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Christmas-time is here.

Started by Fi, November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM

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Fi

Holy crap you guys, I love Christmas. I love that it is an excuse for me to bake excessive amounts of pastries and feed them to people. I love hanging out with family. I love time off from school. I love the decorations and the gift-giving and the candy canes and even all those hokey hooray-for-Jeebus Christmas carols. The first day after Thanksgiving, I turn into an insufferable whirlwind of holiday cheer. I can completely understand why so many people loathe the season, especially if they have to deal with family drama or happen to work in retail, but my own glee is incurable. And possibly hypocritical. But I don't care because eggnog.

Soooo, fellow atheists, I am pretty curious:

1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter Decemberish (sorry about that, southern Hemisphere) holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?
2. If you don't... how do you maintain your sanity during the season? (Not a diss. Honest question.)
3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?
4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
But I don't care because eggnog.

Soooo, fellow atheists, I am pretty curious:

1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?
2. If you don't... how do you maintain your sanity during the season? (Not a diss. Honest question.)
3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?
4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?

Ditto for me re: eggnog.  I love the stuff, and I may be the only person alive who loves fruitcake. 

I can't be said to celebrate any holiday in any meaningful way, but I do go along with the feasting and gift-giving.  As for being an atheist among Xtians, that's never been any real problem with my family (at least the ones I'm on speaking terms with) -- they're fairly religious but not nuts.  I think the Xtians in this country have already pretty much completely secularized Xmas, with their insistance on making it a public holiday which made cheapening it inevitable.  However, if I could have my evil way and convince people to observe their particular religious holidays quietly and privately, I would still promote a purely secular, all-inclusive party time called Winterfest (after the old TV show Beauty and the Beast -- I cannot be swayed by alternate, cooler, celebrations).
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Stevil

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?
2. If you don't... how do you maintain your sanity during the season? (Not a diss. Honest question.)
3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?
4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?
1. Yeah, get together with family. BTW Christmas is a Summer holiday, BBQs and lots of Beach
2. I hate shopping around Christmas time, it is too busy, then on Christmas day and day after everything is shut, it is quite boring actually
3. I don't consider it to be a religious holiday, more of a tradition.
4. With a multicultural society I hope oneday that people will get to choose the holiday and leave they take. Some people prefer Chinese New Year or Diwali or Ramadan etc

Fi

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on November 22, 2011, 05:44:25 AM

I've actually never tried fruitcake. Whether or not you are the only person alive who likes it remains undetermined.
Winterfest sounds cool. Kinda like Oktoberfest. :P

Quote from: Stevil on November 22, 2011, 05:44:37 AM
BTW Christmas is a Summer holiday, BBQs and lots of Beach

...Man, okay, I blame the fact that I went through the US public schools for this. Sorry, southern hemisphere, I suck. *scampers off to fix first post*

Tank

I like the Mithras celebrations. Particularly as I now have a 1yo grandson to spoil  ;D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Fi

Quote from: Tank on November 22, 2011, 07:12:01 AM
I like the Mithras celebrations. Particularly as I now have a 1yo grandson to spoil  ;D
D'awwwww. Spoil 'em good!

(Mithras celebrations! I see what you did there.)

Asmodean

Christmas time, eh..? In about a month, maybe.

Truth to tell, I am completely indifferent to Christmas celebrations with a minor dislike for Christmas holidays (Unless of course I have a pile of new console games to occupy myself with)
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Pharaoh Cat

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
But I don't care because eggnog.

My new favorite sentence.  :)

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter Decemberish (sorry about that, southern Hemisphere) holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?

I'm well ensconced in a family matrix and since the family matrix is Yulish, I am too.  It really is more Yulish for us than Christmasy, by the way.  Santa everywhere, Nativity scenes nowhere.

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?

Never a problem for me because I'm apatheist.  Apathy doesn't take offense.  In fact, I participate in theological discussions from the perspective of whomever I'm talking with.  I talk Islam with Muslims and Judaism with Jews.  I know enough about the three monotheisms to be able to talk about them insightfully and I do so.  "Moses supposedly did this so logically, then..."

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM
4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?

Yule. 

Oh, but let's ditch gift-giving.  I'm a grinch in that regard.  The family matrix has finally stopped all that, preferring instead to go together to a Broadway show.  Victory!  ;)

"The Logic Elf rewards anyone who thinks logically."  (Jill)

Xjeepguy

Xmas will be interesting this year. My wife has no idea that the xmas cards I am going to order actually say "Happy winter solstice". Besides that I shall enjoy the company of my wife, kids, and the few remaining family members, as we eat, drink and be merry. People celebrated this time long before the myth was ever created, so I take no offence.
If I were re-born 1000 times, it would be as an atheist 1000 times. -Heisenberg

Tristan Jay

#9
1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter Decemberish (sorry about that, southern Hemisphere) holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?

I've always loved Christmas, particularly a lot of the secular trappings and so forth; I've loved it before I was a Christian, and I'll probably still like it this year.  I like the feasting, the tree decorating, looking at the house lights, egg nog, hot chocolate, hot buttered rum, all the seasonal pies and most of the seasonal foods, love it.  The only thing that gets to me is all the stuff popping up in the shops months in advance; sometimes even before Halloween has passed by.

