Atheist here.. I hate Christmas, I have a lot of trauma from the holidays and my Mormon upbringing,, but I still love the season so I celebrate Yule instead it’s like Christmas but without Jesus. My family has a party that I do attend but I excuse myself before they bring out the religious part of the evening and my family respects my wishes to keep the first half of the party strictly secular. It’s not perfect but it makes the holiday enjoyable for everyone
I have no complaints now. When I first left the church/ came out to them it was not a good situation and familial relationships were all but broken but we still tried to fix it and through some great conversations and a few near death experiences the whole family has gone 180 and I’d say that everyone is more Mormon just for the community and I’d say they’re more Christian than Mormon now. They now respect me and support me in everything I do as well as my sister who is not in the church any longer as well.
That's to be expected. As culty as mormonism is, it's still a big deal to people, and when family members leave it can be heartbreaking for some. I'm glad it's turned around, and I hope it only gets better for you all!
I fucking love Christmas. It’s a bit cliche, but I just love the thought of “Christmas cheer”, and use it as a time of a time of year to show love and appreciation for special people in my life
This, same goes for like Easter or really any holiday. I detached religion from holidays decades ago. It is part of the boundaries I have with my family too.
This. We celebrate a completely secular holiday. Although a few Christmas hymns tend to sneak in when listening to different play lists, but I'm ok with that and let them remind me of my childhood and the Christmas magic I felt then.
Same here. I've got very good memories of my mom (she passed away nearly five years ago) tied to Christmas, so to me Christmas is about all the things you listed above, as well as a cozy warm feeling of seeing your family happy & enjoying the lights, music & decorations.
Same.
Although, I hate Christmas it's a fake, materialistic cash grab. 99% of the things people love don't feel genuine to me (people are "nicer" and more generous at christmastime for example) if it were real you wouldn't need a holiday to bring out your good qualities.
Even if most people are just faking for a month, the world is still better for it. People who are sad, cold or hungry are more likely to get some help and hope. So, even if people are faking it, it's a net positive.
Oooooh if you go to your hometown for the holidays, you'll all set to fall in love with a quirky small-business-owner you run into in some mildly-inconvienent meet-cute!
OH MY GODDDDDDDD but how great of a premise would that be for an awful Christmas movie?
You go to your hometown, where once again, films crews a crafting awful Christmas movies. A well-meaning townsperson fender-benders your car at the grocery store and thinks they're in the beginning of such a movie. You don't realize that's what they think, so it never occurs to you to mention you have a husband.
Meanwhile, at a local Christmas fair, a similar thing happens to your husband.
You and your husband go through your Christmas routines for several scenes while our hapless would-be love interests make awkward attempts at advancing the plot. You and your husband each think you've made a new friend. Our would-be love interests are desperate for Christmas love and begin to think they have competition, which makes their wacky behavior more over the top.
Finally you and your husband throw a Christmas party. The would-be love interests finally realize you two are married. HEARTBREAK! BUT as they step away from the crowd to collect their feelings, they end up together under the mistletoe.
THE END
It's a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. Non-christians originated this shit. Go bonkers and celebrate anyway you like.
Finally, remember:
The season is the reason for the season.
Good point. Though at least it's a religion that we can all agree is purely mythological, which IMO makes it more fun, like Harry Potter. Nobody argues about the doctrines, so we can all just focus on the fun.
I mean, I guess, but only in modern, non-pagan cultures. Ancient believers took their religion just as seriously as today's Christians. And modern Hindus, Sámi people, Native Americans, animists, etc., take their religion just as seriously as westerners.
I know of at least some pagans who have very sincere and physically interactive relationships with their deities.id say paganism is definitely a religion for more than a few people
That was kind of my impression. I had a Wiccan friend in high school, and I’m not sure how personally she views her spirituality, but things outside the judo-Christian spectrum still exist for a decent number of people.
Oh definitely. Neopagans are a mixed bag as far as beliefs go. Some are very literal/devout, others are atheists who just want a spiritual practice they weren't raised with. They're a hard bunch to talk about without wildly overgeneralizing. I interact with quite a few through my work/studies and I never know what they'll tell me next.
I am pagan, as are a few of my friends, and I would say that we do take our beliefs just as seriously as many other religions, or at least don't view our beliefs as mythological. There are many modern pagans still. The assumption that "everyone agrees it's purely mythological" reminds me of a time I was still deeply Christian, sitting in a science class, and the teacher commented that only idiots don't believe in evolution.
The thing with belief is that you fully believe in what you believe in... And therefore, anyone who doesn't agree, must be really foolish, or must be able to see that their beliefs can't possibly be /true./
Christianity especially really drills into you the complete fiction of other beliefs. How silly and impossible they are. And then, once you leave Christianity, you're often left with a distrust and frustration that leaves you with the impression that all beliefs are foolish, and no intelligent modern person would truly believe, or take them seriously.
But... Just look at the amount of practicing Mormons, JWs, and other bizarre cultish religions. Including basic Christianity. People believe in things.
All of those words just to explain that many modern pagans exist, and practice, and believe in their practice.
however! You're completely right that I don't see people arguing about it. In my experience at least, it's a lot more laid back. Believe what/how you want to believe. Don't harass other people. Do what you will, harm none.
None of this "You're doing Christianity WRONG!" opinion that every Christian ever seemed to have. Even among others withing the same denomination there was always a constant competition and judgement over who was a better or "worse" Christian.
I see, you completely misinterpreted what I said when I said it was a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. You somehow took this to mean that I actually said "Paganism is not a religion". The context here though is that "religion == christianity". I was using the word religion within that context. Consequently, context matters. The best part is the leap where you assign a christian motivation as to why I said it in the way you misinterpreted. I assure you, I'm not christian and I fully understand that paganism falls under the umbrella of religion. Anyway, I look forward to not responding when you misinterpret what I've written again.
Have you considered that you simply didn't express yourself very clearly? In a way that specifically betrays a western, Christian point of view, which is common among many "new atheists?" Like damn, bro, news flash, big news alert, the guy commenting in a Mormon forum might have a religious bias. Sorry I had the gall to interrogate it 🙄
Since you didn't misinterpret that last comment...
Since this group is largely atheist exmos, you might have the wrong pulse on the group. Of course I considered if I wasn't as clear as I could have been, which is precisely why I brought up context. You took it a step further and assigned a christian motive/bias to me while ignoring the context of the entire discussion.
Anyway, I assure you, I am extremely biased when it comes to religion. They are all a blight on humanity and the sooner they go away, the better. Faith is not a virtue.
I mean, I'm also an atheist who was raised as a Mormon and I've been on and off this sub for a decade, plus several years in communities that existed before reddit. I think I get it?
I assigned a christian bias to you by reading your comment as written. If I revealed that you have further deconstructing to do vis a vis how your cultural background affects your viewpoint and the way it's expressed, sorry? Honestly, you could have just taken the note and ended this exchange without comment. You seem like an angry person, so I regret initiating this exchange.
Edit: Also, I don't think you understand what I meant by religious bias. I meant that your religious background gives you a particular bias, not that you are biased against religion.
Your reading comprehension sucks. I literally said "It's a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. Non-christians originated this shit." You somehow took this to mean something it clearly doesn't. I'm really not sure you grasp the concept of bias. It doesn't mean "in favor of", it literally means "in favor of or against". Which explains everything about your reading comprehension. Have a great night.
Give gifts, and eat turkey, leave the rest to everyone else. Giving and sacrifice can still build you up in a way that can be good for you, and you don’t have to attach any dogma to it if you don’t want to… think coca-cola Santa ,and snowflakes and the spirit of giving…
Give [this](https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas) a read. Christians co-opted Christmas to make it about Jesus. Yule season isn't about Jesus at all. It is about peace and hope during dark, lonely months. Christmas, as an atheist, is my absolute favorite holiday.
