# Happy Whatever: what are you celebrating this season? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568 "2013-12-17T17:21:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/21 "2013-12-19T07:05:40Z")
Celebrating? Nothing. Acknowledging? Christmas, that family gift-exchanging holiday. And then New Year’s. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/22 "2013-12-19T08:15:04Z")
I will be celebrating the end of the “Christmas Season”. Bah, humbug!! Seriously, we will have a very low key Christmas celebration this year. If not for the grand kids, we would not celebrate at all. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/23 "2013-12-19T13:30:16Z")
Io Saturnalia! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/24 "2013-12-19T13:43:29Z")
Winter Solstice with the peers, although I don’t think we’re doing a formal Circle this year. As we’ve hit our late 30’s, we’ve realized we value each others’ company more than the bells and whistles of formal ritual, so many of our Sabbats are just get-togethers with mead and hugs. I also clicked “Christmas,” because that’s how I still think of it, but it’s solidly the secular version. My mother’s hosting our small dinner, which will consist of a Buddhist (her), a Muslim (her neighbor/handyman whose wife and kids will be out of town), a Pagan (my husband) an Agnostic Pagan (me) an Agnostic Atheist (my son), an Agnostic Santaist (my 8 year old daughter) and the dog, who worships food. The only recognition of religion is that we’re not having ham or other pork products so that her neighbor can enjoy the whole meal. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/25 "2013-12-19T14:30:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Just have a hit of whatever’s in the Kwanzaa chalice. :smack: Should’a listed Kwanzaa! ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/26 "2013-12-19T20:13:04Z")
I do secular Christmas with friends, Hanukkah with my father’s family, Winter Solstice with my close friends and for myself, plus “other”–my birthday is the 24th. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SuperSmartAlex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@SuperSmartAlex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperSmartAlex)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/27 "2013-12-19T21:33:29Z")
Jesus’, Dionysus’, Newton’s and my birthday ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/28 "2013-12-19T22:14:55Z")
Next holiday I care about isn’t until May. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/29 "2013-12-20T03:20:51Z")
It’s **Lendervedder**. **Happy Lendervedder**. I’m sure he hasn’t been by, with that thread title. 🙂 I voted nothing, because that’s what I normally do. But I also included Saturnalia, because I was actually invited to a Saturnalia Eve feast this year. Seven courses of fish, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/30 "2013-12-20T05:26:54Z")
I dunno, I tend to think of “Solstice” as a secular holiday… maybe that’s just me. I’ll be celebrating Yule, the spiritual version of Solstice. So whatever you figure that is. 🙂 I’ll be around my family while they celebrate Christmas, too, although it’s not my holiday, so I don’t know if that “counts” or not. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/31 "2013-12-20T17:33:22Z")
We do secular Christmas. My family also calls our holiday Potato Day, in response to all of the bickering over the “right” holiday greetings in recent years. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/32 "2013-12-20T17:56:25Z")
Christmas. Not secular. I’ll reply to any holiday greeting, though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/33 "2013-12-20T18:00:25Z")
My partner, who was raised Muslim, calls his tree a “Hanukkah Bush.” I, who was raised Jewish, had called mine an “Atheist Tree,” then I noticed that there were indeed a few vaguely Christmas-related decorations on it, so now call it an “Agnostic Tree.” ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/34 "2013-12-20T18:06:29Z")
Our tradition here is to celebrate everything as much as possible. So, I clicked on Solstice and Saturnalia. We will light a bonfire in the meadow at sunset to mark the passage of the longest night and there will be folks tending it, drumming and drinking … and other things until Sol returns tomorrow morning at 0739. I don’t have small children and my grandchildren all live far away, so Christmas is a bittersweet holiday that I mostly ignore. I will call my mother and brother, but that is about it. But tonight and tomorrow? Yes. That will be fun. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve already opened a 3 year old jug of mead. Quite good if I say so myself. "ETHEREAL father, mighty Titan, hear, Great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere: " ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/35 "2013-12-21T17:58:11Z")
> [@SuperSmartAlex](#): > > Jesus’, Dionysus’, Newton’s and my birthday Me too. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568/36 "2013-12-22T04:04:31Z")
Happy New Year! movie in afternoon, lots of snacks and games in evening, banging pots and pans at midnight, exchanging gifts on New Year’s Day. Best New Year’s days. When I was stationed in Turkey. Eating breakfast at 8 am and watching the New York City Ball Drop on TV. Good night’s sleep, special breakfast. Civilized. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-whatever-what-are-you-celebrating-this-season/676568.md?page=1)