I don’t celebrate this season anymore.
Haven’t in a a long time.
I like to look at the lights people put up.
Always happy to see January come.
i celebrate christmas on a different date.
some call dec. 25th santa day and it is more yule oriented. i consider dec. 25th a kind of second thanksgiving with solstice/yule decorations and gifts.
I remain Jewish. A few years back, I realised the only way modern Chrisrmas could offend me more would be if I were Christian.
The woman I love is Christian and is crazy about Christmas. She keeps her artificial tree up all year. We will almost certainly be going to Philly’s Christmas Village again this year. I wil buy German and Colombian freshly baked food there.
However, I am mental for egg nog. When I went grocery shopping in late October and saw the store was already selling egg nog, it bugged me. It was much too eary for that. Of course, I bought some. By the next morning, I was out of egg nog.
I love egg nog, but drink mine with a bourbon chaser.
egg nog is the best! i haven’t seen it in the stores yet. i will check wawas on the way home tonight.
I don’t “celebrate” the season as much as endure it. If someone invites me over ro their place for a Christmas dinner and wants to get all religious that’s fine and I wont fuss or be offended, out of respect for them. But no thanks to the over-consumption, over-eating, over-drinking, over the top fake happness this time of the year brings. Yeah, bah-effing-humbug.
Exactly! I remember when I was a kid, and everythign was fun.
The goddamn (how appropriate!) American Taliban can’t force me to be a believer, so I’m just going to keep on keepin on, looking at lights, watching Christmas movies, listening to Christmas music, and imaging the world is nice.
Pissing off delicate poor put-upon snowflake Christians, it’s the reason for the season!
Look, let’s face it. We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.
As others have said, the holiday (pretty lights, special foods, time off work with family) is pretty secular. I’ve been celebrating Jesus-free Christmas since I was a child in the 1970s (my parents were raised to be religious, but it didn’t take).
Anyone who needs me to profess belief or to pray can fuck right off, without any Christmas cookies.
As I mention each year when these threads start happening, to many of us who are not even nominally Christian, the holiday of Christmas is fundamentally a Christian holiday. Even if the artifacts of the holiday are non-religious, those non-religious aspects are Christian. They’re certainly not Jewish although I’m aware that some Jews partake in them. I would never put up a tree, exchange presents, cook a big meal, put up lights or decorations if not for the fact that I’m married to a Christian. They are not part of my heritage.
But I don’t begrudge anyone who does, I enjoy looking at the lights, and there are several Christmas songs I love.
As a firm atheist, I consider Christmas in the US to be a nominally religious holiday that’s been eaten by commercialism and secular traditions; much to its improvement IMHO. Basically Saturnalia’s revenge. From what I recall reading it used to be all grim and guilt-ridden and about contemplating how sinful you were and how awful the world is; even the shallowest commercialism is better than that.
My wife told me last year that my constant bitching about Christmas was stressing everyone out. Especially since we weren’t actually doing anything ourselves. So, I’ve mellowed about what other people might be doing (a tree before Thanksgiving!!?!) and just enjoy the time off and a fire in the fireplace. Some of the kids and grandkids are coming over for New Years, so that will be nice.
They’re part of my heritage, and I have never been Christian. I suppose I’m post-Christian, in that my ancestors were Christian, but I disagree that they are fundamentally Christian. Diachronically, a lot of these things derive from Germanic cultural behaviours that have more to do with winter than Jesus, but since our cultural memory of Christmas (i.e. how we celebrate it now) is only about 200 years old, it’s all Christian in origin.
It’s hard to argue, though, that the modern retail madness has religious roots. Playing Christmas music in public spaces for two months leading up to Christmas, and then abruptly switching back to pop on the second day of Christmas, isn’t particularly religious.
Suffice it to say that all of Christmas up through WWII came through a Christian filter, but the 20th century combination of pop culture and mass media, as well as secular cultural influences, has meant that Christmas has been only partly-to-mostly religious for the last 75 years. YMMV depending on location and personal religiosity.
AFAIK This was only true during the Victorian era and for some time after. For a long time, Christmas in Europe was a day of drunken revelry. Carolers did go from house to house. But they demanded food and booze for their singing. Remember that when the Puritans came to America, they banned public Christmas celebrations. We all know that the Puritans were strongly in favor of being grim and guilt-ridden. They were also strongly against wild, drunken parties.
I wouldn’t get out of it. I’d just make a point of making it a multifaith celebration. Hannukah overlaps this year, which would make that easy – get a menorah into an uncurtained street-facing window, where it belongs. You could mix in some non-religious solstice stuff, too.
This ought to be the country where you can celebrate anything you want, with or without any religion attached – Christianity included but not exclusive. And we sorely need some light shining in darkness this year. So celebrate that.
Christ isn’t a name, it’s a title.
It’s a Christian celebration. But no reason any particular party can’t mix that up with other things.
They’re sure as hell trying to.
I hope they don’t pull it off. I haven’t given up hope yet.
I do. In some cases, to a midnight service. People who do that are then home (or out visiting) during the day.
Fuck them. The only thing I can control over the next 4 years is doing my best to live my life as best I can. And I and my family - staunch capital A Atheists all - enjoy x-mas. Or, should I say - winter solstice celebrations! 
We enjoy putting up a tree, putting lights outside, decorating the house, having friends and family over, eating holiday foods, singing and playing holiday music… The fuckers are gonna ruin so much that I value, I’m not gonna let them take THIS away from me.
Just today I copied and my wife bound music for our string quartet - 2 Atheists, one nondenom guy who believes too much woo, and 1 Jew.
Thanks all. It sounds like we’re mostly on the same page. This befucked election has gotten to me and I feel this petty need to let people know what I think of religion, which I realize is unproductive. I like the idea of bringing other practices into it. Maybe I can find a recipe for some strong Saturnalia punch or something.
I know many people who do, and have quite modest celebrations–some of my coworkers would give their kids the opportunity to donate to a charity as their gift. These aren’t the people who voted for the Face-Eating Leopard Party, and they’re shocked at the outcome of the election, especially as it might affect women and minorities. I’ve gone to Mass with some of them and talked about church history afterward.
I wasn’t raised with religion. My lovely wife and her family celebrate a secular Christmas, nothing over the top. I wear socks with a winter theme on Christmas morning; I tend toward socks depicting reindeer and snowflakes, while some of them wear those featuring Christmas trees or strings of lights. My lovely wife often wears her Hawaiian “Mele Kalikimaka” tee shirt. 80% of this immediate family are gay, and we’re in general agreement about most social issues.
As I see it the US is about to be taken over by “Rich White America First”, the abortion policy was the price they paid to dupe many Christians to vote for them. Many of the most influential Christian leaders in the USA are false teachers proclaiming a prosperity gospel which fits very well with “Rich White America First”.
I consider myself to be culturally Christian without any of the religion. I grew up celebrating chocolate, candy and bunnies at Easter and Santa, lights, tree, and presents at Christmas. I will be celebrating this year the same way we always have. Eating and drinking too much, seeing family, and exchanging gifts.
I will be celebrating it the secular way with some friends.