# Non-Christians and Christmas **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 4, 2015, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392 "2015-12-04T06:00:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/61 "2015-12-06T03:00:01Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > 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. > … > Besides, Christmas is so ubiquitous here that it’s basically impossible to avoid it completely without feeling like some kind of Dickensian miser. Yep. Christmas is the most prominent holiday in my country; it would seem downright weird to ignore it. To the extent that I think of a “reason for the season,” it’s a pre-Christian natural/seasonal one, and I’ll call it Yule or Solstice to people who get that. But it’s not really a different thing than the (largely, more-or-less) secular “Christmas” most folks I know actually do. It’s not wrong to call it Christmas, and to share wishes for a merry one. ---
**Author:** ![pidgeon92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/50afbb/32.png) [@pidgeon92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pidgeon92)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/62 "2015-12-06T03:27:17Z")
I’m an atheist - I always have been - and I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of the year. If I had my druthers, it would be at the end of January, so there’d be something to look forward to during that horrifically cold month in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/63 "2015-12-06T04:10:58Z")
I’m a convert to Judaism (Orthodox), and I don’t celebrate because duh. The rest of my family is Christian-lite and celebrates. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/64 "2015-12-13T00:24:13Z")
Atheist; I look at it as a time for celebrating with family, about family and togetherness, the religious trappings that come with it are irrelevant to me, and I ignore them, if others in the family want to observe them, fine, as long as they don’t try to force me to participate in their illogical delusions The family “belief” breakdown is like this; Me; Atheist Mom; lapsed believer/Agnostic Sis; Agnostic Nephew; Atheist Niece; Agnostic/Atheist Uncle; believer Aunt; Strong Believer (preacher at local church) We all get along just fine, the religion thing is basically a non issue ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/65 "2015-12-13T00:45:10Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Comedian Tim Minchin has [a rather lovely song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q) about celebrating Christmas as an atheist. I’m a Christian and I thought that this was beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Ana12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@Ana12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana12)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/66 "2015-12-13T01:39:59Z")
We cerebrate December 24th having a nice little family dinner with polish food (I’m Polish so that’s what people in Poland do), and then the next day again we have a family +friends dinner at our house or we go to over to somebody’s house. A little different thing is that we give each others gifts on December 24th after the dinner. We have always somebody who dresses as Santa (kids love it!). But there is absolutely nothing religious about our celebration, we just love the tradition 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/67 "2015-12-13T04:49:32Z")
Atheist, and I celebrate. I love the cultural tradition. One of the nicest things I can think about my culture is that we make our biggest holiday about giving others things and spending time with them, all to try to bring them joy. The closest I come to religion, though, is that when watching The Polar Express, by the end I kinda believe in Santa Claus for a few minutes. But then I have always been enthusiastic about getting lost in movies. No offense, but I dislike seeing Christ drawn into the season. ---
**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 13, 2015, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392/68 "2015-12-13T09:06:07Z")
I was raised Jewish, and my husband was raised Muslim. We’re both atheists, and we celebrate Christmas and other holidays. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-christians-and-christmas/739392.md?page=3)