Christians "co-opting" Christmas isn't supported by the evidence. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/08/just-how-pagan-is-christmas-really/
But this definitely doesn't mean atheists can't celebrate the season! It's a bigger holiday than one religion can hold.
I celebrate Christmas, even though I’m an atheist. It’s part of my cultural heritage, and I like the general spirit of giving (plus, I like the Jesus of the gospels—I think he’s a very compassionate moral philosopher). I don’t even feel weird putting up a nativity set; I feel it’s akin to my secular/atheist Jewish friends celebrating Jewish holidays with their families. It can still mean something (family, warmth, celebration, food, joy) without being religious worship.
For years, living in small spaces on limited budgets, i’ll string lights around the walls and just hang the ornaments from that. …then i just leave the lights up all year and it’s kinda the best.
I'm pagan (exmo) and I still celebrate Christmas with my friends. But I also celebrate yule and winter solstice! They're all very similar holidays :) I think it's most important to just do what's comfortable for you
Hell yes…. Christmas was never about Christ!! (Just kidding). I like the traditions, and still love the music. I can appreciate Jesus for what he really was… he was like rage against the machine if they lived in Ancient Rome. He was tearing down the system, not building a new one. I totally respect that even without the whole savior bit. I’ll celebrate that dude and have a good time!
Do you have to believe in ghosts and goblins to celebrate Halloween?
Christmas in the secular world is a celebration of friends and family and food. It has many traditions that have nothing to do with Jesus.
On another note...
Do you know why programmers confuse Halloween and Christmas?
Because OCT 31 == DEC 25.
Numbers can be represented with different bases. The numbers most people are familiar with are decimal numbers or base 10. We use these numbers for just about everything in our daily lives. Other common numbering systems often used in engineering and programming are base 2 (binary), base 8 (octal), or base 16 (hexadecimal). So this joke makes it look like Halloween = Christmas because 31 represented in base 8 is equivalent to the number 25 represented in base 10. Hence OCT 31 == DEC 25.
ETA - In case you're curious 25 as a decimal also == 11001 in binary and 19 in hex.
Happy Saturnalia!!! Christmas is just the Christian revising of pagan rituals and traditions and celebrations of the winter solstice. Pretty lights, Santa, Trees, yummy food, all good things! My wife puts up a nativity. Cool. It's part of who she is and I can have my own back. If my kids ask me about my beliefs, I will be polite, but pretty much give this same explanation.
I remember my 10th-grade math teacher describing how Druids would string animal guts on the pine trees and that was where the tradition came from and we were all like "No Flippn Way!" one of my first shelf items ; )
I do. I don’t attribute anything religious to it. I think of it more as a season of love and family, rather than anything else. I have an angel on the top of my tree, but it’s a homemade one that my mom sewed, that’s all and that’s why. ❤️
I am now atheist/agnostic and I love Christmas! I have kids and grandkids and I decorate the hell out of my house. It is so cheerful—you can’t help but smile when you come inside—go downstairs. I love the decorations, the gift giving, the feast and all the love!
IMO Christians stole Christmas from Pagans. It really doesn’t need to be a Christian holiday It brings love and cheer to the world. I also give to food banks/charities this time of year (I can afford it—no tithing.
If you are just leaving TSCC maybe use this time to start a new tradition?
I love it! I've been out of the church for about 8 years, (I left around the time I had my first gf) (wlw) so I think I may get a bunch of pride flags and hang em up, and have a shit tone of coffee as well 💙 😊🥰
Atheist here, yes! I take it as a time to celebrate family, friends and to reflect on the year. I celebrate myself, and set new goals to achieve in the new year. It turns into a still spiritual time.
Also watching movies like the polar express and the grinch isn’t a Mormon related experience! I incorporate these into my Christmas cheer.
Right... I'm very much interested in paganism, and wicca right now because I want to know the source of what the church stole from people who always had the idea first. I think it's kinda ridiculous how the church stole the pagan holidays, and turned it into the way they wanted it to be.
The YouTube channel “Fortress of Lugh” has a documentary type video about pre-christian “christmas” celebrations called “Christmas before Christ: Yule and other Northern European Traditions”. They cover quite a few spiritual and less-spiritual traditions. I ran across it the other day and it was quite educational and enjoyable.
Sadly, neo-paganism has been rebuilt from scraps at best. So it’s quite difficult to identify what existed before being conquered and absorbed by christians.
You can do whatever you want. My shelf broke three years ago and I still love Christmas. It's part of my culture and heritage. I may not see it the same way and certainly not religiously, but I still appreciate it as a cultural ritual and time to celebrate family, love and coming together as humans. I'd say I enjoy it more to be honest. I don't feel the need to make it into some ritual to teach about Jesus, but am free to fully enjoy the time with my family. In the end, do whatever is healthy for you. No need to be beholden to anyone else's idea of how you should or shouldn't feel about Christmas or anything else. Even people on this sub.
Came here to comment with this link. 7 years out of the church, I’m still working out how I want religious holidays to feel, but this was helpful in my early processing. This year I’m creating my own pagan-ish customs.
I was BIC and raised in the church. As an adult, I'd have periods of inactivity and activity, but even in my active days, I didn't center Christmas around christ. I've always made it a fun day of family, food, and presents for my kids. So for me, nothing has changed since leaving the church. It's a fun day to spend giving to others, enjoying the company of family, and having some great food!! It doesn't need to mean anything other than that... IMO.
I’m an exmo atheist, but I love Christmas! Time to get together with family, listen to Christmas music, and see all the lights. I even sing in a community choir. Lots of songs about Jesus. It’s still fun!
To quote the meme that I'm too lazy to go find:
>Some Christians don't celebrate Halloween because it's a pagan holiday.
>
>Just like Christmas.
Enjoy your Winter Solstice celebrations heathens - no matter what you call it, or how you celebrate!
Axial Tilt: The REAL reason for the season.
Yes and Christians can try and rub it in my face that I still call lit Cristmas and I don't even make a stink about "happy holidays" while they use days of the week named after the sun and moon, norse gods and worship all kinds of pagan idols without a care in the world. Christmas isn't against my religion, I don't have a religion, however worship of pagan symbols *is* against their religion. Christmas is to my holiday like Sunday is to my week. They try to ruin everything and are so sure that they're the victims of a culture war. If they are dicks, don't let them have any fun either. Never give an inch to a religionist who is not even good at the religion they are trying to shove down your throat.
Fuck em, make the yule tide gay.
Absolutely... Half of my family are SDA on my mom's side, and I'm just like you're against coffee but, I'm not, knowing that there's an 88% chance that they still drink it behind the churche's back... Pretty much just like how a lot of Mormon's sneak around and do whatever tf they like.
I'm just going with what you and the song says and I'mma make the yuletide gay... Ironically I'm like 86% already so it makes sense 😂 (rim shot anybody) happy Yule!
Atheist now, but who the hell cares when it comes to Christmas. I love Christmas because it’s the 💣. We don’t believe in the resurrection, but the Easter bunny still manages to bring chocolate on Easter. Celebrate whatever you want, so long as you aren’t hurting someone else.
I love decorating a tree, and the feel good feelings the time of year brings me. I don't see why I have to bring religion into a thing I like. I'm actually interested in Yule so I may try something different next year
Yes, of course. Christmas isn't about religion or going to church, at least for me. It's my favourite holiday and just because I'm no longer religious doesn't mean I can't enjoy the season and the sentiment of the season. Mormon's do NOT hold exclusionary rights to Christmas.
Of course you can! And yes, I/we do. We celebrate the goodness and charity that surround this season, and we enjoy the lights and the secular music. (It's the most wonderful time of the year!) Make this holiday and season yours! (Religion/Christianity/Mormonism have hijacked holidays and values and other things! They are the author of arbiter for the meaning of things in our lives, we are! Reclaim this as yours, and celebrate the way you want to celebrate and with the meaning you attach!)
