My whole immediate family is atheist (brother and I were raised that way), and we do celebrate Christmas and Easter. We like Christmas trees and colored lights and presents and chocolate. I really don’t see any reason why that would be weird or wrong. My friends who do come from religious families don’t seem to see Christmas and Easter as religious holidays either - maybe they go to church with their grandparents, but other than that they do the same things we do, and Christmas is mostly about presents and family for them too. As has already been said, Christmas is so secularized anyway that there isn’t any reason for atheists not to celebrate it.
Christmas is a great time to come together with family and exchange gifts and eat wonderful food (my family’s women are great cooks) until we’re about ready to explode. Nothing religious at all, and none of my mom’s side (the side I usually have holidays with) is especially religious.
Easter I pretty much just give a pass these days. I might get some candy but that’s about it. My brothers and I used to hunt eggs and get little presents back when we were just kids, though. Again, it was never a religious observance for us.
And that’s about it. Neither Halloween nor Thanksgiving are even ostensibly religious anymore: Halloween is traditional* and Thanksgiving is historical. The only other holiday I really celebrate is the Fourth of July, another historical holiday, and that’s just to barbecue something and shoot off fireworks with relatives.
*(Meaning its origins are completely lost on most people. If pressed, they might mumble something about old beliefs about ghosts or similar, but the majority of Americans don’t know anything more specific.)
At the ripe old age of 63, I just put up my first Xmas tree. I got a beautiful 7.5-ft. artificial one with 800 white lights, then added three strings of blinking ones. I’ve been thinking of getting a tree for the past few years, so have been buying ornaments the day after Christmas, when they’re on sale. Man, a 7.5-ft. tree takes a whole lot of ornaments!
For some reason both of my cats like to lie under the tree when it’s lit. Gotta take some pics of them.
I spend the day walking the streets alone, muttering and cursing to my fellow man - the few I can find - before retiring at dark to a stable where I drink pernod from the bottle, dressed in oily swaddling clothes, with just the cows’ lowing for conversation.
I enjoy the 4 day weekend at Easter and enjoy the days off at Christmas with my family and friends.
Everyone needs a break every now and then.
I love me some Christmas. The trees are pretty. Presents all wrapped up with bows are pretty. Even the fake ones under the tree at work - there could be something in them, you don’t know. Lights sparkling off the snow (hopefully) are pretty. I love ham.
I wish Christmas was, like, at the end of January so we could spend more of the winter anticipating it. As it is, the season now starts too early and overlaps too many other holidays to really settle down and enjoy it. People just go “Well, that turkey was nice. Let’s spend the next month at the mall, or circling the parking lot of the mall, or in a traffic jam on the road outside the mall.”
If Christmas was at the end of January, we could relax into it more, and then once it was done, there wouldn’t be too much of the “cold dark slow boring” part of winter left before we could start anticipating spring.
Note that this would also require moving New Years to mid-February. I believe there is precedent for this, and then we could also eliminate Valentine’s Day, which is just horrible.
My partner claims to not do Christmas at all. This is our first year together, so I’m going to attempt to un-scrooge her.
Any holiday that provides me with an excuse to buy candy for 75% off the day after is something I will gladly celebrate. I will celebrate double if I also get a day off from work in the process.
Heck, my co-worker’s dad is a rabbi and they still put up a Christmas tree at home every year.
I’m not Christian, but not an atheist either. Brainiac4 is.
We celebrate Christmas and - to a less extent - Easter. But Christmas is a huge deal for everyone on both sides (Easter is a ‘my Catholic family’ holiday and the kids do the egg and Easter basket thing).
I celebrate xmas because I like it. Presents, cookies, etc.
But I celebrate all other holidays that I get the day off for, by uh…taking the day off.
July 4th doesn’t count, we blow stuff up and drink beer.
I celebrate Christmas for the benefit of my child, but otherwise I would care about holidays. Nice chance to see family though.
Wow it is nice to see a lot of people with a similair view of the upcoming holidays.
So here’s a followup question:
What do you think about stores with Christmas decorations? According to the news stories we get every year it seems like something that offends a group of people.
Personally, I think the decorations go up a bit too early. But the stores are hurting; I understand.
Are those “stories” from people who are really offended? Or from the “There’s A War On Christmas”* folks who claim to be persecuted? Got a link?
- Of course, the TAWOC folks are direct spiritual descendants of the folks who really were against Christmas–the blue-nosed Puritans who thought it a Romish celebration with Pagan roots.
I hate this fake snow. This garland. This tree. This decoration, whatever you want to call it, I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the tinsel, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste its stink and every time I do, I fear that I’ve somehow been infected by it.
I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify Christmas and I realized that it’s not actually a holiday. Every holiday on this planet has developed a national purpose to provide a day off, but Christmas does not. It sets unreasonable religious and commercial expectations that multiply and multiply until all common sense is consumed and the only way you can maintain your solvency is to cut up your credit cards. There is another entity on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? Relatives. Christmas is like your inlaws, a drain on your wallet. You give them your wage, but why, you’re not sure.
I celebrate Christmas - I love gift giving! I celebrate 1/2 off candy day (the day after Easter).
I’m not exactly atheist - I dunno.
They don’t get offended by decorations in stores. Usually the objections pertain to public property or state buildings. When it comes to stores, the offended ones have been from armband Christians objecting to stores de-emphasizing the religious aspects of Christmas (signs that say “happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” for instance, inspire outrage and cries of persecution from conservative media demagogues).
Personally, Christmas decorations do not bother me in the slightest, though I think the displays start ridiculously early. I do hate the music, though. Not for religious reasons (the classical religious stuff tends to be the only stuff that’s tolerable), just because it sucks.
I celebrate Christmas because i always have, though it has never had any religious significance to me or as far as i can tell anyone in my family. As for Christmas decorations go, I really don’t care about them. The shops can do what they like.
I think Christmas has gone long past being just a Christian holiday anyway.
Celebration of public holidays and long weekends is a religion that even atheists can subscribe to. It’s the Australian way! 
Seriously though, hubby comes from a non-religious (1/2 atheist, 1/2 agnostic) family, and I usually catch up with them at Christmas time since they’re more fun. My family, on the other hand, are supposedly religious but Christmastime with them is always about arguments, drama, drinking too much and generally being at odds with each other. Bleh!
So I guess you could say I, an atheist, ‘celebrate’ Christmas with the agnostics and the atheists… we have a good time. It’s as good an excuse as any to catch up, and we like giving presents and eating rich foods and singing karaeoke. (Perhaps the last bit’s not really traditional.)
Christmas in our atheist (me)/pantheist(him) home is spent with us, the cats, and a dvd marathon (this year it will be A&E’s Nero Wolfe). We exchange single malts and chocolates. We do not answer the phone. So yes, we celebrate the day with our own traditions.
Holiday decorations don’t bother me, mostly because I rarely visit stores during the holiday season, other than grocery stores. We don’t do the trees and lights thing, although I will put up a balsam swag over the door.
I’m not an atheist but figured I’d chime in…
I’m a Hindu and my family has celebrated Christmas since before I was born. It’s practically tradition. We used to do an Easter egg hunt when i was little, but then once i got older we didn’t really celebrate that one any more.