Non-Christians: Do you celebrate Christmas?

[ALago1]

I was raised Catholic and absolutely loved the Christmas season.

Now, I don't agree with very much the Church has to say on about anything.

But, I do think that on some level, Christmas does engender kindness in people, although for a short-lived amount of time.

So, I do go through the whole process of gift buying for my loved ones, family get togethers, etc. And even though I don't believe much about the Christian faith, I enjoy this time of togetherness and love.

Is it wrong to partake in such a holiday if you have no real belief in its underlying principles?

[NightTrain]

1. I've no one to share it with

I'm an only child, my parents are both dead, and I'm a lifelong bachelor who hasn't been in a relationship in quite some time.

As such, when Xmas rolls around, I either volunteer to do a fill-in at the radio station, or I stay home and fart around on the computer all day, trying like hell to forget that it's Christmas and I'm all by myself again.

*Sigh* Is there a painless way to slit one's wrists? :nopity:

[ALago1]

3. I'm sorry the holidays make you feel so lonely

I wish for you to find someone special to make you feel less unhappy this year!

[corarose]

12. When my Mom died I didn't want any more Christmases

My Dad never gave you a present from his heart it was because he had to because it was Christmas and my Sister would spend 10 on anyone besides herself.
In the past she has given me clothes that were her size and at the time I was very heavy she would give me a size small or medium and say that she lost the receipt and that she didn't want to insult me by giving me a larger size like a 3x at the time.

I have gotten to the point that I don't want to see another Birthday or Christmas again and I have a Birthday coming up in two weeks.

Also, my ancestor was part of a Christmas tradition that lots of people have grown accustomed to watching during the Christmas Season.

[Habibi]

26. Dang it: I want you to feel happy at Crassmas!

That's my word for it; the holiday that brings out the worst in people, and yet has the potential, as the OP illustrates, to make us feel optimistic.

Have you considered volunteering at a shelter or soup kitchen or something? If I didn't have my (equally atheistic BF) to hang with on The Day, that's prolly what I'd do. For some reason, even those of us who don't feel a (Xtian) religious/community/family connection on Xmas wind up feeling left out if we don't have "plans" on that holiday. Go frickin' figure.

[supernova]

28. Shelters and hospitals

usually need help during the holidays, especially to give relief to regular staff and volunteers. Please consider finding a place to help out. You'll feel better focusing on helping someone else. Who knows? You might make a new friend.

[flamingyouth]

35. Hey, I'd love to have you at our house this holiday

But you'd have to come to Seattle. We're not Christian, but we like to think that our food and company are pretty decent!

[flamingyouth]

36. We're pagan

But we get together with my parents for a traditional Swedish Christmas Eve each year, then on the 25th we stay home, watch movies, eat and be generally merry.

Because I've worked retail for so many years, I use the 25th as a sort of mental health day.

[NightTrain]

43. Thank you for the kind invitation...

...but Seattle is clear on the other side of the country from me. As such, I don't think I'll be able to make it this year. :yourock:

[Zephyrbird]

44. I'm sorry Christmas makes you feel blue NighTrain

I'm an avowed bachlorette, and some holidays make me feel the same way. You know, all those Hallmark Holidays, I call them. Sometimes I feel like a fuhreak on those days!

I want you to remember this on Christmas. This is my parrots and me singing for you, our favorite song to screech along with:

::ahem::

GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER!!
WALKING HOME FROM OUR HOUSE, CHRISTMAS EEEEEEEVE!
YOU MAY SAY THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SANTA,
BUT AS FOR ME AND GRANDPA, WE BELIEEEEEEEEVE!!

And here's my favorite parrot joke for you to read on Christmas day:

A lady walks into a pet store looking for a Christmas present for her husband. The manager walks up to her and says, "can I help you ma'am?"

She says, "oh yes, I'd like to buy a parrot for my husband for Christmas. However, I really would like it to be a talking parrot. Do you have one that talks?"

