Do Atheists celebrate Christmas?

what is it with the played out hating on atheists questions today…first kevbo, then you…
They don’t go to work because it is expected practice to take a day off on that holiday…seeing how there is no Atheist day to use instead…and hardly do I think someone with such a condescending tone towards a whole group of people should be telling me what ‘true’ anything is…

As an atheist living in a Christian country it’s pretty hard to just ignore Christmas. I enjoy Christmas time but rather than see it as a religious thing I tend to think of it as more a time to express the importance of your family and friends to you and your appreciation of them in the giving of gifts and spending quality time together.

As an atheist, do you give gifts on Christmas?
BTW, there is no hate in my question.

@filmfann I am sorry but it felt, the tone, that you sounded bitter…as in ‘look at them damn atheists whining about Christmas but yet they take the day off, blah blah blah’...which just sounds petty…plenty of people hate Christmas, Christians or not and plenty celebrate it anyway, Christians or not…I give gifts (it’s a Russian tradition) on New Year’s and do not celebrate Christmas…not because I am an atheist, but because I grew up not celebrating it…

you don’t have to read the Bible to like presents bud, nor do you need to believe in god to enjoy sharing a day or two with your loved ones. Christmas has never been about god for me, it’s been about family.

I don’t think the gift giving was the original meaning for Christmas, that came about gradually. That part of the holiday is commercialized to death, and I don’t know of any religious person that involves religion in that aspect…so I don’t see what the big deal is if they celebrate by giving gifts.

I have no specific religion and we’ve always celebrated it.

To me, this is just another example of a nasty religious person who apparently isn’t a “good” person, because if someone doesn’t believe in what they do…then fuck them. Seriously, people cannot all have the same exact beliefs, but they are still good people.

I like Christmas and I’m an atheist who was raised a Jew. I like Passover, too. A lot.

First, it would be pretty difficult for someone to work if their factory, store, bus-line, etc. was closed for the holiday.

I am not Christian, but I celebrate Christmas. @ABoyNamedBoobs03 hits it for me, it is about coming closer with the ones I love and spending time with the family, I have known several non-Christians who chose to celebrate this time as the Winter Solstice rather the birth of Christ. At this point the idea of Christmas has been so commericialized, so secularized, so deeply ingrained in the American culture, it would be difficult for anyone – no matter their religion or lack thereof – to ignore completely.

Christmas is about family and Presents , just cause i do not believe in Jesus and Christianity doesn’t mean i shouldn’t partake in such an event . It is after all a money grabber of a holiday , and a time for the kiddies to think about Santa not Jesus . It’s Santa’s day not Jesus’ day comeon people .
Sorry bairns no presents this year , well for everyone else but not you . Cause we don’t believe in Jesus , is that what am ment to say to them

I love Christmas! It’s a cue for the whole society to put aside hard feelings and think about others for awhile. For a few days, we just agree to be as kind to each other as we can, and that’s a beautiful thing.

I’m not ignoring the fact that for some Christmas actually raises family strife, and yes, the rampant commercialism sucks, but it seems to me that overall, we’re more kindly disposed for those few days. And maybe, just maybe, some of that sticks.

I decorate the Christmas tree, yet I don’t believe in ancient evil spirits visiting my house if I don’t. I shoot of fireworks on new years eve, yet not to scare away evil spirits for the rest of the year. We don’t celebrate these events because of what they were represented back then, but for what they mean to us now (which is keeping your economy running :P).

Centuries ago in Great Britain, woods priests called Druids used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. The Druids used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits

Yes, I celebrate Xmas in a secular way. My wife is Catholic and my family comes from a Protestant background so we give and receive gifts every Christmas eve and have egg hunts on Easter. And I don’t work on December 25 because the post office is closed.

I think it’s a great tradition aside from the rampant consumerism.
When people are getting trampled to death in a mass charge to purchase discounted electronic items, then the spirit of the season is lost.

I was raised in a secular household (We haven’t gone to church since I was 5, but my parents never spoke positively nor negatively of religion. They were both raised Catholic. My brother, sister and I all turned out very Atheist).
We’ve celebrated christmas every year. Never as a religious thing, the only religious ornament we have is the angel who goes at the top. We don’t listen to songs about Christ’s birth, etc., though my dad can’t get enough of all those Frosty the Snowman songs.

What we do end up doing is spending a few hours of Christmas eve in the living room with some Chinese food catching up with each others’ lives. Come Christmas morn’ we all go into the living room and open up presents, and then sit down for another hour or two chatting.

I think in the early years, my parents had us celebrate those things to help us kids fit in at school. But I think we continue it now just because it has become a tradition, and it’s a decent enough excuse to get together and have a few nice meals.

Is it or is it not the Christian way to push their beliefs onto other , rejoice at the wonderful work you are doing . Making people celebrate Christmas day and Easter , even tho your meaning of those days has been lost with todays children .

