You knew this thread was coming:). So explain why you celebrate or don’t celebrate Christmas, what you do, and if your opinions have changed over the years.
Where’s the choice for “Kinda-sorta celebrate, but also kinda-sort don’t”?
Right there with He Hey Paula: I enjoy the season, I buy gifts, I send out cards, and I get together with my family for festivities and TONS AND TONS OF FOOD! We usually watch some version of “A Christmas Carol.” (I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve read it!)
But…no, we don’t celebrate “Christmas.” We do the secular stuff. The fun stuff. Tree and decorations. No creche, no advent calendar, no reading from Luke.
(We do angels, because my sister loves angels. But my b.i.l. loves mermaids in very much the same way, plus bare breasts. Show me angels with bare breasts, and life would be that much better!)
Pagan here. I celebrate Yule with my family, not Christmas.
I do take part in ‘secret santas’ and ‘white elephants’ though - they’re fun!
I’ve never celebrated it, but I used to really *enjoy *Christmastime back when I lived in New York. All the pretty lights!
The concept of “it’s dark, miserable and cold outside, so let’s combat that by celebrating, eating nice food and spending time with family” makes perfect sense to me without being religious at all. My parents are atheists as well, so I never really thought if it as a religious thing, even though I know it is to most people.
Besides, Christmas is so ubiquitous here that it’s basically impossible to avoid it completely without feeling like some kind of Dickensian miser.
I’m Jewish, why would I celebrate? I do help my wife (who was raised Catholic) celebrate but I don’t really participate.
I want to go simply when I go.
They’ll give me a simple funeral there, I know.
With a hundred strolling strings,
And topless dancers with golden wings;
Oh, take me when I’m gone to Forest Lawn.
–Tom Paxton
Not very Christmassy, I’ll concede.
Define “celebrate”.
We have time off from work, so we invite friends over and eat/drink to excess.
Atheists who grew up Christian and were in the habit of celebrating are in a different category from those who grew up not celebrating.
I was raised in a family of non-religious Jews and we mostly ignored it. Sometimes the kids got presents around Christmas, although they were usually called Chanuka presents. But we never had a tree, adults never gave gifts to each other and there was no exchange of Christmas cards. My wife’s upbringing was similar, although I think her first family would have a small Christmas tree. After her parents divorced and she and her mother remarried a very religious man, there would have been none of that. So neither of us had any tradition of celebrating Christmas and we continued that without any discussion. No tree, no gifts and no cards. It works for us.
My sister married into an Italian family. About 20 years ago, she mentioned to me that they gave to various members of her husband’s family gifts worth at least $2000 every year and received gifts of similar value. In particular, they had to give her MIL and gift of value at least $500 and got a similar gift.
This struck me as absurd. It means that much, maybe all, of their luxury spending during the year is done by others and not necessarily to their taste. When we give birthday gifts to our grandchildren, we usually send cash since that was always what I wanted to receive and do with it what I wanted. Of course, this is also a bit lf laziness on our part since we don’t know what they have the hearts set on.
Now imagine if my sister and her MIL had simply exchanged checks for $500 and you see how absurd the whole tradition is (or, at any rate, seems to me). Yet such “gifts” would probably had more interest than what they actually got. Not to mention all the mental effort into figuring out what a suitable gift worth $500 would have been every year.
On the other hand, I can see that a tree is beautiful and festive, although not enough to actually get one.
Atheist, and of course I celebrate it. For me it’s cultural, with a looong history in my country which stretches back way beyond Christianity rolling into town.
The tree, the lights, the holly, the Christmas pudding, none of these have much to do with the birth of Christ.
I do enjoy a carol though. So sue me.
I’m non-Christian and I “celebrate” it about as much as everyone else. Why wouldn’t I? It’s not really a religious holiday. Remember that the Pilgrims of the early American colonies strictly refused to recognize the holiday as a holy day because it’s not mentioned in the Bible.
Plus it’s fun to see all of the lights and decorations (although I’m not a fan of the houses that go overboard on the outside decorations). And when I was a kid in public school, the carols were fun to sing.
I don’t celebrate X-mas because I don’t really have much of a family to celebrate it with. When I was married I would celebrate it with my wifes family, but after she passed I stopped celebrating it again.
Oh and to me the link between “Christ” and “Christ-mas” is tenuous at best. From what I understand Jesus was born in the summer, so it’s not about celebrating his birth. It seems to be a pagan winter solstice celebration that was hijacked by the church in order to convert the northern pagans. Either way I’m not that fond of consumerism, and I don’t have any children that needs tricking into magical beliefs so…
*bolding mine.
That’s exactly what Christmas is so you do celebrate it.
Pagan from a fairly non-religious Protestant background. Of course we celebrate! In fact, since we celebrate the Solstice also, I get to celebrate twice.
Ditto. Yeah, I’m an atheist, but it’s cold and dark, and I like shiny lights, and presents, and food.
I even went to church with my mom on Christmas Eve last year. The church did not fall down, and I did not go up in flames. 
Formerly Jewish Atheist married to formerly Christian atheist, and we celebrate, because that is how she grew up. Easier for us because I had no traditions I had to merge with hers. No religion involved at all. We celebrate the true meaning of Christmas - giving stuff to each other and the kids.
Before I got married I did not celebrate it at all.
I’m an atheist who has, as much as possible, opted out of any Christmas shenanigans. My mother-in-law still gets me a big can of cashews and a few other little things as does my brother-in-law. My parents send my wife and I $100 no matter how often I tell them to stop.
But my inlaws have a pretty big dinner similar to Thanksgiving and I pitch in my part (usually a ham or turkey) on that.
I also don’t attend my company holiday parties, but that’s got more to do with having better things to do with my time.
Yes, it would help to know if “Christmas” for this poll is defined as including the religious stuff or just all the general holiday festivities. I celebrate “Giftmas” which includes a tree, decorations, lights, presents, food, and cookies. But that would be identical to a definition of Christmas that does not include any religious aspects, so. Up to you.