The manager responds "well, yes we do, but even better, we have a parrot named Chet who sings!"

The lady responds, "Oh, that's wonderful! What kind of songs does he sing?"

The manager says, "Well, he sings Christmas songs!"

The lady says, "Oh, that's wonderful! Can I see him please!?" They walk over to a cage containing a beautiful large green parrot with a yellow head. The manager gets him out the cage, puts him on a parrot stand, and turns to the lady.

"Now, Chet here sings beautifully, but you have to do a little trick to get him to sing. Take these matches, light one, and hold it under Chet's left foot. Now mind, don't hold it close enough to burn him!"

After promising not to hurt him, the lady takes the matches, lights one, and holds it under Chet's left foot, and Chet breaks into song:

"JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!" He sings in a beautiful tenor.

"Oh my heavens!" the lady squeals in delight. "What will happen if I hold it under his right foot?" The manager says, "go ahead and try!"

She lights another match, and holds it gently under Chet's right foot. Once more, Chet breaks into song, this time in a deep Bing Crosby voice:

"I'M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!"

At this the lady practically swoons. "Oh my, how wonderful! Now what happens if I hold it between his feet?" And before the manager can stop her, she lights a match and holds it between Chet's feet. For the third time, Chet breaks out in song, but this time in a high squeaky voice:

"SQUAAAAAAAAWK!! CHET'S NUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE!!!!!!"

[Devlzown]

2. Christmas has lost much of its religiosity.

I'm not a Christian, but I enjoy going to parties and exchanging gifts as much as the next person. Besides, none of the Christians I know make me put down my cocktail to meditate on the birth of Christ while I'm at their party. They just want everyone to have a good time.

[Cleita]

4. Well since December 25th was some sort of Roman pagan

holiday, the Saturnalia or something like that to begin with, we don't have any problems celebrating the secular part. We have a Christmas tree, exchange presents, send greeting cards and have a holiday dinner. I think the winter solstice is a good reason to celebrate and put some joy into a gloomy time of year. I like the message of peace too. I just wish we had some.

[ALago1]

5. I wish we had peace too

Btw, is your avatar the "Venus of Willendorf"?

[Cleita]

32. It's the little Venus for sure. It's on the avatar list.

[Maple]

6. Christmas

was originally, for thousands of years,the Solstice mid-winter festival.

Meant to be a feast, and fun on the shortest, darkest day of the year.

The Christians pilfered it for their benefit. And now claim it as their own. But it's not.

So yes indeed you can enjoy it, and do what you want on that day without being Christian, or even religious.

It's a time for food, and warmth and light and always has been.

[JanMichael]

7. I don't have much of a choice in the matter.

Not that it bothers me, gifts are great/family get togthers are great, but there isn't any way to really cut it out.

So be it.

[Piperay]

9. Yeah, same here

I would prefer to skip it :boring: but find that is impossible to do, I don't have a choice in it. :argh:

[shugah]

8. buddhists doing the christmas thing

christmas in america doesn't really embrace much about christ and being christian, does it?

i was raised athiest and i love christmas! togetherness and love, yeah --and tradition, and pure happiness. the gifts, whether given or received are always special because of the thought that goes with them.

"But, I do think that on some level, Christmas does engender kindness in people, although for a short-lived amount of time. "

you've never lived in the DC metro area, have you? no human kindness there! ;-)

[sujan]

10. no

[TrogL]

11. I believe Wiccans do Yule

[Hogarth]

13. We "observe" Christmas ...

... because the kids expect presents, but--and I can only speak for myself--I don't think we "celebrate" it. It's an opportunity for the whole family to get together, enjoy a warm meal, and have fun.

Good enough. Let's call it "Dinner Day."

[ComerPerro]

14. Nobody celebrates Christmas

They celebrate the bastardized commercial version of it. They sing a few songs about Jesus, but no one really ponders its meaning. They are too caught up in an orgy of presents.

