Happy Atheist Forum

I know many of you are ex-Christians and since many of our families still remain Christian how do deal with Christmas. Obviously the whole family comes together so do you take part or not show up. this is probably my first X-mas as an atheist so i am kind of conflicted...

Don't feel bad celebrating.  Just celebrate a different holiday.  On December 25th it is the winter solstice ... the day the sun is furthest away from the earth.  So smile and drink and spend time with your family.  If they insist on Pagan traditions like the tree then thats their choice.  Celebrate the Winter Solstice like you would any other holiday... eat, drink, and be merry and have a good time with your friends/family.

Right, well that is given but do you give gifts to your family etc?

I give gifts to my family at Christmas. They're atheists too. All of them =).

In terms of other things you could celebrate if it bothers you, there's HumanLight (http://humanlight.org/) and Festivus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus). The latter is a joke of course.

All the fun stuff of Christmas is Pagan. More like American now a days though. I cant speak for Europeans. Santa Clause is about as religous as the Easter Bunny. I think gift exchaging, many carrols, egg nogg, getting trashed at dinner and calling youre sister a whore, and a xmas feasts are all non religous.

Party on dude  

sounds like a plan

Good advice G-Roll. I'm not creative enough to make a good avatar either. The difference is I'm not sorry =).

Quote from: "G-Roll"All the fun stuff of Christmas is Pagan. More like American now a days though. I cant speak for Europeans. Santa Clause is about as religous as the Easter Bunny. I think gift exchaging, many carrols, egg nogg, getting trashed at dinner and calling youre sister a whore, and a xmas feasts are all non religous.

Party on dude  

It doesn't even stop there! The Christmas tree and yule log both were adapted into Christianity from other religions/local practices. Even the manger scene is lifted directly from earlier savior myths. In short, nothing at all about Christmas can really be traced back to Christianity.

I celebrate christmas as fervently as if i were religious. The only difference being, i don't actually celebrate Jesus' birthday. It is more of an 'appreciate my family by eating vast amounts of food' festive holiday. I've managed to bag 7 days off work this year (i had to work christmas eve and the day after boxing day last year Oo) so i'm proper happy about it. I'm going to get some socks with little reindeer faces on them and i'm going to be in charge of making the turkey gravy. I rule at making gravy. We're going to sing carols (my mum's request - i want to keep her happy) and watch various christmas TV whilst drining spiced wine.
Man, i'm looking forward to christmas dinner.

What can i say? I'm a stickler for tradition.  

(edit) all my family are atheist or antitheist.

Christmas in the Southen Hemisphere=win

Although there must be something appealing about a nice comforting family holiday when the days are short and the air is cold....

Quote from: "karadan"I celebrate christmas as fervently as if i were religious. The only difference being, i don't actually celebrate Jesus' birthday. It is more of an 'appreciate my family by eating vast amounts of food' festive holiday. I've managed to bag 7 days off work this year (i had to work christmas eve and the day after boxing day last year Oo) so i'm proper happy about it. I'm going to get some socks with little reindeer faces on them and i'm going to be in charge of making the turkey gravy. I rule at making gravy. We're going to sing carols (my mum's request - i want to keep her happy) and watch various christmas TV whilst drining spiced wine.
Man, i'm looking forward to christmas dinner.

What can i say? I'm a stickler for tradition.  :D   Enjoy your upcomming holidays.

Christmas has become a part of American culture. It's a national holiday and also a tradition in my family. How many non-atheists actually celebrate Christmas with Jesus' birth in mind? My parents considered themselves to be Christians, but I don't really remember much talk/thought about Jesus. I'm all for celebrating the Santa myth with my kids. I know some will say that's lying to my kids, but I don't remember really being disappointed when I realized Santa wasn't real. It's just something FUN about Christmas, in my opinion. (I also don't want my kids to be the one's to tell the other kids there is no such thing as Santa.)

I see nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas....in my family it's always been about family rather than religion anyway.

Bah Humbug!

I still celebrate it but... it's gotten old.

Christmas is a syncretic holiday.  Christians just cut and pasted their own stuff into already existing celebrations from winter solstice feasts and the Roman Saturnalia.  Things like the tree, the decorations, the yule log, mistletoe, exchange of gifts, feasting were all part of celebrations around that time.  Hell, the Puritans in England banned Xmas for about a decade.  The creation of Xmas was just a religio-political move and nothing more.

G-Roll
calling youre sister a whore,
:[/quote]

this is an imperative in some religions  

I find it interesting that it seems easier for people to relinquish religion's strangle-hold upon them than to break the bindings of consumerism.  Doeth as WALMART commands! It was during the Christmas season that I realized I am an atheist.  I rarely give gifts rather I make donations to worthy charities in the name of my family members.

A great one is Angel Wish, http://www.angelwish.org/ (http://www.angelwish.org/), they help poor children afflicted with HIV/AIDS.  For the Christmas season they have a toy drive.

-squib

Quote from: "squibalicous"It was during the Christmas season that I realized I am an atheist.