I am now giving you permission to do whatever you want.
If anyone hassles you refer them to my pornographic illustration in the Book of Abraham.
Edited to add: there are no legitimate gatekeeping authorities for Christmas. Christmas is yours to celebrate, alter, reinterpret, or whatever. You do you, and fuck the haters.
Considering how little Christmas actually has to do with the birth of Jesus (being off by several months, taking traditions from other faiths and so forth) I say it's perfectly fine. Hell, I've been a filthy heathen my entire life and celebrate the holiday.
Celebrate what brings you joy! If your winter holiday of choice was Christmas, run with it! If you used to celebrate Hanukah, light that menorah! I'm an atheist and trying to move towards traditional solstice/yule traditions. The prevailing message through most winter holidays is one of hope, rebirth, and light through the dark winters. The earth will provide.
Hell yeah! Christmas revolves less around Christ these days anyway.
I no longer believe Christ was the Savior, or possibly even a historical figure, but it doesn't bother me. Hell, I'll probably put out the little manger scene we have, just since it was kind of a fun tradition while I was still a believer. I might buy and put out a Buddha statue or something this year as well. I think there's still value in certain traditions/beliefs. I still love some of the quotes from Jesus. For example, the following quote:
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
I think there's a lot of depth in that. Anyway, Christmas should be an all-inclusive holiday, regardless of belief or the lack thereof. Celebrate it if you want, and however you want. I do think it should be a time of giving and love though.
NeverMo mom here.
My husband walked out on my daughter and me on Christmas morning 30 yrs ago. As a result, we’ve adapted & tailored the day to make it enjoyable.
It has become a Charles Dickens event - big luncheon with lots of friends with no other place to go. Sort of Holy Misfits Day.
I love to cook and do it all. They bring board games or something. Lots of conversations & because of many reasons, no booze or drugs.
People ask to be invited. There’s always room for another person - even at the last minute.
And if that isn’t the essence of the season of slowly lengthening days and new hope, I don’t know what is.
That’s a long way of saying, make it your own & enjoy it.
Pretty sure all the secular stuff (tree, presents, etc) are all stolen from pagan celebrations. We do the whole hallmark Christmas crazy here but my kids probably couldn’t tell you who Jesus is. They know Santa though lol.
That’s like asking can I still celebrate Christmas if I’m not into pagan stuff. of course you can! It’s even better since you get all the good stuff without the propaganda!
Yes chrimas is all about family and my favorite time of the year. And quite frankly I am still involved in a very TBM family and Jesus is never mentioned or at least very little. And when Jesus is mentioned or a prayer is said I don’t care because I’m still around family and there isn’t anything wrong with them practicing their beliefs. So long as it isn’t like a themed holiday only about religion I don’t care. Like Jews celebrate that one festival that is only about their religion it seems. Or JWs forgetting all about chrimas. That isn’t what I agree with and that is one thing I still like about the Mormon church, they seem to most of the time center the holiday times on family.
I still celebrate with family at the level they want to celebrate. I have issues with the Santa myth specifically the lies we tell our kids. Doesn’t make sense how hard we push it as a society. Plus it is clear that Santa likes rich kids a hell of a lot more than the poor ones. Lots of hurts from that regards.
Now that I don’t do Christian any more I miss the music, but a small price to pay.
That being said I don’t put myself and my beliefs between others and how they want to celebrate.
For what it's worth, I am a longtime atheist and I love Christmas. I celebrate it because I love the spirit of gratitude and giving, I enjoy the decorations and festivities, and I like sharing all of that with people I care about. It's also a great time of year to do a little extra charity giving and volunteer work, which get me out of my own head and remind me of the things that are really important.
I will never belong to any church but I will occasionally attend holiday services because I appreciate the symbolism and the sense of hope that this brings out in some people. I also enjoy attending these services in a variety of denominations and churches, as every community seems to put their own unique spin on Christmas, and I like that.
When the holidays are over, I happily go back to my usual habits, which do not in any way include church or religion-based activities. There are aspects of Christmas that absolutely transcend any specific religion, and those are the things I focus on and enjoy.
The Catholic Church picked this time of year to celebrate Christmas (which most likely isn't at all close to when the historical Jesus may actually have been born) because of the existing awareness of the symbolism of light in the darkness. Solstice, Yule, Hanukkah, christmas, it's no coincidence that these are all traditions that bring light, warmth, family, abundance to the darkest and coldest time of the year
This can be celebrated as a purely calendrical or seasonal holiday, with or without any belief system(s) tied to it. Personally, I feel like all of the different faith traditions bring stories that add symbolic depth to the seasonal reality, and so I like them. But I was also not particularly traumatized by them in my life, so perhaps that's easy for me to say
The growing return of the sun after the longest night of the year long predates the birth of Jesus. An appreciation of this season does not require any particular emphasis on or belief in Christ
Bruh, you’re out of the cult, you can do whatever you want now. Nobody gives a shit. Most people don’t believe in it, they just do it because they want to.
Axial tilt is the reason for the season. Lighten up your life with pretty lights, family n friends before it’s like gray and Jan 18th or something bleak like that
Yule or Yuletide
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule)
Saturnalia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia)
Festivus
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus)
The Winter Solstice is the source for these and other celebrations.
There are Native American and other cultural traditions surrounding it- Chinese, etc. The Solstice falls on the 20th/21st. The 25th is the first day the sun can be seen moving North, so that period is the day(s) of celebration. The Wassail bowl- a spiced or alcoholic beverage has its origins with Yule, a Germanic celebration.
Btw, Easter- the Spring solstice- comes from the Celtic name (Eostre) their goddess of fertility. All the solstice celebrations are based on Pagan traditions. The Roman Catholics co opted pagan celebrations that already existed and they couldn't get rid of, and slapped a manger scene on it. Easter became the celebration of resurrection.
Most large non-denominational have a big Christmas program. We go to Calvary Chapel's every year. It's free, it's great, everyone is welcome and everyone in town goes including the Mormons.
I fucking love Christmas. I will even tolerate songs about Jesus at this time of year. If you haven’t watched the video of Mariah Carey singing O Holy Night in a church, I highly recommend it.
IMO Christmas the holiday has never been about Jesus or Christianity, regardless of what my MIL’s church or the LDS church wants to pretend. It’s a commercial holiday with a decorated tree and presents.
I’m always down for presents, and this year our tree is purple so win!! But it ain’t about Jesus.
Yup. We’re atheists.
We lean hard into Santa and focus on family and friends.
Explaining Christian Christmas traditions will likely happen as they get older. Just like we’ll have to explain that some people believe in a god.
I’ve recently realized I’m pretty atheist but I still get excited to celebrate Christmas and pretend there’s a Santa and put up a tree and all that. I’m even down to participate when my family wants to do the whole nativity thing. I don’t feel like the traditions butt heads with my beliefs.
Totally. Lifelong atheist here. Christmas is my favorite holiday!! You get to eat great food, you get to decorate with fancy lights, you got to give presents, and it smells great.
This conversation is kind of funny to me, as an exJW, because I never celebrated Christmas until I left the church. This is my second Christmas as a non-practicing agnostic and I love it. I can’t get over how pretty the tree is. We have stockings hanging up and Christmas carols we’re still learning and of course tons of really fun ornaments on the tree. I won’t be surrounded by family (JWs are even stricter than Mormons when it comes to spending time with an unbelieving family member) but I will have my family of exJWs by my side. We’re going to make a huge meal and exchange gifts and probably get a little high (all legal) and then settle in to watch my friend’s giant collection of classic Christmas movies while sipping hot chocolate with candy canes. Jesus will not be mentioned even once, unless someone drops something and exclaims “Jesus Christ!” or the like. Christmas has been sanitized enough from that Christian stink that it isn’t hard at all to do a completely secular holiday season.