2. How do you maintain your sanity during the season? (Not a diss. Honest question.)

The thing is, I don't love the songs.  Every year, it's the same annoying stock collection of songs, and the new ones that seem to get added to the list are the ones that I didn't like from the get go. 

I had an interesting experience early last week, while working a night shift; the store was mostly empty except for myself and the rest of the stocking crew, and the Christmas music was playing; and it was driving me insane.  I started turning into an irritable, complaining, sarcastic, prone-to-violence punk (the violence was directed onto packaged merchandise that I could get away with it on).  I am usually a very patient, calm, mild-mannered person as a rule; some people can't imagine me getting angry at all.  I was wondering in my head as I was breaking down, "Am I more conscientious of it more now that I hate God, and don't want his stupid plan glorified?"  All of it bugged me, but the more religious songs were making me boil inside!  Fortunately, the manager changed the station after maybe an hour or so.  It's funny, given question number 4 talking about "evil atheists"; I'll bet Christians might thing I'm demonically possessed!  :(  I don't know how I'm going to cope after Thanksgiving, but I am seriously considering ear plugs, which I normally hate because they're very uncomfortable for me.  I suppose it's better to be uncomfortable and not have a psychotic episode, right?

3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?

I don't think this will effect things much with my family.  We're all not really religious, yet spiritual in different ways.  Mom's a "recovering Catholic" I believe is the phrase, but she'll still read daily devotional type stuff; she's also ventured into select areas of New Age type stuff (crystals and a few other things I can't recall).  My Dad sticks to two rules: love God and love your neighbor; he also has read the Bible and extensive historical and archeological stuff pertaining to it.  I haven't discussed my current status; we will all probably just celebrate the secular aspects of the holiday.

4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?

I'm only an evil misotheist, but I'll throw out Festivus (a George Costanza thing IIRC), and Saturnalia (only 'cause I'm thinking of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory here).

Whitney

1. Christmas/Festivius/Giftmas/Solstice...calling it whatever the group I'm around prefers.

3. Christmas was stolen from the pagans, doesn't actually coincide with when Jesus would have been born if he existed, and over the years the commercialization has stripped any real religious meaning from the holiday....even most religious people don't celebrate Christmas religiously.  So, no problems.

4.  Rename it back to Winter Solstice since that's what it was originally celebrating.

Too Few Lions

Quote from: Whitney on November 22, 2011, 02:42:48 PM
4.  Rename it back to Winter Solstice since that's what it was originally celebrating.
'tis the reason for the season and all that, I'd love to see xmas given back its proper title of winter solstice. I've got a few friends going down to Stonehenge to celebrate the actual solstice, but I think it'll be too cold for me to do anything outdoors to celebrate the (re)birth of the Sun.

xmas for me will be a lot of eating too much, drinking too much and giving and receiving presents, the same things people were doing thousands of years ago before Christianity hijacked the solstice festivities!

Davin

Quote from: Fi on November 22, 2011, 05:21:54 AM1. Do you celebrate Christmas/any of the other winter Decemberish (sorry about that, southern Hemisphere) holidays? Whether you do or you don't: Ever gotten flak for it?
Not for the last two years, except I send out gifts to my family and call them. That is about as much celebrating as I do.
Quote from: Fi2. If you don't... how do you maintain your sanity during the season? (Not a diss. Honest question.)
By staying off the roads as much as possible.
Quote from: Fi3. Since this is a religious holiday, and a lot of us have religious family and friends: how do you keep the peace during the holidays?
If they don't mention it, I don't make them cry.
Quote from: Fi4. If us evil atheists with our evil atheist agenda successfully secularize/steal Christmas, what should we rename it?
Don't need to rename it, it's already very secular. It's more about Santa and gifts than the biblically incorrect birth time of some dude that probably never existed.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Siz

The best bit is watching my littluns doing their Nativity and singing. Brings a tear to my eye every year.
"Little Donkey, Little Donkey..." :'(

And I dont care if the songs are religious, it's just such a magical time for a child and I love being a part of it and making it magical for them.

Hoorah for telling fantastical stories and pretending Jesus was born to the frigid wife of a chippie, and a comet scorched overhead to guide three sycophants carrying useless presents for a baby. You couldn't make that stuff up! ;D

When one sleeps on the floor one need not worry about falling out of bed - Anton LaVey

The universe is a cold, uncaring void. The key to happiness isn't a search for meaning, it's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually you'll be dead!

AnimatedDirt

Quote from: Whitney on November 22, 2011, 02:42:48 PM
1. Christmas/Festivius/Giftmas/Solstice...calling it whatever the group I'm around prefers.

3. Christmas was stolen from the pagans, doesn't actually coincide with when Jesus would have been born if he existed, and over the years the commercialization has stripped any real religious meaning from the holiday....even most religious people don't celebrate Christmas religiously.  So, no problems.

4.  Rename it back to Winter Solstice since that's what it was originally celebrating.

What happened to (2)?  Ha!

Agreed.

I love the Christmas season, I love the songs and the general happiness it brings.  I don't care for the shopping frenzy and the pressure it brings to get "everyone" a gift.  I hate the trees in the house.  They just make a huge mess.