@ABoyNamedBoobs03: That’s really what it’s about for me and I am not Christian. It’s a day for me and my mom to hang out, watch our silly Christmas movies, eat delicious but unhealthy food and marvel at how well we know and surprised each other again with the gifts we picked out. We lavish praise and treats and toys on our dog and cats because it’s Christmas, so no one can fault us for it. We have friends over and have good conversation and more good food. Christmas is about having fun and taking a little time off from everyday life to be with your family. It’s a good day and I think everyone should enjoy it, religious connotations or no.

@sandystrachan: Lurve for using the word “bairns.”

I go over to my sister’s house to eat and enjoy the company of the family all getting together, but otherwise, no, I don’t celebrate Christmas. When there weren’t so many little ones in the family, I got gifts for them, but now it’s well over 40 children under age 13, so I’ve stopped.

Of course they do! Christmas is a time to enjoy close relationships with loved ones, exchange gifts, and decorate and prepare wonderful meals for the occasion, whether you believe in God or not.

Yes. Greed without gullibility is possible.

Yes, absolutely. To echo what many others have said, Christmas to me is a time to set aside stress and ill feelings to celebrate family, friends, and the joy of giving. Jesus is irrelevant to my Christmas.

festivus for the rest of us

Some do, some don’t.

Atheists have no commonalities as far as beliefs are concerned. Surely some celebrate Christmas and others don’t. Pagan roots or not, there is room for rituals that unite humans around the world through a shared experience. It matters not how the ritual came into existence. It only matters how it is used. Christians do not have a monopoly on Christmas despite the similarity in monikers.

Is everyone on this site of like mind? It seems no matter what the question there is never a great debate going both ways…One person signs on one way and all the rest follow. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ, lets get real, rather you believe in this or not is totally up to the individual but you all sound like hypocrites to me right now. You can get together with family anytime you like and exchange gifts as often as you like but when you do this on Christmas you are engaging in celebrating Christ’s birthday no matter what you say your religious or nonreligious views are.

@mponochie

Christmas was not originally intended to celebrate the birth of Jesus. You celebrate a holiday in a way that was not originally intended.

@mponochie when was christ born again? Oh yea, thats right, the middle of summer…

@uberbatman: You are quite correct sir. Christmas takes place in winter in order to coincide with the Pagan celebration of the Solstice. When the Christians were going through Europe taking over everything and forcing their views on everyone else, they decided to integrate some ideas and customs from the Pagans in order to make the transition easier and more appealing for people. This is why that other great Christian holiday is called Easter. It’s actually named for a Pagan fertility goddess Ester sp. It can also work the other way, however. A chief Pagan god is the horned god Cernunnos sp. If anyone was seen worshiping a horned deity, it was said they were worshiping the Devil and thus came a handy excuse to cart off anyone who didn’t integrate.

Thus endeth the history lesson.

edit—The opening details should have read “Atheists aren’t Pagan either”.

I have been taught that Christ’s birth was actually late September, not December or Summer. Yes, I covered the celebration’s timing with the Pagans in my opening.
I understand many atheists say they use the day as a celebration of friendship, and that is commendable. Do they still shy away from Christmas Carols? Do they put a star on the top of the Christmas tree? Do they have trees?
Personally, as a Christian, I understand the day as a celebration of the coming of our Lord, but I will share that fact that Christmas is a very depressing day for me. I find it a time where I dwell on lost family members, and I end up insulted with gifts people buy for me, thinking I would like such things (“you thought I would like a snuggie??? Really???).

I love Christmas carols, I love decorating the place, I love celebrating Christmas and giving presents. That has nothing to do with Christ, if it was a Scientology holiday for celebrating Tom Cruises’s coming out I would still celebrate it. Simply because we all grew up in a world where the entire month of December feels magical and trigger our childlike fantasies.

Take for instance the Dutch holiday: Sinterklaas (your Santa Claus is based on this character). Sinterklaas is an old white guy that uses thousands of black slaves to deliver his presents. Each year in December he travels from Spain to Holland by boat. He uses a white horse to climb on to your roof and sends one of his guys (zwarte Piet) down the chimney to deliver the present into your shoe.

It’s a ridiculous story if you haven’t grown up believing in it. We remember how we enjoyed this holiday as a kid, and now we lie collectively to our children to let them enjoy the same experience. What’s so different about Christmas?

I don’t believe the myths that Christmas originated from, but I don’t see why that should get in the way of a good holiday. For me, Christmas is just about family.

personally, i prefer thanksgiving, but as others have said during christmas i take advantage of the fact that we all have time off, and my whole family has the time to get together and run-a-muk :)

just because i don’t believe in god doesn’t mean that i need to tell my family “PLEASE DON’T PRAY BEFORE OUR DINNER!” i stand quietly, bow my head, and hold hands with the people around me, because although i’m not religeous, i respect my family and their beliefs.

celebrations are about many things. not just one. there are even people in non-christian countries who celebrate christmas

plus whether its labor day or christmas, im not going to turn down a chance to get out of work!

@alive – or in my case, miss eating my sister’s fantastic holiday meals.

If Christians don’t want us to celebrate Father Christmas , open the god damn shops and work places .

@aprilsimnel feasts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gee, another question I could ask is why Atheists use the term “God damn”.

I do.