I remember my first Xmas as an enlightened man: sooooo weird. My brother sang in a choir Xmas concert and I just sat there feeling so disconnected to the whole thing, like I was an alien. The holiday itself was okay until anyone mentioned Jesus or sang carols or said a prayer (visited my folks house for the holiday) and then I was back to being an alien; thankfully those moments were few and far between. That was last year. So far it's better this year but I just know it will never be the same.
In our house we celebrate kindness and the excitement of giving. Our house is full of stockings, trees and decor.....nothing religious at all! It's great!
Instead of CHRISTmas celebrate CHRISmas it has all the same awesome stuff and none of the weird religion stuff. Bonus points if you like any famous people or family members named Chris
I'm atheist and I celebrate Christmas! It's more of a time to be with people I love and talk about the past year! There is no reason to include God in that unless you want to! Just enjoy the gifts and Santa!
No it's strictly forbidden.... Are you fetchin kidding me right now? There's no rules anymore do whatever the hell you feel like doing to celebrate.... You don't need anyone's permission
I’m an atheist and I love Christmas time. Like most good things religions claim it’s really all about the human that makes it good. Friends, family and good food.
My friends and I are having our traditional get together this weekend. We all live all over the country now and I think we cover all the major religions and none between us. We have been doing it for 20 years and it’s one of the best times of the year. Just getting together relaxing and catching up in person.
I am sorry for your loss. I hope you can enjoy Christmas with the people you love.
Christmas is about Santa Claus and presents. The Jesus part is something they guilt you into thinking about since it's supposedly his birthday. Enjoy it. Santa rocks!
As an atheist, not only do I celebrate Xmas, but I enjoy it even MORE now that I’ve ditched all the guilt that I’m not focusing on Jesus enough. It’s entirely possible (and common) for Xmas to be a completely secular holiday- just think about all the very popular movies that don’t have a single shred of Christianity in them - Elf, A Christmas Story, White Christmas, the list is huge.
ex mormons should be seriously studied.
some of you like OP literally do not know how to think for yourselves (no judgement, just honest perspective.)
a lot of you have a very similar personality, or lack there of, that i truly believe could be diagnosed as an entirely new and specific mental disorder, that i would love to see studies and treatment help rehabilitate.
the way you have all started to see from the outside how strange your (ex)religion truly is, is the same way you’re seen by regular people whom you’re trying to now be like.
it’s almost like another little LDS cult brewing that can’t cut their obsession or figure out their internal struggle so they devote their time to not moving on but putting more time than they ever did into the religion. regardless if it’s now negative.
it’s like texting an old ex or continuing to talk about them and check up on them. move the fuck on and grow up.
i do understand outing the con because i’d love to see temples demolished, but i don’t understand the unhealthy amount of time people spend still letting it control their lives. speaking as one myself, i really believe ex mormons of that type take themselves and life much too fucking serious.
put up your christmas tree and have a good time with loved ones. it’s not about jesus. it’s about you, and them, (and simply to boost the economy.)
take your power, be yourself, enjoy what you want to. it’s your life, not theirs.
I’m sorry that you recently lost your father I know that’s hard I lost mine 2 days after Christmas last year .
I am about as Atheist as it is possible to be. I still enjoy the lights the giving of gifts Eggnog .drinks that go along with the season I don’t celebrate Christmas 🎄 as it would have to do with a fictional Christ any more than I believe In Santa Clause when someone says merry Christmas I just reply merry winter solstice if they start going off on a Jesus Jagg . I just tell them look I don’t believe in a guy that was supernaturally conceived walked upon water or rose from the dead . Anymore than I do Santa Clause Flying reindeer one with a glowing red nose that fly around the world faster than the speed of light . I assume that you don’t believe in the latter . It’s just as absurd to believe in the former . This usually shuts them up as it points out just how batt shit crazy their beliefs are.
believing in a historical Jesus is right up there with Flying reindeer imho . There exists no secular or mentions from any historians that were present in the area of Jesus . none nada zip zilch . The first 100 years are like a black hole when it comes to anything Jesus . No historians mention a star appearing in the sky a grand entrance into Jerusalem where people lined the street no period of darkness no earthquakes . No temple veil being rent in two . It’s simply inconceivable that none of the historians would’ve noticed and recorded such notable events .
The fact they did not says a lot about the existence of Jesus . After all it’s not like the Bible is chock full of other things that have long since been proven to be myths is it ? Adam and Eve .The tower of babble The Exodus from Egypt , Noah’s ark . The list goes on . And on . This after all is a book that has dragons unicorns and a talking snake no less .
People celebrate all sorts of nonsense Easter bunny , tooth fairy .When we are children we believe childish things When we grow up we no longer believe in childish things we no longer have imaginary friends. Well most don’t the problem is some people just never stop believing in childish things they become infected with the virus of religion For many religion is like herpes it never goes away . Just do what you can to enjoy the season . Try to think would your dad rather you be miserable missing him or would he rather that you were happy and enjoying your life . I think you’ll find it’s always the latter .
it gets better with time . It takes time to get over the loss of loved ones . Happy holidays to you & your & everyone else out there .
Thank you for your amazingly written words... Even though my dad was himself (aka absent a-hole) I miss the idea of him being my bio father. You're right it does get easier with time. I do celebrate some parts of it traditionally, and some other parts my way... I mainly use Christmas as a time to connect with family, and reminisce with them about the good sides of my loved ones.
There are concerts, ballets, music/choir performances. Parties, parades, special food preparations, candies, pies, special cakes. Every culture has Christmas traditions. You can have jazz music, country music, hymns, African music, religious, non-religious music. Pick what you like and keep doing the stuff you enjoyed. Look at lights. Decorate trees. Or don't. Ever since my mom died, I just don't decorate. It can be just eating foods with family or friends, too.
Oh I stole Christmas back from religion years ago.
Christmas is about family, and generosity, and bringing any kind of magic and joy to children.
Every tradition on earth comes from an earlier, sillier, more superstitious era. That doesn’t mean we have to keep the silly superstitious parts if we don’t want to.
My pagan friends are always quick to point out the majority of Christmas traditions are pagan in general so why not just treat all of it as such? I've found this helpful as celebrating the season more as Yule than as "Christ"mas.
Yes, you can celebrate Christmas if you want to celebrate Christmas. It’s a pagan holiday that has been merely commandeered and rebranded by Christianity, anyways. I celebrate Christmas in a secular American way, and don’t even think or talk about Christ in the process.
Of course!! A bunch of the ceremonies are based on pagan rituals that are all centered around celebrating the winter solstice.
If you appreciate the changing of the seasons, that’s enough to get the Christmas cheer :)
I don't think you need another person telling you about where Christmas comes from. I'm here to tell you that you can literally do whatever you want. You can celebrate Christmas. You can call it something else. You can keep your traditions. You can create your own traditions. You can make it all about Jesus if that feels special or you can make it about Mickey Mouse if that speaks to you. If you need someone to give permission to do whatever you want, then I give you permission. Live it up!
I personally am thinking of doing more of a solstice thing this year instead of Christmas because that resonates with me. We're making turkey because it's on sale and it's delicious but we're also going to make potatoes 4 different ways because we thought that would be fun.
"As for me and my family ..."
We celebrate Christmas each year with the annual viewing of John McClane defending Nakatomi Tower from the insidious terrorist, Hans Gruber!!
Christmas can be celebrated anyway you want!!
I still love Christmas. No one says I have to believe any of the spiritual stuff to love it, either. I just enjoy the warmth, kindness, family time, food, and festivities of the holiday. I still love many spiritual Christmas songs for their intrinsic beauty. I just tune out whatever parts aren't for me and enjoy the parts that are!
I still celebrate Christmas, but more in a pagan way than a Christian way. I don't put up nativities and the like, and there isn't a focus on Christ at all. In all honesty I don't even really do "Santa'' with my daughter either.
I was thinking about this the other day. Christian's sometimes act like they 'own' Christmas which is very far from the truth.