I really like getting gifts for people though...

[Cheswick2.0]

16. nobody?

I think you are wrong about that.
For instance I ponder the meaning of Christ's birth, spend lots of time in church, sometimes work at a soup kitchen and kind of resent the presents and commercialization.

Of course Christmas is not Easter, but still a very meaningful day to millions of people.

[REP]

15. The Way I See It:

People have been having some sort of celebration around that time of year for thousands of years, and for good reason: in most parts of the world, it's kind of dreary and cold and everything's dead. The return of the sun (or whatever) seems a perfectly rational excuse to throw a big party to pass the dreary time and to give a lift.

Whatever it's called, I like it. I even like the idea of remembering friends and family with gifts: it's a nice way to think about those people and go a little out of the way to do something nice for them, and a gift is a nice thing to have from a friend. I hate forced gift-giving and the idea that the only good gift is an expensive one and other merchandising ideas that have spoiled some of the gift aspect, but not enough that I dont enjoy giving my family and friends something cool that they like.

To me, the holiday doesn't have any Christian meaning to me (nor does it to serious Christians), but I don't care who is celebrating what for what reasons, as long as people can find something that makes sense to them to be happy about in the middle of a bleak season.

In other words, I celebrate everything!

[matcom]

17. we put up a tree and a few lights

that's about it. got no kids so we don't have to do much else. used to get together with the family but they have moved away so its just the Mrs and I.

we give each other a couple of little things but our gift to each other every year is our Mexico trip so its a pretty ordinary day otherwise.

oh, the one thing we DO do is watch "A Christmas Story" about 18 times (since it run 24 hours) :eyes:

this year i am asking for a lamp from Santa :D

[FlaGranny]

18. Don't be too surprised

when that lamp gets "accidently" broken by Ms. Matcom.

[BiggJawn]

19. No. I celebrate YULE

Predates Xmas. Now if I could figure out some way to leave the Horned God out of it, it'd be perfect...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. I so sorry you guys don't have anyone to spend Christmas with...

If I had a house, I'd invite you all to Oklahoma for Christmas and we'd eat until we burst. I love Christmas. Mainly because my sister loved Christmas. She was killed in a really bad car crash December 19, 2000. She was eight months pregant. And that christmas, we had a bad snow storm, so I wasn't home, and I was just kinda going through the motions. Her funeral was on the day before Christmas Eve. But her whole life she just loved Christmas. She'd come wake me up at 5:30 when I was 4 (she was 8 years older),and we'd go get mom and dad up because they really put on a good Christmas back then. I can't believe I'm sitting here crying at the memories.
I love shopping for other people. I'll take one whole day and shop for those that I really care about.
I'll be thinking of you guys when Christmas rolls around this year. And when I get a place of my own, you all are invited over for Christmas, I don't care if I know you or not. It's Christmas, and that's the way it's supposed to be.
Duckie

[LynneSin]

21. Christmas is so secular anymore - who cares who celebrates it

I mean, folks forget it's to celebrate the birth of Jesus and instead the holiday has become 'Who can buy the best presents'. I'm so freaking sick and tired of all the stupid christmas decorations hanging in the stores back before Halloween.

I dispise the christmas holiday season. But only because what it symbolizes today in america

:shrug:

[johnnie]

22. .....

I havent really gotten into it for a while. I was raised christian, but have my own thoughts these days. And the last few seasons I have been by myself, so it is just a day I have to do the Christmas thingy. I am trying this year to enjoy it though...I think of this as my all time (or around there) favorite christmas song...

I Believe in Father Christmas
Greg Lake

(Greg Lake/ Peter Sinfield)

They said there'll be snow at Christmas,
They said there'll be peace on earth,
But instead it just kept on raining,
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth.

I remember one Christmas morning,
The Winter's light and a distant choir,
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,
And eyes full of tinsel and fire.

