Atheists who celebrate Christmas: why?

[Anonymous]

OP do you spend Christmas at church and give gifts just to Jesus? Its his birthday right?! Why would you give gifts to your kids.

OP that is just a stupid question.

[Anonymous]

OP here. If you celebrate for the reasons you've mentioned, such as "it's fun" and "not really a religious holiday" then why don't people of other faiths celebrate it too? I know they've got their own holidays around that time, but they actually go out of their way to avoid the festivities. I know that Christmas has become too commercial, but perhaps that's because too many people are not celebrating it for the right reasons.

How do you explain it to your kids? When they find out that their friends celebrate it because of Jesus' birth, but that you don't believe. Do you just tell them because it's fun.

[Anonymous]

Presents.

[Anonymous]

OP, you suck.

What a shitty, and not very "Christian" attitude you have toward others who don't have the same belief system as you.

Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Supposedly Jesus was born in September/October time.

Holidays are times to be with family and friends. You don't need a religion.
Christmas is pagan,even with it going commercial.
Christmas is that the life will come back. The cold winter will end.
When they wanted to convert pagans to Christians they over lapped "celebrations"
Think about Sundays. Why go to church on Sunday??? Because pagans worshiped the sun god - so an easy "transformation" to worshiping on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're off in some of your assumptions. I'm an atheist, I celebrate Christmas, and I spend no time making fun of Christians, or people with any other religious beliefs. None of the atheists I know avoid calling Christmas Day Christmas. But I don't wish people "merry Christmas" this time of year unless I know they celebrate Christmas. I send holiday cards rather than Christmas cards because I have friends and family with varying belief systems, but I don't know of anyone who doesn't celebrate one of the several holidays this time of year. I celebrate Christmas because it is a cherished family tradition; the tree, the gifts, music, baking, parties, family gatherings. With all due respect, no one needs to justify to you what holidays they celebrate.

You said this so nicely. OP-I am an atheist who was raised Jewish. I will do whatever I want at Xmas including "celebrating" with my kids and my in laws. I do not have to provide any reasoning at all to you. If you are so concerned, go pray about it.

[Anonymous]

I notice OP has just chosen to ignore when someone pointed out that a Christmas tree is a pagan symbol. So OP, if you are not a troll, then you will respond to this: do you have a Christmas tree? Do you celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th because it was actually when Jesus was born? Did you know that actually, the church wanted to stamp out paganism and pagan tradition, so the pope declared in the 4th c. that Christs birthday would be celebrated on the same day as the Winter Solstice? Some other pagan symbols that Christians decided to adopt: red berries and green holly leaves, mistletoe and wreaths, etc. Now, are YOU a PAGAN?! If not, then why do you celebrate by using pagan symbols?

You don't own this holiday just because you are a "Christian" (quotes are added because you seem very unChristian in your attitude and treatment of other people that have chosen a path differently than yours). Would Jesus be proud of your judgement of other people? Why not appreciate that whatever holiday traditions people celebrate, we should all try to have good will towards our fellow humans. I'm sure you're a fine person, but you really might want to stop wasting your time on DCUM and study the teachings of the prophet you profess to follow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I notice OP has just chosen to ignore when someone pointed out that a Christmas tree is a pagan symbol. So OP, if you are not a troll, then you will respond to this: do you have a Christmas tree? Do you celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th because it was actually when Jesus was born? Did you know that actually, the church wanted to stamp out paganism and pagan tradition, so the pope declared in the 4th c. that Christs birthday would be celebrated on the same day as the Winter Solstice? Some other pagan symbols that Christians decided to adopt: red berries and green holly leaves, mistletoe and wreaths, etc. Now, are YOU a PAGAN?! If not, then why do you celebrate by using pagan symbols?

You don't own this holiday just because you are a "Christian" (quotes are added because you seem very unChristian in your attitude and treatment of other people that have chosen a path differently than yours). Would Jesus be proud of your judgement of other people? Why not appreciate that whatever holiday traditions people celebrate, we should all try to have good will towards our fellow humans. I'm sure you're a fine person, but you really might want to stop wasting your time on DCUM and study the teachings of the prophet you profess to follow.