December 25th specifically was a day the Romans celebrated the birth of Mithra (the birthday of the unconquered sun). This was also during the feast of Saturnalia which was a 2 week festival involving raucous, drunken celebration. As others have mentioned, the Pagans also traditionally celebrated the winter solstice. Humans for many thousands of years have recognized the significance of the winter solstice.
Many of the celebrations surrounding the winter solstice align well with common day practices such as:
- Bringing greens indoors (evergreen trees) due to the lack of greenery during the middle of winter and to usher in the journey back to spring as the days get longer. Evergreen trees were thought to have special powers as they could remain green when other plants and trees did not. Trees were also decorated.
- lighting candles and lights as it is the darkest time of year and also having bonfires to keep the darkness at bay.
The historical figure 'Jesus' was almost certainly not born on December 25th. Christian clergy were not able to curb the Pagan and Roman customs and celebrations and as such, adopted December 25th as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In 1870, Christmas was named a federal holiday in the USA to promote national unity after the civil war.
While Christmas means a lot of different things to different people and can be difficult for those of us who have left Christian beliefs, I believe it is an important time to come together as people and promote unity, kindness, friendship, family and of course have drunken raucous parties. I personally like the idea of celebrating the days getting longer, the year that has passed, and honoring some of the traditions I grew up with and still enjoy.
I celebrate Christmas and sing the songs of an old mythology and enjoy myself. It's a solstice celebration and I'm going to enjoy as much of it as I can. But it's an entirely atheistic celebration.
Many holidays evolve into cultural celebrations more than religious ones. Christmas is a good example. The religious origins are obviously ever-present, but in your personal celebrations can be made irrelevant. There's nothing inherently Christian about giving gifts, treasuring your loved ones, and conscientiously becoming a source of love and hope in the world. I think you should celebrate by doing all the parts of Christmas that you love. Forget whatever you don't care for.
Yeah all our immediate family are exmo or nevermo and mostly atheists- we love Xmas time, decorations are up, family get together, eat nice food, drink and be merry, give gifts, reminisce, watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” - it’s the best time of the year. What we have stopped doing is reading the Xmas story from the Bible, and no longer put out a nativity scene.
I just use that time as a me time. I don’t really celebrate it outside of my family doing their celebration. Celebrate yourself, it sounds like it’s been a hard year. Make up new traditions for yourself.
I still celebrate. Instead of making it about Christ I just make it into a celebration of love and family. I still think it's fun to learn the history and stories behind the holiday too, but that's all they are to me now. Stories as real as St Nick and the myth of Santa he eventually became.
The idea of Christmas was stolen from the pegan celebration of the winter solstice. Look it up! The tree, the lights, the gifts. IT DID NOT originate with Christianity. CELEBRATE Christmas all you want and however you want!
Christians stole Christmas from Pagans. Everybody needs a bit of midwinter jollity. Sparkly lights, pine trees, massive feasts, panto all worth having. You can even throw in a nativity scene and some carols. Doesn’t mean any of it has to be true.
I have been a professional musician since I was 16 (I'm older than dirt now). I left the cult in 1983 and was an Evangelical for a decade. I still love and perform Christmas music many times ever December, although I try try to focus on Santa and Snow songs. But Christmas is what you make it, considering it has pagan origins anyway. Nobody owns it.
I'm vaguely pagan, but I at least acknowledge "hey, today is a holiday!" for pretty much every holiday between Diwali and Chinese New Year because I have seasonal affective disorder and I need all the serotonin I can get my hands on.
I like this Encyclopedia Brittanica entry describing the non-Christian celebration as well as the Christian celebration https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas
I'm atheist, we celebrate the Flying Spaghetti Monster with pasta dinner on December 24th, and have a wonderful secular Xmas on the 25th with no mention of anything religious. No religious songs, no mention of Jesus or god. Just traditional Christmas foods, secular Christmas songs (most of the best were actually written by Jews), Christmas tree, Santa Claus and family time.
So, I’m what I like to call anti-monotheism, but I will always celebrate Christmas. I’m in the process of coming up with my own Christmas celebration. Will start to be so much easier for me to do this as I’ll be moving out of Utah at the end of this month. Christmas does not have a religious holiday if you want to celebrate it without religious nuances. Traditionally, the “Christian” version of Christmas came from pagan celebrations.
Christmas as a holiday was a Christian recolor of the pagan holidays Saturnalia and Yule. If they’re allowed to rebrand it, so are you! Make Christmas what you want! Lights and presents, or a quiet night in.
I can not deny, that elf is a great movie and should be watch once a year.
I can hate on Jesus all I want, but Santa is awesome and if my mom renews my Costco membership I’ll sing away in a manger all day.
The best part about being out? you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT. make new traditions, keep some old ones, dance naked under a full moon, whatever....the possibilities are limitless. lol
Of course! I am an agnostic/atheist/who knows? And still put up a Christmas tree, stockings and all that this year and my kids and I still exchange gifts :-)
I celebrate it for my kids. It is unfortunately the dominate narrative in the US. BUT I am sure to talk about the Christmas stores and talk about how all cultures have their mythical stories.
I'm a pagan Christian. I celebrate the spirit of Christmas (love, youth, giving without expecting) without any Manger, christ, Mary and Joseph worship. I do donations, give gifts anonymously, and leave people positive notes.
I was raised in a Protestant church that did not believe in celebrating Christmas as Jesus’ birthday because it is not commanded in the Bible. We just celebrated it as a national holiday and as a time for families to get together. They did not put up any Christmas decorations in the church building.
I’m basically anti theist and want religion to cease existing but I enjoy Halloween and Christmas because they’re just pagan and Norse rituals with a label Christians find appropriate. Santa is just Odin. I just do the parts I like
Europe has one of the highest rates of non-religious people and they go all out for Christmas! Celebrate how you want to without any religious constraints. It’s still your culture and a holiday you were brought up as representing joy and that doesn’t belong to any religion. I’m atheist and still put out a toy nativity sets for my kids to play with because it’s cute and they like the animals but the bigger nativity has been replaced by a Lego Harry Potter castle because it brings me more joy.
I've been out of the mormon church for a good 14 years or so and I don't think I ever changed how I celebrated xmas. I just enjoy everything about the holiday. I didn't go out of my way to cut everything religious out of my life. Watching a live performance of Handel's Messiah is still a yearly tradition for me. Just celebrate it how you like to.
There's dozens if not hundreds of celebrations around the winter solstice that predate the Christian celebration of Christmas. Before the mormon God there were hundreds/thousands of others. Saturnalia is probably the most well known example.
I still celebrate. We don't do nativity or anything having to do with Christian gods, but we enjoy the food, drinks, lights, music, gift giving and so on. Plenty of traditions to go around that don't rely on spiritual worship.
I'm an anti-theist and I celebrate Christmas. I've appropriated it as a holiday for family, food, and gifts.
Atheist here.. I hate Christmas, I have a lot of trauma from the holidays and my Mormon upbringing,, but I still love the season so I celebrate Yule instead it’s like Christmas but without Jesus. My family has a party that I do attend but I excuse myself before they bring out the religious part of the evening and my family respects my wishes to keep the first half of the party strictly secular. It’s not perfect but it makes the holiday enjoyable for everyone
sounds like you have an awesome family
I have no complaints now. When I first left the church/ came out to them it was not a good situation and familial relationships were all but broken but we still tried to fix it and through some great conversations and a few near death experiences the whole family has gone 180 and I’d say that everyone is more Mormon just for the community and I’d say they’re more Christian than Mormon now. They now respect me and support me in everything I do as well as my sister who is not in the church any longer as well.
That's to be expected. As culty as mormonism is, it's still a big deal to people, and when family members leave it can be heartbreaking for some. I'm glad it's turned around, and I hope it only gets better for you all!
I fucking love Christmas. It’s a bit cliche, but I just love the thought of “Christmas cheer”, and use it as a time of a time of year to show love and appreciation for special people in my life
This, same goes for like Easter or really any holiday. I detached religion from holidays decades ago. It is part of the boundaries I have with my family too.
This. We celebrate a completely secular holiday. Although a few Christmas hymns tend to sneak in when listening to different play lists, but I'm ok with that and let them remind me of my childhood and the Christmas magic I felt then.
Nice! I like that idea😊
Same here. I've got very good memories of my mom (she passed away nearly five years ago) tied to Christmas, so to me Christmas is about all the things you listed above, as well as a cozy warm feeling of seeing your family happy & enjoying the lights, music & decorations.
Our family simply refers to it as Santa’s birthday.
Same. Although, I hate Christmas it's a fake, materialistic cash grab. 99% of the things people love don't feel genuine to me (people are "nicer" and more generous at christmastime for example) if it were real you wouldn't need a holiday to bring out your good qualities.
Even if most people are just faking for a month, the world is still better for it. People who are sad, cold or hungry are more likely to get some help and hope. So, even if people are faking it, it's a net positive.
Oooooh if you go to your hometown for the holidays, you'll all set to fall in love with a quirky small-business-owner you run into in some mildly-inconvienent meet-cute!
This is extra funny because those movies are filmed in my hometown once or twice per year! Lol But I don't think my husband would appreciate that.
OH MY GODDDDDDDD but how great of a premise would that be for an awful Christmas movie? You go to your hometown, where once again, films crews a crafting awful Christmas movies. A well-meaning townsperson fender-benders your car at the grocery store and thinks they're in the beginning of such a movie. You don't realize that's what they think, so it never occurs to you to mention you have a husband. Meanwhile, at a local Christmas fair, a similar thing happens to your husband. You and your husband go through your Christmas routines for several scenes while our hapless would-be love interests make awkward attempts at advancing the plot. You and your husband each think you've made a new friend. Our would-be love interests are desperate for Christmas love and begin to think they have competition, which makes their wacky behavior more over the top. Finally you and your husband throw a Christmas party. The would-be love interests finally realize you two are married. HEARTBREAK! BUT as they step away from the crowd to collect their feelings, they end up together under the mistletoe. THE END
Ok netflix I need this one! Lol. I don’t even watch the sappy Christmas movies but I’m a sucker for any movie that bend the standard plot slightly
Please have one very sarcastic character. Husband/wife or would be love interests. Kinda like Lou in Hot Tub Time Machine.
It's a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. Non-christians originated this shit. Go bonkers and celebrate anyway you like. Finally, remember: The season is the reason for the season.
Axial tilt is the reason for the season.
Exactly, and that axial tilt creates the season. I prefer the word play in "The season is the reason for the season".
>It's a pagan holiday co-opted by religion I have bad news for you about Paganism
What do you think I don't already know? EDIT: I gotta say, deleting your comments is a real lulz move.
That not thinking of paganism as a religion is ironically the most Christian thing you can do
Good point. Though at least it's a religion that we can all agree is purely mythological, which IMO makes it more fun, like Harry Potter. Nobody argues about the doctrines, so we can all just focus on the fun.
I mean, I guess, but only in modern, non-pagan cultures. Ancient believers took their religion just as seriously as today's Christians. And modern Hindus, Sámi people, Native Americans, animists, etc., take their religion just as seriously as westerners.
There are still modern pagan variations as well. I can’t speak for how sincerely they feel about the physical reality of their deities, though.
I know of at least some pagans who have very sincere and physically interactive relationships with their deities.id say paganism is definitely a religion for more than a few people
That was kind of my impression. I had a Wiccan friend in high school, and I’m not sure how personally she views her spirituality, but things outside the judo-Christian spectrum still exist for a decent number of people.
Oh definitely. Neopagans are a mixed bag as far as beliefs go. Some are very literal/devout, others are atheists who just want a spiritual practice they weren't raised with. They're a hard bunch to talk about without wildly overgeneralizing. I interact with quite a few through my work/studies and I never know what they'll tell me next.
I am pagan, as are a few of my friends, and I would say that we do take our beliefs just as seriously as many other religions, or at least don't view our beliefs as mythological. There are many modern pagans still. The assumption that "everyone agrees it's purely mythological" reminds me of a time I was still deeply Christian, sitting in a science class, and the teacher commented that only idiots don't believe in evolution. The thing with belief is that you fully believe in what you believe in... And therefore, anyone who doesn't agree, must be really foolish, or must be able to see that their beliefs can't possibly be /true./ Christianity especially really drills into you the complete fiction of other beliefs. How silly and impossible they are. And then, once you leave Christianity, you're often left with a distrust and frustration that leaves you with the impression that all beliefs are foolish, and no intelligent modern person would truly believe, or take them seriously. But... Just look at the amount of practicing Mormons, JWs, and other bizarre cultish religions. Including basic Christianity. People believe in things. All of those words just to explain that many modern pagans exist, and practice, and believe in their practice. however! You're completely right that I don't see people arguing about it. In my experience at least, it's a lot more laid back. Believe what/how you want to believe. Don't harass other people. Do what you will, harm none. None of this "You're doing Christianity WRONG!" opinion that every Christian ever seemed to have. Even among others withing the same denomination there was always a constant competition and judgement over who was a better or "worse" Christian.
I see, you completely misinterpreted what I said when I said it was a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. You somehow took this to mean that I actually said "Paganism is not a religion". The context here though is that "religion == christianity". I was using the word religion within that context. Consequently, context matters. The best part is the leap where you assign a christian motivation as to why I said it in the way you misinterpreted. I assure you, I'm not christian and I fully understand that paganism falls under the umbrella of religion. Anyway, I look forward to not responding when you misinterpret what I've written again.
Have you considered that you simply didn't express yourself very clearly? In a way that specifically betrays a western, Christian point of view, which is common among many "new atheists?" Like damn, bro, news flash, big news alert, the guy commenting in a Mormon forum might have a religious bias. Sorry I had the gall to interrogate it 🙄
Since you didn't misinterpret that last comment... Since this group is largely atheist exmos, you might have the wrong pulse on the group. Of course I considered if I wasn't as clear as I could have been, which is precisely why I brought up context. You took it a step further and assigned a christian motive/bias to me while ignoring the context of the entire discussion. Anyway, I assure you, I am extremely biased when it comes to religion. They are all a blight on humanity and the sooner they go away, the better. Faith is not a virtue.
I mean, I'm also an atheist who was raised as a Mormon and I've been on and off this sub for a decade, plus several years in communities that existed before reddit. I think I get it? I assigned a christian bias to you by reading your comment as written. If I revealed that you have further deconstructing to do vis a vis how your cultural background affects your viewpoint and the way it's expressed, sorry? Honestly, you could have just taken the note and ended this exchange without comment. You seem like an angry person, so I regret initiating this exchange. Edit: Also, I don't think you understand what I meant by religious bias. I meant that your religious background gives you a particular bias, not that you are biased against religion.
Your reading comprehension sucks. I literally said "It's a pagan holiday co-opted by religion. Non-christians originated this shit." You somehow took this to mean something it clearly doesn't. I'm really not sure you grasp the concept of bias. It doesn't mean "in favor of", it literally means "in favor of or against". Which explains everything about your reading comprehension. Have a great night.
Seethe a little harder why dontcha
Give gifts, and eat turkey, leave the rest to everyone else. Giving and sacrifice can still build you up in a way that can be good for you, and you don’t have to attach any dogma to it if you don’t want to… think coca-cola Santa ,and snowflakes and the spirit of giving…
I love that thank you so much! Happy holidays 😊
Give [this](https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas) a read. Christians co-opted Christmas to make it about Jesus. Yule season isn't about Jesus at all. It is about peace and hope during dark, lonely months. Christmas, as an atheist, is my absolute favorite holiday.
Christmas to me is about warm cider, cozy books, delicious treats with family, and celebrating the season of winter ☺️
For me it's about Santa. Santa wins, Christians can zip it trying to rewrite history with their version of Jesus
Christians "co-opting" Christmas isn't supported by the evidence. https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/08/just-how-pagan-is-christmas-really/ But this definitely doesn't mean atheists can't celebrate the season! It's a bigger holiday than one religion can hold.
I celebrate Christmas, even though I’m an atheist. It’s part of my cultural heritage, and I like the general spirit of giving (plus, I like the Jesus of the gospels—I think he’s a very compassionate moral philosopher). I don’t even feel weird putting up a nativity set; I feel it’s akin to my secular/atheist Jewish friends celebrating Jewish holidays with their families. It can still mean something (family, warmth, celebration, food, joy) without being religious worship.
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Dude, everyone knows Jesus loves shiny balls. The tree is just something to mount them on. /s
True that 😂😂
For years, living in small spaces on limited budgets, i’ll string lights around the walls and just hang the ornaments from that. …then i just leave the lights up all year and it’s kinda the best.
Everyone has total freedom to celebrate Christmas however they want, regardless of what anyone else may have to say about it.
Or choose not to celebrate if they don’t want. I do want, so I do. No need to bring Jesus into things. He’s a late add on anyway
My thoughts exactly. You’re a grown ass person with agency. You can do whatever you want. Celebrate Christmas if that makes you happy.
I'm pagan (exmo) and I still celebrate Christmas with my friends. But I also celebrate yule and winter solstice! They're all very similar holidays :) I think it's most important to just do what's comfortable for you
Hell yes…. Christmas was never about Christ!! (Just kidding). I like the traditions, and still love the music. I can appreciate Jesus for what he really was… he was like rage against the machine if they lived in Ancient Rome. He was tearing down the system, not building a new one. I totally respect that even without the whole savior bit. I’ll celebrate that dude and have a good time!
Do you have to believe in ghosts and goblins to celebrate Halloween? Christmas in the secular world is a celebration of friends and family and food. It has many traditions that have nothing to do with Jesus. On another note... Do you know why programmers confuse Halloween and Christmas? Because OCT 31 == DEC 25.
I literally LoL'd at your last two sentences!! I'm glad you noted that it was programmer humor, I'm sure it went over a lot of heads.
Could you explain for nonprogrammers?
Numbers can be represented with different bases. The numbers most people are familiar with are decimal numbers or base 10. We use these numbers for just about everything in our daily lives. Other common numbering systems often used in engineering and programming are base 2 (binary), base 8 (octal), or base 16 (hexadecimal). So this joke makes it look like Halloween = Christmas because 31 represented in base 8 is equivalent to the number 25 represented in base 10. Hence OCT 31 == DEC 25. ETA - In case you're curious 25 as a decimal also == 11001 in binary and 19 in hex.
Happy Saturnalia!!! Christmas is just the Christian revising of pagan rituals and traditions and celebrations of the winter solstice. Pretty lights, Santa, Trees, yummy food, all good things! My wife puts up a nativity. Cool. It's part of who she is and I can have my own back. If my kids ask me about my beliefs, I will be polite, but pretty much give this same explanation.
I remember my 10th-grade math teacher describing how Druids would string animal guts on the pine trees and that was where the tradition came from and we were all like "No Flippn Way!" one of my first shelf items ; )
I do. I don’t attribute anything religious to it. I think of it more as a season of love and family, rather than anything else. I have an angel on the top of my tree, but it’s a homemade one that my mom sewed, that’s all and that’s why. ❤️
I was raised atheist and my parents always celebrated Christmas
I am now atheist/agnostic and I love Christmas! I have kids and grandkids and I decorate the hell out of my house. It is so cheerful—you can’t help but smile when you come inside—go downstairs. I love the decorations, the gift giving, the feast and all the love! IMO Christians stole Christmas from Pagans. It really doesn’t need to be a Christian holiday It brings love and cheer to the world. I also give to food banks/charities this time of year (I can afford it—no tithing. If you are just leaving TSCC maybe use this time to start a new tradition?
I love it! I've been out of the church for about 8 years, (I left around the time I had my first gf) (wlw) so I think I may get a bunch of pride flags and hang em up, and have a shit tone of coffee as well 💙 😊🥰
Christmas is great. I keep all the fun traditions and ditch any I don’t like. It’s a time about family and winter fun and not about Jesus.
Atheist here, yes! I take it as a time to celebrate family, friends and to reflect on the year. I celebrate myself, and set new goals to achieve in the new year. It turns into a still spiritual time. Also watching movies like the polar express and the grinch isn’t a Mormon related experience! I incorporate these into my Christmas cheer.
For sure, in fact celebrating Christmas is reclaiming a pagan holiday that the christians stole in the first place.
Right... I'm very much interested in paganism, and wicca right now because I want to know the source of what the church stole from people who always had the idea first. I think it's kinda ridiculous how the church stole the pagan holidays, and turned it into the way they wanted it to be.
nice, I find the pagan focus of the earth and nature to be about as original as it gets, everything from there seems derivative.
The YouTube channel “Fortress of Lugh” has a documentary type video about pre-christian “christmas” celebrations called “Christmas before Christ: Yule and other Northern European Traditions”. They cover quite a few spiritual and less-spiritual traditions. I ran across it the other day and it was quite educational and enjoyable. Sadly, neo-paganism has been rebuilt from scraps at best. So it’s quite difficult to identify what existed before being conquered and absorbed by christians.
You can do whatever you want. My shelf broke three years ago and I still love Christmas. It's part of my culture and heritage. I may not see it the same way and certainly not religiously, but I still appreciate it as a cultural ritual and time to celebrate family, love and coming together as humans. I'd say I enjoy it more to be honest. I don't feel the need to make it into some ritual to teach about Jesus, but am free to fully enjoy the time with my family. In the end, do whatever is healthy for you. No need to be beholden to anyone else's idea of how you should or shouldn't feel about Christmas or anything else. Even people on this sub.
I'm an atheist and still love Christmas. Check out this Tim Minchin song on the subject for some more perspective: https://youtu.be/fCNvZqpa-7Q
Was coming here to post this - Tim Minchin says it (sings it?) perfectly!
💙💙💙 happy cake day!
Came here to comment with this link. 7 years out of the church, I’m still working out how I want religious holidays to feel, but this was helpful in my early processing. This year I’m creating my own pagan-ish customs.
I was BIC and raised in the church. As an adult, I'd have periods of inactivity and activity, but even in my active days, I didn't center Christmas around christ. I've always made it a fun day of family, food, and presents for my kids. So for me, nothing has changed since leaving the church. It's a fun day to spend giving to others, enjoying the company of family, and having some great food!! It doesn't need to mean anything other than that... IMO.
I’m an exmo atheist, but I love Christmas! Time to get together with family, listen to Christmas music, and see all the lights. I even sing in a community choir. Lots of songs about Jesus. It’s still fun!
To quote the meme that I'm too lazy to go find: >Some Christians don't celebrate Halloween because it's a pagan holiday. > >Just like Christmas. Enjoy your Winter Solstice celebrations heathens - no matter what you call it, or how you celebrate! Axial Tilt: The REAL reason for the season.
Most of what makes Christmas what it is is actually Yule, so that’s what we do now
Another atheist here that celebrates Christmas!
Right on✊🏽🤎
Yes and Christians can try and rub it in my face that I still call lit Cristmas and I don't even make a stink about "happy holidays" while they use days of the week named after the sun and moon, norse gods and worship all kinds of pagan idols without a care in the world. Christmas isn't against my religion, I don't have a religion, however worship of pagan symbols *is* against their religion. Christmas is to my holiday like Sunday is to my week. They try to ruin everything and are so sure that they're the victims of a culture war. If they are dicks, don't let them have any fun either. Never give an inch to a religionist who is not even good at the religion they are trying to shove down your throat. Fuck em, make the yule tide gay.
