Non-Christians who celebrate Christmas

[Anonymous]

I was Christian, raised that way, but now agnostic. Married to a Muslim and the kids are Muslim. We do Christmas but not Easter. We do the tree, Santa, gifts, and food of Christmas. Nothing religious.

I do it because I'm fond of my childhood memories and want to give the same types of memories to my kids. My husband doesn't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are a non-Christian who celebrates Christmas but not the festivals of your religion, can you share why? By celebrating, I mean decorating and having a tree, doing a gift-exchange, decorating the yard. Is it so the kids don't feel left out?

You are correct that we don't celebrate the coming of the messiah, but we do celebrate the coming of Santa Clause. Hold on to your hat, because we also celebrate Lucia Day and La Befana in January -- because we did those as children.

[Anonymous]

DS and I are Jewish. DH is an atheist, raised by atheist parents who were raised Methodist. Since my ILs grew up celebrating Christmas, they raised their kids celebrating Christmas. It's an important part of DH's family background and we're happy to follow his traditions with him.

I didn't grow up celebrating Christmas, and I think the secular trappings are really fun. (DH also observes Jewish holidays with us.)

[Anonymous]

OP here: for starters, I am a non-Christian who is trying to figure out norms. We have several Non-Christian close friends and family who celebrate Christmas but never their festivals. So Hindus who don't bother with Diwali but celebrate Christmas and Muslims who don't celebrate their festivals. These are folk who say 'they don't care' about their festivals but celebrate Christmad because they don't want kids to feel left out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And those people needn't have any interest in how "Jesus" would feel about whatever enjoyment they are having. They also may or may not care about the centuries-old tradition of Yule logs, the Roman empire holiday of sol invictus (victory of the sun) or Mithras - a more ancient god whose birthday is also celebrated on Dec 25th. Christians may like the idea that Jesus would welcome sinners (not non-believers as earlier stated), but non-christians may or may not care or be very impressed.

Welcome back, dear Groundhog! I was wondering if you'd re-emerge as you usually do once December hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Jewish SIL and her extended family celebrates Christmas...it is bigger for them than Hannukah in terms of actual celebrating. They do all the secular fun, which made things easy when all of their kids married non Jews.

My son's friend's family is hindu and does a big Christmas celebration with all their Indian friends. In fact, I know of several hindus who celebrate Christmas. They all say something along the lines of hindu being a multi theist religion so they don't have issues with Christmas being a Christian holiday.

My persian (non-Christian) hairdresser celebrates Christmas. She said it is one of her favorite holidays.

"which made things easier when the kids all married non-Jews" - maybe celebrating Christian holidays, even in a secular way contributed to them marrying mom-Jews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are a non-Christian who celebrates Christmas but not the festivals of your religion, can you share why? By celebrating, I mean decorating and having a tree, doing a gift-exchange, decorating the yard. Is it so the kids don't feel left out?

Some people see value in traditions which they themselves do not practice
Some people like to expose their children to wide variety of belief systems so that they can decide on their own
Some people do not want their kids to feel left out
Some people like to keep the peace with their extended family and/or status in their community
Some people embrace certain aspects of religion (i.e. rituals and tradition) while not believing in other ideas such as heaven and hell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Jewish SIL and her extended family celebrates Christmas...it is bigger for them than Hannukah in terms of actual celebrating. They do all the secular fun, which made things easy when all of their kids married non Jews.

My son's friend's family is hindu and does a big Christmas celebration with all their Indian friends. In fact, I know of several hindus who celebrate Christmas. They all say something along the lines of hindu being a multi theist religion so they don't have issues with Christmas being a Christian holiday.

My persian (non-Christian) hairdresser celebrates Christmas. She said it is one of her favorite holidays.

"which made things easier when the kids all married non-Jews" - maybe celebrating Christian holidays, even in a secular way contributed to them marrying mom-Jews.

Is that a bad thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

And those people needn't have any interest in how "Jesus" would feel about whatever enjoyment they are having. They also may or may not care about the centuries-old tradition of Yule logs, the Roman empire holiday of sol invictus (victory of the sun) or Mithras - a more ancient god whose birthday is also celebrated on Dec 25th. Christians may like the idea that Jesus would welcome sinners (not non-believers as earlier stated), but non-christians may or may not care or be very impressed.

Welcome back, dear Groundhog! I was wondering if you'd re-emerge as you usually do once December hit.

