I was raised as an ultra-reform Jew, there was very little religious significance. As an adult I rejected formal religion and eventually became the agnatheist* I am now. I have learned to live with Christmas, and I embraced the idea of my kids waking up on Christmas morning to a giant pile of presents under a huge Christmas tree with no religious significance. I get annoyed by the music and the unrelenting consumerism and as much but no more so than any number of public practices that annoy me. I won’t invest the time in hating either the secular or religious Christmas. YMMV
I worked with a guy in Japan who told me he was considered a heathen because he didn’t believe in Christ or anything involving Christianity. But he told me that the Japanese celebrate Christmas because who doesn’t like exchanging gifts and the pretty lights. He told me it was more like Valentines Day for them except most people actually get the day off from work.
Some years ago the Sunday School teachers at our church decided to celebrate “Christmas in many lands” and asked my (Japanese-American) wife if she knew anything about a traditional Japanese Christmas. My wife slowly and carefully explained that Japan was not a Christian nation, did not celebrate Christmas, and the only “traditions” were those brought over by western missionaries.
My wife wasn’t sure if that really sunk in with the teachers.
Here’s a video from one of my favorite You Tubers. He’s a Christian American who is working in Abu Dhabi for the next few months, and he posted this video last month, which is a tour of a local grocery store. TL : DR - I’m posting it here, because it did have a big secular Christmas department. He also didn’t see any pork products for sale, which was something he expected.
I was raised in a Conservative family. Hanukkah meant latkes, lighting the menorah and exchanging presents. Christmas meant going out for Chinese food and a movie. As a child I had Christmas envy. I don’t anymore. I strongly dislike most Christmas music, Christmas movies, interior Christmas decorations (I kinda like the lights on rooftops and lawns). I do LOVE egg nog. I gave my niece her first taste of egg nog when she was three or so. Later she declared “I want UnkUnk milk!”. My sister was trying to explain that you can’t get milk out of my chest when I finally stopped laughing long enough to explain “She means egg nog!”
I did buy my mother the Mensch On The Bench book and doll. Personally, I feel it goes to far toward making Hanukkah into Christmas for Jews. But cheerful kitsch is my mom’s thing.
But did anyone express the opinion that Christmas per se is annoying to non-Christians?
Once I was in Israel over Yom Kippur and I suppose I could say it was “annoying” that restaurants and stuff and even most convenience stores were closed, but honestly it was none of my business what people wanted to do, and no one tried to force me to pray or anything like that. Diwali did not bother me either. Nor Chinese New Year.
IMHO as long as you are not forced to participate, there isn’t a problem.
I was raised in a Reform Jewish family. We celebrated Hanukkah every year, with a menorah, gifts, latkes, etc., but we also had a Christmas tree, so we kids didn’t feel left out (we lived in a 99+% Christian community). The tree got smaller every year, until it was a tiny tree on a bookcase, then disappeared entirely.
Now, I’m an atheist who’s married to an atheist who was raised Muslim. We have a Christmas tree for one reason: We like Christmas trees. We don’t celebrate Christmas or any other religious holiday, except in a very secular sense, e.g. making Easter eggs. We love the trappings of the various holidays, separate from their religious significance.
Obviously you can do whatever you want, especially in private, but, speaking hypothetically and in general, I would not discount the possibility that no Christian/Jew/Bokor/Shaman/Tlamacazqui/… would be theoretically bemused or dismayed that you are imitating and appropriating their trappings without a proper appreciation of their religious significance. Unless you do appreciate their religious significance; things like eggs and trees are not even uniquely Christian.
Most ‘Christian’ holiday traditions come from the pagan holidays they were combined with (Christmas trees, yuletide logs, eggs, rabbits, etc) and have little to do with Christianity itself. The only one I can think of at the moment which doesn’t is the manger scene.
A couple of years ago I, and another woman, did a presentation for the adult Sunday school class at my church. It was about foods that different cultures or countries eat at Christmas. As you said, Japan celebrates it in a secular way. I made a cake that is popular. It’s a sponge cake with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. This goes with KFC, as a “traditional” Christmas meal.
Here is one of many recipes for the cake to be found online.
I celebrate Hanukah by making latkes every year. A lot of latkes, I take the show on the road when I can visiting workplaces and schools along with my son to knock out a 100 or more latkes on your lunch hour. Everybody loves latkes. We used to make Easter eggs for the kids, but they really just wanted candy. I think we should have the traditional rabbit dinner on Easter but I get voted down every year.
This is very true. The nativity scene was invented by St.Francis of Assisi, as a catechetical instrument, and the original one was live. The other one I can think of is Las Posadas, a tradition in Mexico and among immigrants from there (one was celebrated in my church, which was more than half Spanish-speaking). It involves a nightly costumed procession re-enacting Mary and Joseph seeking room at the inn and being rejected.
I spent two Christmases in Jordan, and the day passed pretty much as an unnoticed work day. For the visible Christian minority, they could easily schedule it as a day off work, and it was considered an excused school absence. A few stores specialized in western groceries and would have decorations.
I was also in Singapore as a tourist on Christmas, and it appeared to be a normal work-day as well. No real effort to turn it into anythind.
