Every single child would sing a solo, and they sang it beautifully. Everybody would be in tears at the end. My son played a shephard, a king, a camel, held the curtain; my daughter was a sheep, an angel, a star, and so on. A lot of singing and dancing, and it was so beautiful. ANd in India there was non of this commercial nonsense, no presents, no tree, no Santa. Lots of lights, though; the whole garden would be alight with golden and red bulbs -- it was magical!

And so that too has ingrained itself in my kids' minds. Yesterday We Three Kings played on the radio and my son just lit up and sang along -- you never forget those songs. And Silent Night. And O Hoily Night. For me they are all just magical.

We are all - myslef and the kids -- going to midnight mass on Christmas eve. No presents this year, a very small tree, a bit of decoarions, but nothing big. Christmas is all about teh birth of Jesus for us, and the wonderful feeling of joy it brings.

But still I am not a Christian.

I don't celebrate religious holidays, although I do sponsor an end-of-year party for my company.

I also don't celebrate birthdays including my own unless compelled to by social compacts I can't negotiate around.

Neither do I much celebrate local civic holidays like Australia Day, and I deplore Melbourne Cup Day, which now has a more family-oriented name but still means "get drunk and gamble on horse-racing".

So it's probably not that I'm an atheist. It's probably just my temperament.

JimmyB27 said:

Uh, hopefully this won't end up in a dreadful derail, but this is basically the definition of atheist.

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Heh, no derail please. My description of my views was cursory because the OP's question was about non-Christian's celebrating Christmas, and my wine-sodden post was more about the holiday and posting pictures of my perfectly delicious nieces. To quote the almighty facebook, "it's complicated."

I'm Christian (Catholic, to be exact), so I don't "belong" on this thread, persay, but I wonder what counts as celebrating. Like, some of our non-Christian friends will come over at Christmas and party with us and exchange gifts...they don't decorate their own homes, but they will part with us. Another Jewish family we are friends with will usually call us to wish us a Merry Christmas, etc. A friend of mine from high school (we were in choir together) often had non-Christian friends come to see her sing, and they would sometimes come to the Christmas concert.

So, I wonder what counts, really. Especially today when the commercial side of Christmas (red and green, holly, Santa Claus, candy canes, the tree, etc.) ends up just being called "holiday," even though I don't know any other holiday that they are symbols of. So, if you don't do anything specific for the birth of Christ, are you celebrating Christmas, or just a commercial holiday?

I mean, personally, I don't go for the whole Coca-Cola Santa and raindeer type Christmas. I don't even generally put up a tree, but then I hate artificial and it makes no sense to get real when we leave town for Christmas anyways. My mother refuses to put up trees and does a nativity, but my grandma puts up both...I might do the whole tree thing when we have kids, but *shrug*. So, I don't know, but since we focus so much on the religious side of Christmas, the commercial side of putting up decorations during (and even before) Advent and taking them down before the twelve days are over...well, I don't even identify that as Christmas anymore.

Rose de Guzman said:

I'm Christian (Catholic, to be exact), so I don't "belong" on this thread, persay, but I wonder what counts as celebrating. Like, some of our non-Christian friends will come over at Christmas and party with us and exchange gifts...they don't decorate their own homes, but they will part with us. Another Jewish family we are friends with will usually call us to wish us a Merry Christmas, etc. A friend of mine from high school (we were in choir together) often had non-Christian friends come to see her sing, and they would sometimes come to the Christmas concert.

So, I wonder what counts, really. Especially today when the commercial side of Christmas (red and green, holly, Santa Claus, candy canes, the tree, etc.) ends up just being called "holiday," even though I don't know any other holiday that they are symbols of. So, if you don't do anything specific for the birth of Christ, are you celebrating Christmas, or just a commercial holiday?

I mean, personally, I don't go for the whole Coca-Cola Santa and raindeer type Christmas. I don't even generally put up a tree, but then I hate artificial and it makes no sense to get real when we leave town for Christmas anyways. My mother refuses to put up trees and does a nativity, but my grandma puts up both...I might do the whole tree thing when we have kids, but *shrug*. So, I don't know, but since we focus so much on the religious side of Christmas, the commercial side of putting up decorations during (and even before) Advent and taking them down before the twelve days are over...well, I don't even identify that as Christmas anymore.

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It's the atheists who actually enjoy religion the most.

I'm not Christian, but since my family is Catholic I celebrate Christmas through them. Though, to be honest, even if I didn't have the family obligation, I'd still count down the days to December 25. I love the lights, the food, even the music (and I even work retail). I like that there's this bright spot in the middle of December. Even if I don't believe in Jesus' divinity, I can still get behind a holiday where we show our family and friends how much we love them, where people are encouraged to share in the plight of the less fortunate and try and help out their fellow human beings. To me it's the one time of year when people are capable of being as good as they think they are. So yeah, I celebrate it Christmas, but through a very secular, humanist lens.

