No, but only 'cause I’m a guy and I live alone. My atheism has nothing to do with it.
I would if any of the following were trure:
If I were living with someone.
If I had more visiters.
If I had a visible front yard where I could put up those annoying blow up decorations.
Sometimes.
I haven’t felt very Christmas-y since my Mom died 10 years ago. It seems pretty pointless now, truthfully, especially since we moved south. Hard for this New Enlander to get in the spirit of things when it’s 60 degrees.
I do like the tiny white lights glowing over the snow though. Which we haven’t had here (more than a dusting anyway) for about 6 years.
Bah. Humbug.
Atheist, married to an atheist but I was brought up nominally Christian.
I love everything about Christmas. I decorate the house and put the tree up on the first weekend in December (or if December starts on a Monday or something hideous it goes up on the last weekend in November). I have a number of different sets of decorations - gold, silver, red, green, blue, purple - and we have a different colour theme every year, along with some decs which go up every year (the ‘every year’ decs). I wrap presents up in the same colour theme. We also have an advent calendar, and I go to one secular and if possible one religious carol type concert every year. No nativity or crib scene, and nothing overtly religious though. I adore Christmas and my husband, bless him, indulges me wonderfully.
Same here, but I’m not Jewish.
I didn’t vote because while I haven’t decorated in the last decade or so, I think I will this year. The apartment I have now is visible to the El tracks, and therefore thousands of people every day. I think it would be fun to put something attention-grabbing in the windows that face the tracks this year.
I still won’t put up a tree due to cats + ornaments = potential disaster. But, I have a mantle now, too, and want to put some stockings up. What I think I will do is wrap lights around the cat tree.
The Tower of London has a number of families that live inside the Tower (the Beefeaters’ families). A few of their home windows are as visible as any window you’d walk past on the street, and there’s one on Walter Raleigh’s balcony (not the official name, but if you’ve been there you’ll know which one I mean) that has really ordinary Christmas decorations in the window. Well, come Christmas, at least. The sparkly stuff you used to get from Woolworth’s.
At other times I’ve seen washing hung up there; it strikes me as the kind of window it’d be difficult to cover without losing a lot of space behind the curtain (it’s at an angle), and those rooms are not big.
Yes, I do. It’s part of my heritage and culture.
Sure we decorate. Our tree is filled with ornaments that range back to 55 years ago; what a great way to remember Christmas Past, and folks and days long gone.
It can become a family glue that enforces our connectedness.
I don’t at home because we’re never here for Christmas. We always fly home to visit our families and I do help my mom decorate.
I am very, very Jewish, so no. I do really nice Sukkah decorations on Sukkot (in the fall), which is probably the most parallel tradition.
It is an objet d’art. I bought it from the artist many years ago. She had a booth at an art frestival with her more tame work on display. I liked what I saw, but nothing really grabbed me. We began talking and she offered to show me some of her work that was not for public consumption.
I do, albeit somewhat reluctantly. My husband was big on the natural tree–I finally talked him out of it last year when it tipped over in the wee hours of Christmas morning and baby’s first Christmas presents were all soaked. We now have a fake tree, which makes me very happy.
I do not decorate for any holiday. I live alone. My first year living alone, I decided to decorate for Christmas, so I went out and bought lights and put 'em up all over my tiny little apartment. I plugged 'em in and gazed at the pretty lights for a while. Then I unplugged them and went to bed. For the next couple weeks until Christmas, I’d come home, forget that I’d put up a bunch of lights and wouldn’t bother to plug 'em in. I care so little for Christmas that I can’t even be bothered to remember that I actually own decorations and could enjoy them if I wanted to.
Then I realized: For whom am I doing this? I don’t care; I can’t even be bothered to turn the damn lights on for a couple hours. It was a pain in my ass to put 'em up, it’ll be a pain in my ass to take 'em back down and find a storage spot for them (storage was at a premium back in the day). Why am I bothering? I don’t give a shit.
So I quit decorating for anything. Some years, I put up fake “stockings” with my pets’ names and pix on them, but even that is sort of retarded because I’m looking at and petting the live animal sitting right next to me. Why do I need to put up a picture of the same animal five feet away from where it hangs out? None of that makes any sense, so I just. don’t.
I do. I love Christmas. I love it because kids love it. I love it because my extended family always celebrated it - with a feast, with decorations and presents. What is better than feasts, decorations and presents - all at the gloomiest depths of winter?
These days, together with my wife, I’m the one who has to do the work - to get the tree, to hang the decor, to prepare the feast and buy the presents. But it is all worth it, because my son is four going on five, with lots of cousins of similar ages, and what four or five year old doesn’t love Christmas?
The fact that Christmas is a Christian holiday doesn’t bother me in the least. Half of my ancestors (and all of my wife’s ancestors) were Christian. Even if they were not, or if it was (say) a Hindu holiday (none of my ancestors were Hindu, far as I know), I’d still love it just the same. For me, it is all about celebrating with family and friends, and particularly with the children.
Putting up menorahs is a lot less work than putting up a Christmas tree (I grew up Christian, and have done both). You bring the menorahs up from the basement, find a place to plug in the electric one, find places in the living room for the candle ones where the cats aren’t likely to bother them, and that’s it. I’m lazy, so this appeals to me.
Atheist. I string up lights, play secular holiday music, drink eggnog, and maybe put up a printout of a tree. I have Xmas tree earrings and a shirt with a snowflake on the front. I like all the spending time with family/friends, giving gifts, and feeling like I’m getting in the spirit. Anything that doesn’t have to do with the J-man is fair game.
Seconded; it’s even harder when it’s 80 degrees. When I first moved to Arizona it was November, and as soon as the holidays began I was thinking something’s not right here - the desert just doesn’t fit the decor of the winter holidays.
I miss snow.