They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a silent night,
They told me a fairy story,
'Til I believed in the Israelite.

And I believed in Father Christmas,
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes,
Then I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,
And I saw him and through his disguise.

I wish you a hopeful Christmas,
I wish you a brave New Year,
All anguish, pain and sadness,
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.

They said there'd be snow at Christmas,
They said there'd be peace on earth,
Hallelujah! Noel!, be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get, we deserve.

[supernova]

29. That's one of my favorite

modern songs about xmas.

[Raenelle]

23. It's hard to avoid--most of my in-laws are Christians,

and I've been non-Christian long enough (almost 40 years now) that I don't need to flaunt it, disrespect others' sensibilities, etc. Our home does precisely nothing--no church, no decorations, no festivities, no nothing--different anywhere in that season than it does at other times--except maybe more channel surfing because of all the schizophrenic drift between crass materialism and creepy sentimentalism on the TV.

[slinkerwink]

24. I love Christmas because it means a holiday to get together with my family

I'm a lapsed Catholic, but I see Christmas as more of a cultural/secular tradition more than a religious tradition. I love how my great-grandmother always puts too much rum in the eggnog and everyone ends up being rather drunk. There's a lot of food, especially tamales, and since my grandfather is a "pillar of the community," he's allowed to have fireworks illegally.

I remember one time, when my uncle was recently promoted to President of the University Health Science Center in San Antonio, he was in Laredo with us all, about to start the fireworks explosion. Two police cars came up, with lights flashing, and we were all scared. The chief of police stepped out of the car, laughed, told the officers to turn off the lights, and hugged my uncle. He gave his best wishes to my uncle and let us proceed with the fireworks display. I'll never forget that moment of being outside with my five uncles, my four aunts, their husbands and wives, and my thirty-one cousins out on the front lawn......damn, I want it to be Christmas already!

[Dogmudgeon]

25. I never got the Christian part of it

I was raised in Christendom, but even at an early age, I knew that Santa, the elves, the flying reindeer, the decorated tree, the lights, and the other trappings were not related to Jesus at all. Not that it made it bad, mind you -- I just thought it was odd, and when I was about eight or nine, a Jewish cousin of mine explained the pre-Christian culture of Europe to me.

Most of the Jewish part of my family celebrates Christmas, too, but as a strictly secular holiday. And many of them have read the New Testament, and have a certain admiration for Jesus, but don't go in for the Messiah treatment he got. And they celebrate Hanukkah, as a religious holiday. (We Christians have always had an electric Menorah at our house, since Dad was the Jewish one.) But they have all been the very definition of good Jews, many of them speak Hebrew and Yiddish, planted trees in Israel, and at least one of them has gotten home delivery of Ha'aretz.

Christmas/Yule/Saturnalia/Candelmas/Merchantmas/whatever is a great holiday. We should also consider making Lupercalia/Valentine's Day a little more important, too, since it happens during the very coldest part of the winter. Maybe we should redefine the "holiday season" as starting around November 21 and ending at Easter (or whatever the neopagans call it). These holidays encourage good behavior from otherwise nasty people during the most uncomfortable part of the year.

So, yes, we need a little Christmas ... right this very minute ... we need a little Christmas now!

--bkl
Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men, assholes. :-)

[Cheswick2.0]

31. and of course you are right

<<<<I knew that Santa, the elves, the flying reindeer, the decorated tree, the lights, and the other trappings were not related to Jesus at all.>>>>>

since none of that has to do with the Christian part of Christmas and is not what Christians are celebrating. We don't celebrate a tree or Santa or flying reindeer.

[supernova]

27. I love Christmas

I love decorations, and music especially. What I don't love is that they're up in the stores before Halloween. I have this thing about enjoying each season in its time. :eyes: The local soft rock station has already switched over to all holiday music all the time.

