That’s…a really good comparison. Wish I’d thought of it.
I don’t give a shit what you do on December 25th. Just don’t tell me I’m getting the day off to celebrate the birthday of someone I doubt was ever born and to think it’s a holy day.
I don’t think it’s a holy day, so why would I tell you to think it is? I think it’s a time when I don’t have school and my husband gets the day off work. I claim Christmas as part of my culture and I don’t care if it’s part of yours. If you try to take it away, I’ll be pissed. It’s mine. Keep your hands off.
I would if the subject of the thread boiled down to finding folks complaning that the words “united” and/or “states” are objectionable.
You can call it anything you like, even if its official federal designation is “Lazy Dumbass Motherfuckers” Day. You can make little paper hats and sit in your own feces and pray to a three-headed pony, if you like. As long as the federal holiday is not named in honor of your deity, I have no problem with anything you do in private, whether as a valuable cultural practice or just as a lazy dumbass motherfucker.
Try reading the rest of his post.
My deity?
Try reading the Supreme Court’s decision. Their opinion generally means a tad more than some anonymous guy on the internet.
Or don’t, and continue to look silly.
The deity you are acknowledging by allowing his name to be used by your government in designating a federal holiday.
Generally, that’s true. But there are instances where the Supreme Court has been in error, morally and legally, for decades, such as in acknowledging the legitmacy of slavery, and anonymous objectors to its rulings were correct, and I believe this is one of those instances.
You’re hilarious. I am an atheist. I celebrate Christmas. You are the one who wants to change the name for what you do, so you go ahead and call it something else for yourself. I will call it Christmas and continue to celebrate it, in all my atheist glory. And when I talk to people who also celebrate Christmas, they will know what I mean when I say “I celebrate Christmas.” Just as when I talk to people and say “I am married” they know what I mean, without any reference to anyone’s deity ever being necessary.
The fact that you are adding all sorts of baggage to a word that doesn’t have religious baggage for me is so not my problem. Just as it is not my problem if you add religious baggage to the word “marriage.” I don’t, I won’t, and I’m incredibly amused that you’re insisting that I have a deity because I use some forbidden word.
Now, if you want to get all up in arms about “In God We Trust” on our money, I’m in your corner.
I am an atheist who agrees that you have to pick your battles, or pick the hill to die on, or whatever.
For example, it may be technically an infringement of my atheist rights for the Government to honour the god Thor by using the word Thursday to describe the 5th day of the week, but who really gives a fuck?
I use the word “Christmas”, put up a Christmas tree, and I enjoy the season enormously.
Battle for Christmas? I thought there wasn’t a “War on Christmas.” 
You are obviously not understanding the need for outrage. I think the next step is to force all Federal employees named “Christopher,” “Christine,” “Christian,” or similar to change their names, so that co-workers will not have to acknowlege a diety when referencing said individuals.
Do you realize that such names are ON FEDERAL PAPERWORK? There are oppressed Federal workers everywhere who have been forced to type the word “Christ” in these names probably hundreds of times without being allowed the dignity of replacing it with an X! This is not to be stood for!
You might celebrate having December 25th off work, and you might celebrate it by doing all sorts of stupid rituals that had some religious significance for your countrymen, ancestors, your friends, and so on, but for which you say you have no use but nevertheless you do out of–I don’t know? an adherence to what you think your culture demands? a slavish devotion to tradition? the will of your community and neighbors? a compulsion to fit in with contemporary mores? a lack of imagination? all or some of these? something else I’m not thinking of but which enforces the oppression of mainstream Christianity? Or maybe it’s because you think that I give a shit what you do behind closed doors and you’d like to spite me, not knowing how little I care about what goes around that mind of yours?
I have a little secret for you: I celebrate all day long on December 25th, just as I celebrate every other day I get off work. This year, I celebrated December 25th by sitting around on my nice new couch in my underwear watching SIX FEET UNDER DVDs. Do you care? Are you impressed? I suspect you are as little impressed by what I did this Tuesday as I am by what you did, or what you called the day. You can call it “Arthur” for what I care.
I get it. “I am an atheist. I celebrate Christmas.” I don’t give a shit what you do or don’t do. That’s irrelevant to my point about what the government designates that day as.
No need to get so upset, Sarah. Just change the name on official federal documents, that’s all. I like when people’s parents saddle them with stupid names.
You’re not going to make any headway by insulting the only people for whom there’s even a possibility of persuading.
I’m practically as atheistic and anti-religious as you can get, and I find your passion on this issue perplexing and laughable. If this is all about a government regulation that says “the twenty-fifth day of December (known as Christmas),” then I have no inclination to die on that hill. I really don’t care what the origin of the word “Christmas” is. To me, and many others like me, it doesn’t have any significant connection to Christianity.
Most atheists do object to “In God We Trust,” but are resigned that it would be too difficult a battle to fight, for little benefit if won. “One Nation Under God” and the existence of a congressional chaplain are more offensive, but, again, are not wise battles to fight.
Even those issues would get you more support than fighting “the twenty-fifth day of December (known as Christmas).” Even if you were dedicated to eliminating all governmental mentions of religion, that would be the last issue to tackle.
I agree entirely with you on the changing the name of Christmas being a very unimportant issue in the big picture. My only point is that I think the court has committed a foolish error in designating December 25th as “Christmas Day” (as I think they have in permitting “In God We Trust” on currency, and other verbal errors that imply a theocratic position on the part of the state) and that if it were up to me, I would certainly have the name changed. It is not going to be up to me any time soon.
As for the insulting part, I don’t think I’ve insulted anyone. I’ve told people who insist on making this into a discussion on a different subject than “Xmas and the First Amendement” that I couldn’t care less what they do to celebrate the day, occasionally colorfully, but that’s it. If they insist on hijacking the thread by insisting that I’m arguing things other than I am, I don’t mind indulging them a bit but it’s still a hijack. Frankly, I think they’re being childish, as if I were some sort of demonic Grinch threatening to take away their plum puddings and indoor trees and other childish crap, but then I think religion itself is inherently childish, and those enabling atheists who still insist on celebrating religion in various vestigial forms, as so many do, to be a little childish and absurdly over-sensitive on the subject, responding to my interpreting the First Amendment as I do more like an insult to their families than the legal inquiry it is, but what are you going to do? Children will be children. It would be foolish to insist that they grow up immediately, wouldn’t it? That’s my experience, anyway.