!!! I almost feel nostalgic for this poor, lost groundhog. Almost, but not quite.

For the rest of you, here's a little history:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/442021.page#6297851
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/165/517170.page

And so many more threads if you do a search. It's actually pretty hilarious. One of them had a golden penis and the regeneration thereof is supposed to be the origin of Jesus' resurrection story. In the other case, the transmission went from Christians to Romans, as documented by the chronological appearance of the stories, and not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

all in all, it seems like Christmas is thriving, and Christ is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Christian and a minister. The things you listed are pagan in origin. Christianity adopted them in an effort to combine the nativity with well-established pagan winter festivals. Lights and festivities make the celebration of the birth of Jesus much more fun! So anyone can celebrate the winter holiday and more importantly, Christ would welcome all to the celebration regardless of spiritual path.

Thank you!!!i wish many of the"christians" I met had your attitude.

Exactly, the Christian minister has a good attitude about non-Christians celebrating Christmas, but it's the minister's personal opinion, with no basis in Christian history or teachings.

Jesus thought he was King of the Jews -- their long-awaited Messiah. He did not know that a new religion would be formed around him - that was Paul's doing - and certainly did not envision his supposed birthday becoming a major holiday.

Dear friend, may I gently suggest that you are missing the point? I am the minister you keep quoting. We know that Jesus had no idea that thousands of years later people would be celebrating his birth with decorated trees, beautiful lights, cookies, and gifts. However, Jesus the Christ (whatever that means to you) would certainly welcome everyone to the table on Christmas! His entire message was one of love, inclusivity, tolerance, compassion, and friendship. We are called to love one another. Period. No descriptors or exclusions followed that statement. Just love one another. Christmas is a time of love and light, of family and friendship, of giving and receiving, regardless of faith tradition. Those who practice other religions often choose not to participate in Christmas and that is certainly understandable. However, should they choose to participate in the non-religious traditions associated with the holiday, they should always feel more than welcome to do so. The Jesus I know would never exclude - he would add more chairs to the table.

People don't seem to be worried about pleasing or offending the deity that's associated with Christmas or the other religious festivals mentioned here. People just to want to have a good time and continue fond childhood traditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Jewish SIL and her extended family celebrates Christmas...it is bigger for them than Hannukah in terms of actual celebrating. They do all the secular fun, which made things easy when all of their kids married non Jews.

My son's friend's family is hindu and does a big Christmas celebration with all their Indian friends. In fact, I know of several hindus who celebrate Christmas. They all say something along the lines of hindu being a multi theist religion so they don't have issues with Christmas being a Christian holiday.

My persian (non-Christian) hairdresser celebrates Christmas. She said it is one of her favorite holidays.

"which made things easier when the kids all married non-Jews" - maybe celebrating Christian holidays, even in a secular way contributed to them marrying mom-Jews.

I thought the post was a joke because of that quote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My Jewish SIL and her extended family celebrates Christmas...it is bigger for them than Hannukah in terms of actual celebrating. They do all the secular fun, which made things easy when all of their kids married non Jews.

My son's friend's family is hindu and does a big Christmas celebration with all their Indian friends. In fact, I know of several hindus who celebrate Christmas. They all say something along the lines of hindu being a multi theist religion so they don't have issues with Christmas being a Christian holiday.

My persian (non-Christian) hairdresser celebrates Christmas. She said it is one of her favorite holidays.

"which made things easier when the kids all married non-Jews" - maybe celebrating Christian holidays, even in a secular way contributed to them marrying mom-Jews.

Is that a bad thing?

I guess not for that family.

[Anonymous]

Persian here. We aren't Christian and our family background is split Muslim / Jewish, but nobody in my family is religious by any stretch of the imagination. My entire family - both here in the US *and* in Iran - celebrates Christmas. Actually, my relatives in Iran put up their Christmas trees and decorations before we did here in the states. Before my parents immigrated here, they celebrated Christmas in Iran as well. In terms of the why, if you were to ask any of my family members, they'd say it's to celebrate the spirit of giving and just the overall joy surrounding everything during the holidays.

We also celebrate Persian New Year, Shab-e-Yalda (winter solstice), and we go all out for those the same way we go all out for Christmas. I wouldn't have it any other way, either.

[Anonymous]

PP, you celebrate both your festivals AND Christmas. What about folk who don't celebrate the Persian festivals but only do Christmas?