Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Laura on May 22, 2009 at 12:57pm

Christmas started with the pagans anyway and was preempted by Christians. I celebrate Xmas as a celebration of family and giving and togetherness. I think your explanation to your kids is great.

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Permalink Reply by CelticDiablo on May 22, 2009 at 1:08pm

Awesome, I'm glad to hear this. I consider myself a strong Atheist (very proud and outspoken), but I also don't want to deprive my children of their childhood. Religious or not, children love christmas because of the toys :). Thank you for making me feel less guilty about "sorta" celebrating a religious holiday. And yes, christianity did still that as well as other holidays from the pagans.

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Permalink Reply by Rev. James Thomas Hicks, D.D. on May 22, 2009 at 1:44pm

My son at last Xmas over at the in-laws asked me, "What are you doing here?" (he was 3 & just ask random stuff) & I said, "I don't know, I say we get the hell out of here & go home."

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Permalink Reply by Johnny on May 22, 2009 at 1:12pm

First off, welcome to Think Atheist! Along the lines of your post, you might be interested in checking the Parenting Hellions group.

More directly on topic, I think that Christmas is barely hanging on as a religious holiday, its become more and more commercialized and somewhat secular. Besides its origins are not even Christian, they just stole it. That doesn't mean that Christians aren't fighting to make it more religious, but in general I think religion's hold on the holiday is slipping.

My wife and I don't have kids (yet), but I think some kind of gift giving with the kids prevents them from feeling left out. Growing up I recall knowing one Jewish kid and two Jehovah's Witness kids at school, all who hated the Christmas holidays because they felt left out. I don't know if they ever expressed it at home, but I remember hearing about it at school. So I think making sure your kids don't feel like the odd-one-out is important.

Personally I like your idea of "celebrating the spirit of giving and welcoming in the new year." Also using icons that are not religiously related should help imply that it is not a religious holiday.

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Permalink Reply by CelticDiablo on May 22, 2009 at 1:18pm

Excellent. Thank you for the link, that is an wonderful place to see how others deal with raising kids in today's society and our beliefs.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on May 22, 2009 at 1:31pm

Well, I don't have kids, but I do kind of celebrate Christmas, as a time to spend with family and friends. My family is mostly religious, so there are religious ceremonies and traditions being observed, I just don't involve myself with them for the most part. (The one exception being the Christmas Eve celebration/play at my aunt's church. The entire family goes there, and I go along to be social and to watch my younger cousins perform. And to please Grandma.)

As others have said, a celebration at or near the winter solstice is a tradition that long predates Christianity's assimilation of the holiday, and I enjoy it for what it means to me, which is spending time with family.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on May 22, 2009 at 3:04pm

The Christmas push is just as bad over here, with the Christmas items and sales beginning in October, or in the rare cases, September. At least they tend not to start playing nonstop Christmas carols on the loudspeakers until November.

Japan does celebrate Christmas, kinda. Nowhere near the social push that it is over here, though.

Now, for Thanksgiving...mmm, now there's a feast. :) Thanksgiving dinner always trumps Christmas dinner, at least in my experience.

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Permalink Reply by Ron on December 4, 2009 at 1:51am

doesn't look like you missed too many of those Thanksgiving meals.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on December 4, 2009 at 4:15am

Create an account, post an insult.

How very Christian of you.

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Permalink Reply by Serotonin Wraith on May 22, 2009 at 5:43pm

You don't need to believe in the Jesus stuff to enjoy Christmas any more than you have to believe in Santa. It's the Christians who should be more concerned about celebrating it with all the pagan rituals in it.

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Permalink Reply by Corey Lord on May 22, 2009 at 8:11pm

We celebrate Christmas because of the family closeness and the fact that we focus on the giving aspect. Most of the symbols that we incorporate are more from the pagan side with trees and such which we feel shows the the earthiness of the holiday.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Doe on May 23, 2009 at 11:43pm

yea i celebrate it christmas! is awesome, but not for all the jesus stuff, for me its a time to drink eggnog and singin till the neighbors threaten 2 shoot ya lol

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