And I certainly respect that it is a holiday layered with meaning from pagan on down to christian, which is partly pagan anyway. *ducks the bricks coming my way from my more orthodox brothers/sisters*

What I am trying to say there is a certain enternity in Xmas that I find comforting. We participate in something that that is far older than any of us.

I do generally think it's a good idea to celebrate the shortest days, or longest nights, of the year with food, family, and light and warmth. Those are all things we can cherish.

Personally, I have a harder time with Thanksgiving than I do with xmas. :-( Most of my family goes away or just wants to stay at their homes on Thanksgiving. That leaves my sister and I. While I love her with all my heart, neither of us is the life of the party. We don't cook that day. We have been out to dinner a time or two. I don't even know if we'll get together this year. She may have other plans. :cry:

If nothing else, I'll see if there's a shelter, hospital or something I can help out at. I don't want to be alone that day.

[ALago1]

37. "The local soft rock station has already switched to all holiday music"

No way! That is insane! I thought the day after Thanksgiving was the unspoken official start of the holiday season?

Well, I guess when there is profit to be had, you want to maximize the amount of time you can exploit religion.

Soon we'll all be celebrating in August.

[supernova]

39. Oh yes, they have

Switched to all holiday format the first of November. They did this a couple of years ago (right around Thanksgiving, IIRC) for the first time. It was so popular they've switched over ever earlier each year.

I really don't mind it, as I can control how/when I listen to the holiday music. And they often play the more contemporary stuff: ELP, Manheim Steamroller, etc.

[Lindsay]

30. I'm kind of a conscientious objector

when it comes to religion...but I love the lights and the music of Christmas. (My sister, my only sibling, and I both joke about having been druids in previous lives, so we do fabulous Christmas trees.) I could do without the gift-giving, but the rest of my family likes the tradition, so I go along with it. I do like the time spent with the family, though.

[Exultant Democracy]

33. You bet I do

I am from a family of bibliophiles so the only gifts we give are books and socks. After the present giving we have a huge dinner and then we pull out our guitars, get drunk and jam. Now that is a holiday. All without any religion.

[EV1Ltimm]

34. i celebrate christmas...

and i'm an atheist. It seems the holiday to me has more to do with santa, rudolph, frosty and gift-giving than the day that constantine decided to change to the day of the baby jesus' birthday... and it was done just to spite the pagans too. bad karma.

[VelmaD]

38. I love the holidays...

and "celebrate" pretty much all of them. I figure there's a hidden message about humanity that we have all these celebrations around the Winter Solstice.

I love the lights and making cookies and music and buying presents for people and wrapping paper and tinsel and buying "holiday" cards for my friends of all faiths (or no faith) and the whole 9 yards.

What I don't like is the crass commercialization of the season and the way some people seem to think it's enough just to have "holiday cheer" at xmas. We'd be better off if we all had a little of that "spirit" all year long.

[Az]

40. Do you really think Dec 25 is Jesus' birthday

Do you really think an evergreen tree has more meaning to a desert people than a palm tree does?

Do you really think that a yule log has any import to desert dwellers?

Do you really think a fat man in red winter garb could even survive in a desert?

Do you really think they even knew what a raindeer is in the desert?

Simply put Christmas is a holiday superimposed over a northern climates seosonal holiday. All the symbology associated with it is from the northern climate and pagan religions.

I particularly love the season. In fact it is my second favorite holiday behind Halloween. When asked what I am celebrating I simply tell people I celebrate Socrates birthday as like Jesus we do not know when he was born. I haven't gotten around to placing statues of Socrates addressing the senate on our lawn yet but one day.... yes one day the neighbors will be confused.... muwahahahaha

[SmileyBoy]

42. Jesus was supposedly born sometime in March.

The Christians turned it into Dec. 25 to coincide with the pagan holidays of the winter solstice, and drive them out of commission.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

45. I heard it was July.

They don't know a real date, do they?
Duckie

[SmileyBoy]

41. Yes. As a secular holiday.

Mostly to get presents.:-)