As an atheist I don’t subscribe to a set of rules that tells me how atheists must behave. I celebrate Christmas. I also celebrate the birthday of the guy who invented Eskimo Pies.

I would work so the Christians can get their holiday, and then they work on my holiday. But I think a religious holiday should not be a federal holiday, it is unnecessary since the majority of the country is Christian businesses would close and give it as a holiday anyway. Not that I would fight or be up in arms about it being a federal holiday, just technically it seems wrong. The great thing about working in a very diversified area is that the different religions cover for each other at work throughout the year, not just Christmas.

I don’t “celebrate” Christmas in my house (I am Jewish and an atheist) unless my husbands family happens to be visiting that time of the year, since they are Catholic we would make a special dinner Christmas Eve and open gifts, but usually I go to one of their homes for Christmas.

BUT, I love Christmas time, the lights, the songs, the nutcracker, all of it.

@filmfann “Gee, another question I could ask is why Atheists use the term “God damn”.

Cultural habit. I also say “holy shit” but that doesn’t imply worship of an omnipotent turd.

@JLeslie (I am Jewish and an atheist) much lurve for the contradiction that actually in this case makes perfect sense. There does appear to be something about Jewish people that renouncing the religion does not make them a non-Jew. I mean I couldn’t get away with saying ‘I’m a Christian and an atheist’ even though I was Christened into the Church of England (unbeknownst to me I might add) and have since made up my own mind on these matters.

Maybe this subject deserves it’s own thread?

@RareDenver Many Swedes could fit the same category in terms of being “cultural Christians.” Some of the lowest rates of religiosity in the world (80% do not believe in a personal god) and yet about 70% belong to the Lutheran church (though up till recently you were automatically a member at birth). So some still get their kids baptised (they don’t think about what it represents), enjoy Christmas, and might even get married in church (if they get married at all), but nevertheless don’t believe in any of the supernatural nonsense.

“Society without god” is a book dedicated to understanding this very phenomenon within Scandinavia. I imagine quite a few western European nations have their own share and variety of atheist/agnostic but cultural Christians….which has strong parallels to cultural judaism (I think Jews have the highest proportion of atheists and agnostics in their ranks of any abrahamic “religious” group….you know what I mean)

@RareDenver There was a couple of threads where this was discussed, but it was when a conversation drifted off subject, so I don’t remember the orignal subject. Jews disagree on whether Judaism is a only a religion, or if it is a race or ethnicity, etc. I fall on the side of both a religion and ethnicity (with subcultures within, Sephardics and Ashkenazi’s have different traditions, and there are some variances from country to country, etc. Similar to the differences between Catholic Italians and Catholic who are Irish). I have read stats from 30% to 50% of Jews identify agnostic or atheist, which would mean probably 50%-70% of the Reformed, a secret I want to keep from the Christian religious right, I think they have no idea :) JK. I consider being Jewish part of my identity, but I am not religious. I think society makes it impossible for me to deny I’m Jewish even if I wanted to, so I might as well embrace it.

I think many Catolics have a strong Catholic identity, but don’t practice their religion.

Sure if you want to start a thread I’ll give my two cents. I don’t want to hijack this one.

Christmas has partly turned into a non-religious tradition / ritual as well. East Germany was officially an atheist country before reunification. Christmas was still an official national holiday. There were family reunions, trees and presents.

Today there are approx. 2 million Turks in Germany, almost all of them are Muslims. Many copy the general traditions like giving little presents to kids or hanging lights on their balconies.

If an atheist or a Christian lived in a Muslim country why not participate in some of the rituals related to the Eid ul-Fitr?

@Critter38 Lurve for omnipotent turd. Lurve would also have been given for omnipotent bovine.

@mattbrowne Regarding participating in Muslim celebrations if you are Christian, I think it depends on what part of the traditions you are participating in and how religious you are yourself? I am curious to see how Christian’s will respond to your statement.

Growing up we were not allowed to have a tree…I wanted one as a child…but we colored easter eggs and ate lots of chocolate. I once asked my mom how she rationalized that, and she said that the tree represented Christmas, but the eggs and bunny were more about the start of Spring.

@JLeslie – I’m not talking about worship of the Kaaba or seeing Mohammad as the most important prophet. The sugar festival (Eid ul-Fitr) has non-religious/cultural components as well. Liberal Christians like myself don’t see an issue with this. Likewise there are liberal Muslims and liberal atheists. They don’t mind getting Christmas presents or hunting for Easter eggs.

@mattbrowne I would participate in stuff like that too. You are not a right wing American Christian, that is who I would be curious about—their reaction to the idea. Probably most “moderate” Christians would be fine with the idea. But, I guess wrong on stuff like this all of the time.

@JLeslie and @mattbrowne When I was younger I would sometimes be invited to my Muslim friends houses for the big dinner of Eid ul-Fitr. Lurve the food !!

@RareDenver Are you a right wing Christian?

I celebrate Christmas as a time to be with my family and see people I haven;t seen in a long time. The fact that I don’t celebrate J-dogs b-day does not make a difference to me. Plus every child knows that Christmas is about getting free shit not observation of a holy day…