Athiest celebrating Christmas?

Stone cold athiest here. Practicing Reason for about 15 years now. I'm married to a wonderful woman who was brought up Eastern Orthodox Christian. She never practices and claims to be Agnostic.

We both love Christmas trees. Love listening to those sappy ass Christmas carols. Love the GRP Christmas Collection jazz CD's. We wrap and exchange presents. We drink egg nog, cook the Christmas ham, and wish our Christian neighbors, family, and friends a "very merry Christmas".

But through it all; amid all the decorations in midtown Manhattan I catch myself looking at it all and saying, "what bullshit".

Conflicted? Not really, just love the commercial aspect of, what is suppose to be, a religions celebration.

Does anyone else buy the tree, listen to the sappy ass music, and exchange presents? Have a Christian friend that evry year wishes me a happy winter solstice. I like that.

Ordy

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Permalink Reply by E.J. Solomon on December 14, 2012 at 1:37pm

I like the commercial aspect of it as well. I just celebrate it for the presents and because the tradition has been so ingrained in my life. Someday I think id like to create my own tradition for my future family during the winter solstice. I don't listen to heavily religious themed Christmas carols but the more secular Christmas songs will always be with be. Cant turn away from "Feliz Navidad" and other fun ones, you know?

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Permalink Reply by Ward Cressin on December 14, 2012 at 7:11pm

I don't care for the religious aspects but, having grown up celebrating it, I like it. Now, I keep certain things in mind:

The trees are from pagan solstice celebrations adopted by Xians to subvert the pagans. It sort of succeeded but almost no Xians realize they are using pagan traditions which warms my heart.

The current version of Santa was created by Coca Cola over a hundred years ago IIRC.

Jesus wasn't born at Xmas - if was was real and born at the time of a phenomenon visible in the sky, the likely date is more like April 15th of 4 or 6 BCE (don't remember which year).

Ironically, the "so commercial" gift giving actually makes Xians behave more like they should if they followed Jesus' teachings.

Those are the things I can think of right now. Enjoy whatever darn holiday you want to. :P

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Dyler on December 14, 2012 at 8:53pm

I really like the commercial side of Christmas as well. Growing up in a catholic family we of course celebrated it and I have so many fond memories from this time of year. We always go all out and decorate the house, host dinner and buy gifts. I love the decorations and Christmas music as well. It's just one of those nostalgic times of the year for us. We have many Christmas traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with the religious side of things. I love the general excitement and all the people we get to see during the holidays so we will always celebrate it.

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Permalink Reply by James on December 14, 2012 at 10:22pm

We celebrate as well. Pretty much the whole deal, except for the Christian parts. So basically we celebrate the same as pretty much everyone else. Just no Jesus, nativity or church. Remember, all the fun parts (trees, lights, gifts, singing, and decorations) are all of pagan origin. Then heap a little commercialism on top and you see what Christmas has become today. So enjoy your holiday guilt free. Unless you go to church or display a nativity, you aren't celebrating anything that's actually originally Christian anyway,

Cheers!

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Permalink Reply by Kairan Nierde on December 17, 2012 at 3:52pm

I think the best parts of the holiday come from pagan traditions. It's funny that the Paganism of my ancestors doesn't bother me as much as Christianity. Paganism is just as wrong as Christianity. I wonder if future generations, with a different world view, will look back on the few surviving Christian traditions and consider them just as harmless...

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Permalink Reply by James on December 17, 2012 at 7:54pm

I think it may have something to do with the fact that Christians often try to claim the traditions as their own, so pointing the Pagan roots out is proof positive that their favorite holiday isn't as Christian as they thought. It is odd though. The pagan gods are just as wrong, yet they don't bother me as much. Maybe it's because they aren't trying to rule our lives anymore, or maybe its partially that some of those people knew that the traditions were simply symbolic of the Solstice. I'm not sure of the answer, but I'm in the same boat as you. History will tell, but I hope that Christianity is eventually held just as true as Odin is today.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on December 17, 2012 at 11:41pm

Pagans (those I read of) had more fun. One of their superstitions was that, after they planted the crops each Spring, having sex in the fields would help the crops grow.

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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on December 15, 2012 at 6:01am

Absolutely! They stole it from us in the first place, and we'd be idiots to let a bunch of Bible-thumping fairy tale followers take all the joy and happiness out of a beautiful holiday. Just don't try to tell me that Jesus is the reason for the season.

I trot this out every year, and it's that time again: