Reply to Atheists who celebrate Christmas: why?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.

Wow, I did not intend to seem as snarky as I apparently did.  Sorry!  Let me be clear.  I am not necessarily opposed to non-Christians celebrating Christmas.  I remember asking my parents about this when I was a kid.  They said that they are fine with it because it's their hope that in the festivities of the season, they will somehow get that mustard seed of faith.  I try to keep that mindset, but I have a hard time with it when it comes to people who make fun of us the rest of the year.  I wrote this post after receiving a "Warm Wishes" card from a friend who speaks out against Christianity every single chance she gets.  It seemed very hypocritical.  The only purpose of her card was to show off pictures of her Aruba vacation.  these are the people I have issues with.  If you are a non-Christian who would like to participate in the season, I simply ask that you respect our religion during the "off-season" as well.  Please don't try to convince yourself that it's not a religious holiday.  Of course it is.

Yes, I do try to minimize the commercialism and focus on Christ during the season.

[b]I know the pagan history of trees, but don't believe the theory that that's where the Christmas tree originated.  The tree, wreath, holly, etc is a symbol of eternal life.[/b]  [/quote]

I think you need to go back and refresh your memory about the origins of Christmas as we know it.  As you have said in a later post, you know that the traditional celebration was on Epipheny.  However, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Western Christian Churches were finding they were losing out a lot of followers to many of the pagan religions of the time.  With Epiphany being about 2 weeks after the traditional pagan Winter Solstice celebrations, which at the time were very large and popular, the Christian churches were having problems maintaining the Faithful.  The Christian churches moved the Christmas celebration back in order to compete directly with the large Winter Solstice celebrations.  What you think of as eternal symbols of life, were adopted from the pagan rituals in order to make the Christian celebration more familiar.  The use of pine trees had been in use by Druidic and pagan religions for centuries, the tree and needles were cleansing, the pine cones and nuts were fertility charms.  Holly, juniper, mistletoe all have long associations with pagan rituals or particular importance to pagan rites that were well known for centuries, but only adapted for Christian purposes after the date change.  Wreaths, stockings, yule logs, caroling, wassail and other symbols were adapted from earlier non-Christian traditions.

A lot of what we now associate with Christmas is at least half adapted from other religions all in the name of making Christmas and Christianity more attractive and familiar to lure people into the Faith.[/quote]

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