Ruv Draba said:

So it's probably not that I'm an atheist. It's probably just my temperament.

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Me, too. (I'm also a birthday grump, though I know how to smile and be nice about it.)

Maxx said:

It's the atheists who actually enjoy religion the most.

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What's that supposed to mean?

I never celebrate birthdays; I don't know the birthdays of most of my friends and they don't hear from me. My own passes by without a ripple, tough my kids do try to do something, like cook a meal. For their birthdays I take them out for a meal (their bdays are close together.
But Christmas is different. It's magic.

CheyElizabeth said:

It's weird to me that people celebrate religious holidays when they don't believe in them.

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Well, if it's just a religious holiday, since I'm an atheist, I guess I shouldn't celebrate it. So, instead I'd like to go to the bank and get my mail. Except I can't because it's a federal holiday. Only one religion gets a federal holiday, which doesn't seem right to me.

I do celebrate something that is becoming less "Christmas" every year. I do have a tree, since I like to put up decorations that I have had since before I was an atheist, many of them are inherited from my late parents and sister. In fact, most of my "Christmas" is simply a carrying on of tradition. Exchanging gifts, having a special dinner, socializing, etc.

Heck, it's the only day in the year i go to church.

Though it's just to make my mom happy and i bring an mp3 player.

I'm an atheist and yes, I celebrate with a real tree, lights, gifts, stockings, parties and special homemade treats this time of year. Around here we do call it Christmas because that's the culture we live in, but shortening it to Xmas bothers me not. Whatever you call it, the holidays, the festival of lights, Pagan winter festival, soltice, Festivus or the particular cultural celebration of choice for you, this is a lovely time of year.

For me, it's marred only by judgmental people who who declare certain holidays are only for those who share their particular beliefs, or must be celebrated in certain ways, or referred to only with certain words, etc. I leave them to their bickering and just enjoy myself.

This is my favorite Christmas song. Bring out the joy, light up the tree, though time moves fast, it's not too late, it's only Christmas Eve...

I do not celebrate Christmas or any other holiday. Although my parents are nominally Catholic, I was raised with no religion and chose to remain as such as an adult. I do enjoy the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, however.

Dawnstorm said:

Me, too. (I'm also a birthday grump, though I know how to smile and be nice about it.)

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I wouldn't call myself a birthday grump, but I do not see the point in celebrating them. My girlfriend was very disappointed when I didn't feel the absolute need to be at her house for her birthday. In my defense, however, I was struck by a moving vehicle the same day and still managed a "Happy Birthday" text.

My family gets together every Chirstmas and we all exchange presents. I have yet to host a Christmas gathering, but it's interesting to me that I just came across this thread because I just decided earlier this morning that when I do host, we will not exchange gifts. It's silly. None of us are religious.

Somebody just sent me this cute video!
The Digital Story of the Nativity

I put up lights and have a tree. I do not decorate in any other way. I cook a lot of good stuff, and play the music for a couple of days. I don't buy gifts and receive none. Instead my Beloved Hubby and I decide on buying something for us. (This year I think we might invest in new tires for the motorcycle.) We usually save up all year to be able to afford something special.

Nowhere in this do I think to myself that I am celebrating a Christian holiday. I am just happy to break up the winter darkness with some lights. I also love the traditional smells of it all.

Oh, and I use the word Christmas in English because that is what it's called, but in Swedish we call it Jul (Yule). Ancient stuff. Older than Christianity.

Almost forgot, I also put out a bowl of porridge for the "Tomte".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte
Just seems like the right thing to do, and I am sure that the nighbors dogs enjoy it immensly.

Urm we celebrate Christmas and stuff but not religiously as we're irreligious. We just do it for the food and presents it's more family tradition.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

You can tell from my greeting, I'm no Christian. But I love sending Christmas cards, and I make sure they're the most beautiful religious cards I can find, usually of angels (and usually from the Metropolitan Museum). It actually bothers me when folks I know are good Christians send snow scenes or Santas. I also use the despised holiday newsletter as writing practice. And people love getting my Christmas newsletters!

I love Christmas carols too, preferably the sacred ones. And the Messiah and Bach cantatas.

There is great spiritual beauty in Christmas, and I choose to applaud it. So what that the Christian Guru (Jesus) isn't MY Guru (the Siri Guru Granth Sahib)! It's still one spirit that runs through the Universe.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal Kaur Khalsa