Ok, after some of the great discussions over religion lately, I came up wondering what you non-christians do at Christmas time. Especially those of you who label yourselves as athiest. Do you take part at all? Or do you stand firm in your beliefs and refuse to take part in a Christian holiday.

 

Great question willowbilly!

It is a most wonderful time of the year. I need to notify my electric company when I'm going to fire up the lights - the day after Thanksgiving - so they can bring online another nuclear reactor.

Christmas is a pagan holiday, observed several hundred years before Christ; a celebration of careful observers of the sun as it stops its depressing slide away from us in the northern hemisphere and begins its happy return, a new birth. I revel in the earthiness of it, the promise of things to come.

I enjoy " I'll Be Home for Christmas" more than "Angels We Have Heard On High" - secular over religious, but both are ear candy.

My beloved wife, who clings to her Catholicism, has accepted her loving pagan husband and we will have a most enjoyable holiday.

Let me, an atheist, be the first to wish you, willowbilly, a merry Christmas.

 

As an atheist I think it's important to give equal time to mythological observances. It would be wrong to celebrate Satan's holiday(Halloween) and not celebrate baby Jesus.

Seriously, I see no problem celebrating the birth of Jesus and the philosophy he represents while denying his divinity. Now Easter is a bit more problematic.

 

You've got an excellent point willowbilly3.

I come from a somewhat religious family, so we have always celebrated Christmas, though not in a real religious manner. I even go to a mass on Christmas eve (my yearly trip to church), it's just easier than having the yearly dispute with the rest of the family.

I think there is a very important distinction to be made here, there is Christmas, and then there is CHRISTMAS.

Christmas is a holiday for most like Thanksgiving, it's just more commercialized and more hyped. It has no basis in the birth of Jesus so much as it's just a time of year to spend with family and loved ones, and try to foster a spirit of good will in the world. No doubt that sprang from the "true" Christmas, but IMHO, they have become completely unrelated to one another. For most, the religious aspect barely gets a seat in the nose bleeds, let alone in the first row.

Then there is CHRISTMAS, the religious event. A celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. About as far away from the commercialized Christmas of most North Americans as you can get.

I love Christmas carols, religious message aside, they are beautiful, and the meaning behind them, peace and love, is positive message.

This post could go way beyond that too, I'm a huge fan of bluegrass and country(old)/folk music. What is the primary topic of all these songs? God and faith.

We are surrounded, in fact much of culture is based on, Christian beliefs, that's unescapable. I don't feel any need to escape it though, I don't fear or resent religion, I just know it's not for me. Just because God is mentioned in a song will in no way prevent me from enjoying it.

I could go on forever here, but I think I'll just stop.

Waxy

 

Excellent post WAXY!

I also celebrate "Christmas"

By the way, Merry Christmas everyone

 

Love that Bluegrass too Waxy, would be a good thread.

Del McCoury Band is my fav.

 

Did you catch Allison Krauss & Union Station on Austin City Limits the other night?

I was in pure awe for 35 minutes.

Ralph Stanley was on not too long ago too, still amazing.

Waxy

 

Well you guys ain't so bad after all. lol I had really expected to hear at least a couple people refusing to join in but I am glad to hear that you can still enjoy christmas on a secular level.

I agree that the date was at one time a pagan holiday but disagree that you could call christmas pagan because of it. I think the Jahova's witnesses view christmas as pagan still. The most agreed on date for Jesus birth would be in April. The early church, I think around the time of Constantine, decided that to convert pagans they would have to give them a substitution for the other holiday they celebrated then(I forgot what it was).
Oh, by the way sinjin, as a Christian family we choose not to pay homage to the nether world on Halloween. Most churches have a harvest festival or some substitution, (hey, does this sound like a familiar pattern) which I can't say I totally agree with but it gives the little kids a place to go O.D. on candy without the likes of anything ghoulish or satanic.
Keep those cards and letters coming folks.

 

Waxy answered this for me. Thanks for saving me the work.

Whistler

 

WB3,
I suspected you didn't observe "All Hallows". Kinda funny that some do the harvest thing since that's probably closer to how it all got started anyway.

 

I would think a Christian who dressed up like freddy and threatened to mess up your stuff if you didn't give him something, would be in danger of being called a hypocrite, which is what turns a good many people off to "religion" in the first place.

 

WB3,
Does this mean Christians don't watch horror movies?
I hadn't thought of that before.

 

Sinjin. Well, I don't think you can accurately make any generalizations that are that broad, but I know some christians that do. I wouldn't watch them, but I really didn't like horror movies long before I turned to God. I liked The Shining at the time, but wouldn't watch it now. I walked out on The Last House on the Left and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Most Christians don't believe in drinking alcohol but it doesn't stop me from having a cold one once in a while because I don't think it's wrong in the capacity that I do it.
I rented Braveheart and the Patriot for my 11 and 13 year old sons to watch with me, and not so much for the graphics but to make an impression on how a man stands up for what is right and answers the call of his warrior spirit without wimping out because it might hurt. Blood and gore just for the sake of blood and gore is pointless and hardly entertainment by any stretch in my opinion.

 

I tried to avoid another religios thread and then I find out what it is about. This is what annoys me the most about holidays. It is called CHRISTmas, the birth of christ. Quite taking our holidays and turning them into happy-go-lucky atheist days. If your not a christian and don't believe that Christ was born in hte way celebrated, fine. YOU can dispute that. But you can not dispute the fact that Christmas is a celebration of that. Its not "Family Day" or new years, its CHRISTmas. It is not fair for atheists to steal this day. Go use some unreligious day.

 

Seifferlein,

I would appreciate it if you would refrain from telling me what I can and can't do.

Who's stealing your day? Give me a break.

Most of these people aren't celebrating CHRISTmas, as I pointed out in my first post, they are celebrating the holidays that were set aside by our government.

Also, if you've noticed, most advertising and commercialization of Christmas refers to it as "the holidays".

Waxy