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Just curious! I am an atheist who loves the crap out of Christmas. I start singing (secular) carols right around September 1, which drives my husband nuts. I also compulsively pre-plan presents and buy ornaments at those Eternal Christmas stores. I love all the non-religious traditions like countdown calendars, stockings, Christmas trees, lights everywhere, decorations and so on.
Are you an atheist who celebrates Christmas? Why or why not?
Although I'm not religious but I love Christmas and Christmas songs. It seems like everyone is nicer at that time and I love the decor. It just feels warm. Also, it's an excuse to give presents, receiving them (and I love any occasion where I'll be receiving gifts) and family gathering. lol
I love christmas. The whole Santa, Christmas Tree, Winter Wonderland Christmas. I really have never associated it much with Christianity other than the nativity scene which irritates me. I just love the joy of the season so much that I get over it.
I'm probably more agnostic than atheist but I love Christmas! To me it's just a good time to be with family and celebrate.
Yes. Christmas, to me, is more about spending time with family and all the family traditions rather than the religious aspect. I feel the same way about Easter. I love decorating the house, the smell of gingerbread, baking cookies with my mom, putting up the tree, wrapping presents, etc.
Yep! Christmas is more of a family holiday to me then a religous holiday to me. I love giving gifts and spending time with the ones that I love.
I love the crap out of christmas too. I love the whole holiday vibe/baking/time with family. Actually alot of holiday icons such as the tree, the yule log etc are pagan in origin, not Christian. Fun fact. :)
@Eight6Eleven: Yes, most of the symbolism of Christmas is actually pagan, that's a good point.
@Eight6Eleven: Exactly! I mean really the Christians kind of ripped off a lot of elements from solstice celebrations so I am not going to feel bad for celebrating the holiday without incorporating the whole baby jesus thing. Although I must confess, I do have a crystal nativity scene, because I think it's pretty.
I celebrate because it means so much to my Mom. Oddly, shes the biggest atheist I know. I just wish everyone (by everyone I mean Americans) would just think about Thanksgiving more. Its way more my favorite holiday. Christmas songs rock though...
I love Christmas! I agree with PPs- to me it's more of a family celebration and a time to appreciate the people you love. Plus, all of the decorations and food and general happiness are so nice to be around :)
I am a staunch atheist and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. Like I'm borderline obsessed. I seriously listen to Christmas music year round and watch Christmas movies (though I try not to overdose because then it takes away the specialness of it all during the season -- anticipation is half the fun!) and I start planning gifts in September. We decorate every year on Black Friday whether or not FI likes it (hint: he never does :P ) and literally the very first thought I had upon moving into our new duplex was: we have a living room big enough for a Christmas tree!! A full size Christmas tree! When we set the furniture up when we moved in I even told FI: this is where our Christmas tree will go. (We moved in just two weeks ago, so middle of July.) He thought I was nuts.
I was raised Catholic but now when I look back on all the years of celebrating Christmas as a Catholic (when I was too young to realize there were other ways of life), I honestly never really thought of it as "celebrating the birth of Jesus". To me it has always, always, whether consciously or not, been about the gathering of family and the cooking and the lights and the decorating and the happiness and the joy of being surrounded by loved ones near and far and just the tradition of it all. For this reason I still to this day don't even mind going to midnight mass to celebrate -- I simply don't kneel anymore and don't take communion. Midnight mass with my family is just part of the tradition for me, and Christmas Eve honestly feels somewhat anticlimactic when I don't go. I don't think I'd ever go of my own volition though -- I only ever go when my family or FI's family gathers. Once FI and I are married we might skip going to midnight mass and instead stay in watching Christmas movies and sipping hot chocolate and watching the snow fall.
AAAHH now I want it to be Christmas!! Gonna have to bust out the iTunes Radio Christmas station tonight...
@Eight6Eleven: A lot of cultures have ripped off things from Pagans. Like jumping the brooms. AA slaves did not come up with that idea. The ancient Celts have been doing it for a LOOOONG time.
It is arguable that Christmas isn't actually religious at all, considering that no one really knows when Christ was born and there is logical argument to assume that he was not even born in winter. Not to mention that Christmas didn't even become the birthday of Christ until the 4th century and the traditions of Christmas pre-date the birth of Christ by several centuries.
The true origin of Chrismas is said to be the birthday of the ancient Persian god Mithras.
I love the traditions and the music...the decorating. I don't actually think much of the symbolism of it all...just the fact that it's a lovely time of year and something to look forward to.
We always had real candles on the tree and celebrated on Christmas Eve.(German)
Well, shepards did not tend sheep in Dec when there was 6 feet of snow on the ground. So, if going by the biblical story of the birth of Christ then folks are probably off by about 4 months. That said, yes, we do celebrate it. Mostly because the little kids would not forgive us if we didn't but we don't do "Santa". I don't want a mythical fat man getting credit for my deal finds!
ya we celebrate the santa thing and presents (like easter is the bunny and candy...mmmjellybeans) we dont really do the whole jesus thing unless we are at FI's family because they are VERY catholic, like his dad made us all pray before we laft on a road trip....ya...man now i want some jelly beans!
I adore Christmas! For my family it's about spending time with our loved ones, exchanging gifts, having lots of big meals and having a good time. It's a family holiday as far as we're concerned :) I do love the decorations, songs and all that too... my step father is the only one in my family who goes to church on Christmas, but I think it's because he feels guilty otherwise haha
I'm agnostic and so are my parents, and we've always celebrated Christmas. Like zippylef said, it's always been about spending time with family. Plus FI is Christian, so there's really no way around it now, even if I didn't want to celebrate it.
