I was told I could repost this due to some technical difficulties in a combine of a duplicate thread.
I went to my dentist this afternoon and we got to talking about what we were going to do for the holidays. He is an athiest and I am pagan. He said he was going to come in to work and catch up on end of the year paperwork. I told him that I was likely going to eat chinese food and go to a movie. The following conversation went a little like this:
Dentist: I didn’t know you were Jewish?
Me: I’m not, there just aren’t many things open. I will likely be going out with Jewish friends.
Dentist: I’ll probably see a movie afterwards too.
I found it interesting that he automatically thought I was Jewish. Though, I have heard from my Jewish friends and many others that movies and chinese food are the “traditional Jewish Christmas.” So, what are you guys going to do?"
I am not religious. I am told that where I live (Britain) is mostly secular (not fully sure what that means) yet as a nation we participate fully in christmas festivities. I do too, (well I buy and recieve presents, and eat christmas dinner)
I am actually working over christmas, not that it bothers me. For my own sake I would be happy to live in a world without crimbo, but in a [formerly] christian society such as britain I think it should be kept indefinately for the kids, kids who for the most part are not fully aware of it’s religious connections, but look forward to it more than anything else in the year.
I think the usual assumption is that if you’re not doing Christmas, you’re Jewish. It seems a bit silly, but there are worse ideas than going to a movie and eating Chinese…
THANK YOU for reposting! I remembered posting in that thread, then went looking for it a couple hours later, and I could not find it! It was running me NUTS!
Anyway, couple athiests here. We’re going to watch movies like Blackadder’s Christmas Carol and A Muppet Family Christmas and maybe rent Nightmare Before Christmas and A Muppet Christmas Carol. Opening presents, eating candy, and eating food are all on the agenda. Though we celebrated Festivus yesterday, too.
“Crimbo” is something I just tend to wait out (Lobsang, thanks for sharing that term for it!). I don’t have anything against the celebration, even though I’m non-Christian. Just don’t have the family of my own to share it with.
Just going to potter around the house today, finishing up stuff that needs to be done. And watch the boards here.
We’re a couple of, well, atheists is inaccurate because we don’t care either way enough to warrant a title. Apatheists maybe?
We exchanged presents and went out for dinner with the family 200 miles away last weekend. We did it that way because my wife works on the 26th, and it would have been too much driving and too brief visiting to do it on Xmas.
On Xmas day, we’ll probably do the same thing we do every day - the Mrs. will spend some time on the RPG where she is an administrator, and I will continue to try and remaster the 35 gigs of records on my hard drive and get them onto CD-Rs. And read the SDMB.
We will not listen to any Xmas music.
Happy whatever you celebrate (or don’t) this time of year to everyone!
I have nothing against Christmas, but it just don’t ring my bell. I’ll admit that I love giving people gifts, especially the ones that make their eyes go wide, and makes 'em say “Oh, COOL!” when they open 'em. It’s just that, well, I’m a hereditary athiest, and I tend to give ‘just because’ gifts, so I find this whole season a bit of an excuse for gluttony, avarice, and mean-heartedness to one’s fellow man on the roads and in the malls. Also, there isn’t anyone in my life I’d call a loved one, simply because my family and I aren’t that close, nor do we get along that well.
So, once a year, we go through the motions: We eat too much together, avoid my grandmother together, open gifts that we all struggled to buy because none of us really knows each other that well together… Strangely, it doesn’t at all disappoint me or depress me. As a decidedly non-religious person (or at least, as someone who’d check off the ‘undecided’ box in a national survey on the subject), there’s no real spiritual significance to the day for me. I dig the food, and the lights and the ornaments are sweet and nostalgic and festive, but apart from that, there ain’t too much in it for me. I do find it odd, though, that this year I feel somewhat annoyed that I can’t go to work tomorrow, and make some headway on that big project that’ll be plaguing me in the new year.
I do hope, though, that all who read this are enjoying the holidays as best they can. May the best of the season and of the new year come to you and yours.
I’m not doing anything for Christmas except revise Biology. For the record, I loathe the science of biology. I’m not Christian, I’m a non-practising Hindu, and for me it’s a little irritating (actually, a lot irritating) that everyone around me is so keen on Christmas. I would actually like a tree, and maybe some decorations, and possibly a present or two (I buy them for my friends, but not my family), but it’s not really possible because I live with my parents who are apathetic about the whole thing. I suppose there’s nothing stopping me from doing some of my own decorating, but if it’s only me who really cares about it, it all feels rather lame.
I guess we’re apatheists, too – thanks for the term, fishbicycle! – and are going to just have a quiet day, open a few gifts and eat a nice dinner and then probably do something exciting like clean the house. Papa Tiger just got home from an overnight shift, so we won’t be doing any of it till he wakes up some time this afternoon. Which is fine by me; the dogs don’t know or care that it’s Christmas, they got their dog food! again for breakfast so are thrilled, and otherwise it’s just quiet and peaceful.
We did listen to Christmas music at work this week, but for the most part good stuff – and of course had to top it all off with Louis Armstrong singing “It’s Christmas in New Orleans.” Which, since we are in New Orleans, was actually quite appropriate…
One of my oldest shildhood friends is in town (more or less) from SF with her husband and one-year-old, who I haven’t met yet (the one-year-old, that is; I’ve met the husband). As soon as the tub fills up, I’m getting dressed and heading up to her mom’s farm in WI to see them, and her mom, and the dogs. Lots of girlie bonding in store! I’m psyched.
I like Christmas; love the music, and love the fact that I get to participate in all my friends’ celebrations without the psychoemotional baggage that comes with my own family holidays.
Well, on Sunday The Cody and I went to see LotR 3, ate a nice steak dinner, then came home and exchanged presents. Stayed up to watch the sun rise on the new year (in my wierd little religion, the new year begins the day after Solstice - but I still say 2003 when someone asks me, heh).
Today, well . . . I went to my dad’s for about an hour, then came home and got online while The Cody plays Bloodrayne. Woo!
I’m almost an atheist (thanks God I’m not a full one), I was born and raised catholic but nowadays I don’t care about the religious stuff. But I like the figure of Jesus Christ, his story and all his philosophy. And I like Christmas too, not because of the mistic aspect but because now it have turned to be a time of peace, joy and happiness, no matter what religion are you in, if where you are the celebrations are going.
The night of 24, I get a dinner with my family and later I get out with my friends. Half of 25 I spent it sleeping and then we reunite again.
Even though I am somewhat of a quasi-deist, me and the family typically put up a tree and lights on the house, open up gifts on the 24th and 25th, and there’s usually a huge meal somewhere in the festivities.
If anything, Christmas to me is just a great way to celebrate the golden rule.
I dislike both the religious and secular aspects of xmas, so I just don’t participate. I don’t give gifts, and politely refuse to accept them. I become a social hermit this time of year to avoid all the bogus joviality. So I’ve got no shopping hassles, no family hassles, and since I’ve avoided booze and overeating all month I’ve lost 13 pounds.
Sounds like I wasn’t the only one. I actually avoided the movie. One of my other pagan friends came over and we had dinner together. We had planned on going to a movie but the one we wanted to see started too late for him since he had to work today.