Well said!!! Thank you for writing what I wanted to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. If you celebrate for the reasons you've mentioned, such as "it's fun" and "not really a religious holiday" then why don't people of other faiths celebrate it too? I know they've got their own holidays around that time, but they actually go out of their way to avoid the festivities. I know that Christmas has become too commercial, but perhaps that's because too many people are not celebrating it for the right reasons.

How do you explain it to your kids? When they find out that their friends celebrate it because of Jesus' birth, but that you don't believe. Do you just tell them because it's fun.

Atheists aren't accountable for the decisions of Jews, etc. Perhaps it's easier to go along with Santa because the whole thing is folklore to them, whereas for Jews they actually believe in God and therefore care about the religious symbolism enough to not want to endorse it.

[Anonymous]

Christians like to say "keep Christ in Christmas". This implies that we are aware that the holiday has a great deal of secular meaning. So why feign ignorance. Even we Christians find it tough to focus the holiday on Jesus.

[Anonymous]

You're overlooking the tradition part of Christmas celebrations, OP.

And, what do you do with your family to make it all about Jesus?

[Anonymous]

I'm a practicing Hindu. I put up a tree, stockings, lights every year. I exchange gifts with my friends and family. When I was younger, I went caroling. When I was a kid, I believed in Santa and my mom would put presents under our tree after we had gone to bed on Dec 24. She'd even take a bite out of the cookies we would leave for Santa.

This year, my DD is 20 months. I told her it is a special day because we celebrate the birthday of a divine person. We'll sing happy birthday to Jesus. My beliefs don't exclude being able recognizing God in all forms and religions. I want DD to grow up being able to accept Godly people whether we call him/her by the name Krishna, Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed.

Oh and I have a degree in religion so I kinda know my stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a practicing Hindu. I put up a tree, stockings, lights every year. I exchange gifts with my friends and family. When I was younger, I went caroling. When I was a kid, I believed in Santa and my mom would put presents under our tree after we had gone to bed on Dec 24. She'd even take a bite out of the cookies we would leave for Santa.

This year, my DD is 20 months. I told her it is a special day because we celebrate the birthday of a divine person. We'll sing happy birthday to Jesus. My beliefs don't exclude being able recognizing God in all forms and religions. I want DD to grow up being able to accept Godly people whether we call him/her by the name Krishna, Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed.

Oh and I have a degree in religion so I kinda know my stuff.

I actually completely agree with you, PP. But many religious people who believe their beliefs are better than everyone cannot truly respect other 'godly' people, because they only think there is one.

To my knowledge, Hinduism is actually pantheistic and not really polytheistic as many people believe. In any case, it acknowledges the fact that no one can truly know God's form, so there is a respect for other people's ideas on that form. It's not as easy of a jump to make for people who strictly follow some religions. If someone believes that you must believe in X to go to heaven, then any other beliefs are automatically held in lower regard.

In any case, your (very good) points don't even matter here, because OP is just a jerk. And unless the only way she celebrates Christmas is by going to church and thinking about God (no presents, no tree, etc.), I don't really care to hear from her. And those people who do celebrate Christmas in a strictly religious sense don't have the time to get into all this nonsense. Stay above the pettiness, "religious" OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. If you celebrate for the reasons you've mentioned, such as "it's fun" and "not really a religious holiday" then why don't people of other faiths celebrate it too? I know they've got their own holidays around that time, but they actually go out of their way to avoid the festivities. I know that Christmas has become too commercial, but perhaps that's because too many people are not celebrating it for the right reasons.

How do you explain it to your kids? When they find out that their friends celebrate it because of Jesus' birth, but that you don't believe. Do you just tell them because it's fun.

MyMuslim son and his Hindu friend are both celebrating Christmas. My Jewish friends growing up often had a tree. So much of this is because iit's a culturally American tradition. You want immigrants to assimilate and then flip out when they do. I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

My husband is Athiest yet insists on celebrating Christmas. I grew up Jewish and my parents always told me that it was the celebration of the birth of Christ- errrrm the name does mention him, right? My husband looks me in the eye and says that isn't true. Ummm? What is that manger scene and all the songs about, then? I agree with OP that I think it's kind of hypocritical... This having been said most of the reform Jews I knew growing up had massive trees, lights, etc. I just go along with it all...