I actually like some of the religious Christmas songs the best, they're so pretty.
DH is atheist, I'm agnostic, but we do celebrate Christmas...well, we celebrate family and love and giving and feeling festive and all that stuff. There's nothing religious about it for us, though I do kind of enjoy going to candlelight services on Christmas Eve (although again, that's for the atmosphere).
@Kant: Speaking of Christmas movies...do you LOVE "It's a Wonderful Life"? I tear up EVERY SINGLE TIME. Also, James Stewart. <3
We celebrate Christmas but mostly for family and my son... My son loves Christmas because his birthday is 2 weeks before it and because he's 6 and still believes in Santa. Once his Santa days are over I think we'll scale back on the celebration. I personally LOVE black Friday more than anything lol, I buy myself lots of cheap dvd's.
There have been winter solstice celebrations long before Christianity. Personally, I think that the 21st century Christmas does not have that much to do with religion. And many traditional christmas things never have. I don't think decorated evergreens, egg nogg and sleigh rides were a staple in the middle east of 2000 years ago.
Yes! I think of it as a celebration of friends and family. It's a happy thing to look forward to at a generally bleak time of year. Winter weather is rough in the midwest and celebrating with people you love, great food, fun music, etc. is really a mood-lifter.
Oh yes! I loooooove the "Holiday Season"! I even like the religious Christmas carols (in the same way I like songs sung in languages I don't know, I just like the way they sound). Nothing at Christmas is religious for me. I love giving presents, making cookies, family, friends, dinner, decor, everything!
Like many of the previous posters, I love the holiday season because of happy family memories; and FH (staunchly anti-religion) does too.
Although sometimes I find the militant religious types who want to cram the reason-for-the-season into everything a little hard to take. I just want my festive cartoons & songs to be about first snowfalls and holiday cheer.
I love any excuse to eat an AMAZING home cooked meal. Hanging out with the fam is an added bonus.
My FI and i actually had a discussion about this recently. I'm agnostic, he's totally atheist and we normally alternate homes for christmas. This year he was asked by a client to record an album during winter break (client's a student) and I protested because we missed going to either family last year because of our new dog. He didn't understand why I was so upset because we aren't christians so I had to explain to him it was about spending time with the family and the traditions of that that I love and wanted back this year. He told his client he could do it a few days after christmas so it looks like we're going home for christmas!
i am an athiest my fi is catholic, my son is well aware (even at 5) of both views on christmas. he knows the story of jesus, and the commercial christmas too, i'm pretty sure he prefers santa. although he does know we buy the gifts (got caught out and had to think on my feet) and 'send them to santa'. and santa gets him a special present, for being a good boy. i too love everything about it. i love being with my family, i love seeing my sons face. i actually dont mind midnight mass .... my little comprimise that one. grandad even dresses up as santa.
i've carried on loads of my childhood traditions with my son.... my favorite being my mum every year would make us all stand at the top of the stairs whilst she crept down to check if santa had been.... every year she would shout up.... 'no he's no been back to bed... on queue we would all sigh 'awwwwww' mum would reply ok i'll check one more time and like magic he had been, at that point we'd run down the stairs in excitement to see what awaited us, it began to get old when we were 17,18, 19 that kind of age (the sighs got a little bit poor but this point) but i enjoy doing this one with my own son, i know my eldest brother does this routine too.... memories hey got to love them!!!
I'm a Jewish atheist and the most Christmas-spirited person in either of our families. I do Christmas dinner, I give money to charity, I sing carols and decorate the house.
It might be hypocritical to Christians, but like PPs have said it's a season for food and family (what could be more Jewish???).
@SpecialSundae: I don't think it's hypocritical - most of the "Christmasy" things about Christmas pre-date Christianity. The only tangible things about Christmas that are related to Christianity are the star on the top of the tree (but not the tree itself, or the lights/ornaments) and nativity scenes. Everything else is patchwork from other seasonal celebrations lost to history.
My husband is an atheist, so he really only shows up for the food and presents, which makes my parents roll their eyes. I take our daughter to church with the family because it's tradition, I sing carols, I put angels up. He doesn't care!
I am an atheist, but I celebrate Christmas as a way to get together with the family and my loved ones and have a blast, rather than thinking at all about the religious side of it. If I do think about the religious aspect, I try to remember that this is a time to thankfulness and introspection and trying to live a better life, ya know?
@KatyElle: I love your new avatar. fyi.
OP: I LOVE christmas!!!!! I love stockings and presents and christmas trees and baking and huge family dinners. As others have said, I love that it's an excuse for our families to get together and just enjoy eachothers company! I even throw a christmas dinner party for my husbands company each year!
We I am not an atheist but a gnostic - which means I consider all great religions equally valid. However, I am fond of paganism. I celebrate the Pagan holidays, which I am sure everyone knows is the basis of all the Christian holidays.
I LOVE Christmas, my fav holiday of the year!! As most have said, its more a family holiday than anything else
Yep! I agree with everyone here who has said the holiday is more about the family and traditions. I just love it!
@.twist.: Thank you! I usually change it to a favorite psycho around Halloween. I'll be back to Mr. Holly soon.
I grew up celebrating Christmas in a very different way from how it's celebrate in Canada/US/UK. For one it was in January and we didn't exchange presents. Christmas trees went up and Santa came for NYE not for Christmas.
Obviously because I don't have those same childhood memories that everyone else loves it's hard to relate sometimes. I love the food, the family and just the feel of the holiday season.
FI's family is totally into Christmas so I get to enjoy it with them. Although sometimes it's a bit over the top, his mom asked us to sign Happy Birthday to Jesus a few years ago. Everyone refused thankfully.
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