I might be able to one up you...I realized that I no longer believed on Christmas Eve.  (Granted it then took me through the spring to figure out what not believing meant to me and if I had gone over all the possible evidence or not)

QuoteI rarely give gifts rather I make donations to worthy charities in the name of my family members.

I'm making gifts this year.  Cookies, scarfs, and hats!  It's mainly due to financial necessity but I think I'll make it an ongoing tradition because handmade gifts tend to be more thoughtful (unless someone really needs something).  I just hope I can get them all done in time, I should have started earlier.

We celebrate christmas with a giant barbacoca feast. There's games, too.It's actually nothing like christmas. We have the "genocide of the piñatas", where we buy ten pinatas and attack them en masse. It's more drunken revelry than anything else, I suppose.  

Quote from: "Renegnicat"We celebrate christmas with a giant barbacoca feast. There's games, too.It's actually nothing like christmas. We have the "genocide of the piñatas", where we buy ten pinatas and attack them en masse. It's more drunken revelry than anything else, I suppose.  lol

I got so annoyed by the "how dare you celebrate Christmas?" hooha so much last year that I wrote a little satire - A Very Atheist Christmas - 666 Words on How Atheists Can Celebrate the Winter Holidays (http://www.squidoo.com/Atheist-Issues#module62720202).

Quote from: "karadan"I celebrate christmas as fervently as if i were religious. The only difference being, i don't actually celebrate Jesus' birthday. It is more of an 'appreciate my family by eating vast amounts of food' festive holiday. I've managed to bag 7 days off work this year (i had to work christmas eve and the day after boxing day last year Oo) so i'm proper happy about it. I'm going to get some socks with little reindeer faces on them and i'm going to be in charge of making the turkey gravy. I rule at making gravy. We're going to sing carols (my mum's request - i want to keep her happy) and watch various christmas TV whilst drining spiced wine.
Man, i'm looking forward to christmas dinner.

What can i say? I'm a stickler for tradition.  

(edit) all my family are atheist or antitheist.

This describes me pretty well too. I celebrate christmas but none of the religious aspect of it at all.  My family are non-practicing Catholics so they'll whip out a prayer or two before dinner and I generally just sit there and listen to the blah blah.  For me christmas is nice as I get a few days off, eat a lot of yum yums and get some nice loot.  Nothing more.

My wife and I will celebrate Christmas and New Year on a sunny beach resort in the Dominican Republic. No snow, no cold and definitely no religious nonsense.

In Taiwan, Christmas is basically a couples' holiday, like Valentine's Day is here. No Christmas trees. In fact, my wife thought I was joking when I said everybody (well, almost everybody) either chops down a tree or buys one at the store, hangs lights and crap on it, and sticks it inside the house. Took a while to convince her that really does happen.

On topic, it was the fact that Santa isn't real that crystalized my atheism. "There's no Santa, is there, Mom?" "No, honey." "Same with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, huh?"  "That's right." (To myself, I thought, ...and God.)

Quote from: "Sheeplauncher"I know many of you are ex-Christians and since many of our families still remain Christian how do deal with Christmas. Obviously the whole family comes together so do you take part or not show up. this is probably my first X-mas as an atheist so i am kind of conflicted...

well since over here christmass in my lifetime was never about the birth of christ-but about getting gifts and getting together, I never had a problem with it. I neve buy gifts, so no one expects anything from me. As for family get-togethers, we have these here a lot, holidays or not-so its nothing different for me. Religion never comes up in the discussions

Quote from: "MariaEvri"well since over here christmass in my lifetime was never about the birth of christ-but about getting gifts and getting together, I never had a problem with it. I neve buy gifts, so no one expects anything from me. As for family get-togethers, we have these here a lot, holidays or not-so its nothing different for me. Religion never comes up in the discussions

Bully for you, Maria!  We love the traditional jollities but get sick of all the commercialism, including the expensive presents.  So lately, our family has stuck to an under-ten-pounds rule for presents and then we spend a load on a huge family get-together at a holiday park in the spring.  We make our own cards on the laser printer, also family photo calendars for everyone.  No religion, of course.

In other words we like our family get-togethers  :pop:, keep as much money as possible out of the hands of the commercial exploiters and ignore the Christians who hijacked our ancient winter festival.

Quote from: "OldGit"under-ten-pounds rule for presents.

no way that happens here.

All I get for christmas is goddamned cologne.  :cool:

Christmas is pretty much based on a number of pagan holidays.  To me it is just about getting together with family and friends once a year to catch up.  Most of my family is Christian, but it doesn't really make a difference to me.  Christmas is just a name.  Celebrating Christmas does not mean you have to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Quote from: "kylek"Christmas is pretty much based on a number of pagan holidays.  To me it is just about getting together with family and friends once a year to catch up.  Most of my family is Christian, but it doesn't really make a difference to me.  Christmas is just a name.  Celebrating Christmas does not mean you have to celebrate the birth of Christ.

ditto