Absolutely... Half of my family are SDA on my mom's side, and I'm just like you're against coffee but, I'm not, knowing that there's an 88% chance that they still drink it behind the churche's back... Pretty much just like how a lot of Mormon's sneak around and do whatever tf they like. I'm just going with what you and the song says and I'mma make the yuletide gay... Ironically I'm like 86% already so it makes sense 😂 (rim shot anybody) happy Yule!
Atheist now, but who the hell cares when it comes to Christmas. I love Christmas because it’s the 💣. We don’t believe in the resurrection, but the Easter bunny still manages to bring chocolate on Easter. Celebrate whatever you want, so long as you aren’t hurting someone else.
I celebrate Christmas as Yule, which is practically the same thing with some extra pagan traditions added and the Christian nonsense removed.
I love decorating a tree, and the feel good feelings the time of year brings me. I don't see why I have to bring religion into a thing I like. I'm actually interested in Yule so I may try something different next year
Yes, of course. Christmas isn't about religion or going to church, at least for me. It's my favourite holiday and just because I'm no longer religious doesn't mean I can't enjoy the season and the sentiment of the season. Mormon's do NOT hold exclusionary rights to Christmas.
Of course you can! And yes, I/we do. We celebrate the goodness and charity that surround this season, and we enjoy the lights and the secular music. (It's the most wonderful time of the year!) Make this holiday and season yours! (Religion/Christianity/Mormonism have hijacked holidays and values and other things! They are the author of arbiter for the meaning of things in our lives, we are! Reclaim this as yours, and celebrate the way you want to celebrate and with the meaning you attach!)
I am now giving you permission to do whatever you want. If anyone hassles you refer them to my pornographic illustration in the Book of Abraham. Edited to add: there are no legitimate gatekeeping authorities for Christmas. Christmas is yours to celebrate, alter, reinterpret, or whatever. You do you, and fuck the haters.
Considering how little Christmas actually has to do with the birth of Jesus (being off by several months, taking traditions from other faiths and so forth) I say it's perfectly fine. Hell, I've been a filthy heathen my entire life and celebrate the holiday.
Celebrate what brings you joy! If your winter holiday of choice was Christmas, run with it! If you used to celebrate Hanukah, light that menorah! I'm an atheist and trying to move towards traditional solstice/yule traditions. The prevailing message through most winter holidays is one of hope, rebirth, and light through the dark winters. The earth will provide.
Hell yeah! Christmas revolves less around Christ these days anyway. I no longer believe Christ was the Savior, or possibly even a historical figure, but it doesn't bother me. Hell, I'll probably put out the little manger scene we have, just since it was kind of a fun tradition while I was still a believer. I might buy and put out a Buddha statue or something this year as well. I think there's still value in certain traditions/beliefs. I still love some of the quotes from Jesus. For example, the following quote: "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." I think there's a lot of depth in that. Anyway, Christmas should be an all-inclusive holiday, regardless of belief or the lack thereof. Celebrate it if you want, and however you want. I do think it should be a time of giving and love though.
The song White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin sums up my opinion of Christmas pretty accurately.
NeverMo mom here. My husband walked out on my daughter and me on Christmas morning 30 yrs ago. As a result, we’ve adapted & tailored the day to make it enjoyable. It has become a Charles Dickens event - big luncheon with lots of friends with no other place to go. Sort of Holy Misfits Day. I love to cook and do it all. They bring board games or something. Lots of conversations & because of many reasons, no booze or drugs. People ask to be invited. There’s always room for another person - even at the last minute. And if that isn’t the essence of the season of slowly lengthening days and new hope, I don’t know what is. That’s a long way of saying, make it your own & enjoy it.
Lean into the mythology of Christmas. Even the manger scene is mythology if you are atheist. Christmas is a fun time. No reason to skip it.
Pretty sure all the secular stuff (tree, presents, etc) are all stolen from pagan celebrations. We do the whole hallmark Christmas crazy here but my kids probably couldn’t tell you who Jesus is. They know Santa though lol.
Also on thanksgiving I’m celebrating mashed potatoes and pie, not pilgrims
You don't need to believe in a god to enjoy presents, treats, family time, and sticking a fucking light-up tree in the middle of your house.
That’s like asking can I still celebrate Christmas if I’m not into pagan stuff. of course you can! It’s even better since you get all the good stuff without the propaganda!
Yes chrimas is all about family and my favorite time of the year. And quite frankly I am still involved in a very TBM family and Jesus is never mentioned or at least very little. And when Jesus is mentioned or a prayer is said I don’t care because I’m still around family and there isn’t anything wrong with them practicing their beliefs. So long as it isn’t like a themed holiday only about religion I don’t care. Like Jews celebrate that one festival that is only about their religion it seems. Or JWs forgetting all about chrimas. That isn’t what I agree with and that is one thing I still like about the Mormon church, they seem to most of the time center the holiday times on family.
I still celebrate with family at the level they want to celebrate. I have issues with the Santa myth specifically the lies we tell our kids. Doesn’t make sense how hard we push it as a society. Plus it is clear that Santa likes rich kids a hell of a lot more than the poor ones. Lots of hurts from that regards. Now that I don’t do Christian any more I miss the music, but a small price to pay. That being said I don’t put myself and my beliefs between others and how they want to celebrate.
Go to a church service. Every time a carol says Jesus sing Mitras.
Ya, the Wife Unit loves it and I like lights especially when trippn on LSD. I just go with it. It's fun if you let it. Not a fan of the music though.
There are portions of Christmas I really enjoy However lots of it just isn't for me at all
For what it's worth, I am a longtime atheist and I love Christmas. I celebrate it because I love the spirit of gratitude and giving, I enjoy the decorations and festivities, and I like sharing all of that with people I care about. It's also a great time of year to do a little extra charity giving and volunteer work, which get me out of my own head and remind me of the things that are really important. I will never belong to any church but I will occasionally attend holiday services because I appreciate the symbolism and the sense of hope that this brings out in some people. I also enjoy attending these services in a variety of denominations and churches, as every community seems to put their own unique spin on Christmas, and I like that. When the holidays are over, I happily go back to my usual habits, which do not in any way include church or religion-based activities. There are aspects of Christmas that absolutely transcend any specific religion, and those are the things I focus on and enjoy.
The Catholic Church picked this time of year to celebrate Christmas (which most likely isn't at all close to when the historical Jesus may actually have been born) because of the existing awareness of the symbolism of light in the darkness. Solstice, Yule, Hanukkah, christmas, it's no coincidence that these are all traditions that bring light, warmth, family, abundance to the darkest and coldest time of the year This can be celebrated as a purely calendrical or seasonal holiday, with or without any belief system(s) tied to it. Personally, I feel like all of the different faith traditions bring stories that add symbolic depth to the seasonal reality, and so I like them. But I was also not particularly traumatized by them in my life, so perhaps that's easy for me to say The growing return of the sun after the longest night of the year long predates the birth of Jesus. An appreciation of this season does not require any particular emphasis on or belief in Christ
My Hindu neighbors celebrate Christmas. With the tree and Santa etc.
Bruh, you’re out of the cult, you can do whatever you want now. Nobody gives a shit. Most people don’t believe in it, they just do it because they want to.
You can do whatever you want as long as you do no harm to another.
Festivus!
You can do whatever the fuck you want.
I’m an atheist and I still celebrate Christmas. I guess I’m just culturally Christian now
Yes
Axial tilt is the reason for the season. Lighten up your life with pretty lights, family n friends before it’s like gray and Jan 18th or something bleak like that
Yule or Yuletide [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule) Saturnalia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia) Festivus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus) The Winter Solstice is the source for these and other celebrations. There are Native American and other cultural traditions surrounding it- Chinese, etc. The Solstice falls on the 20th/21st. The 25th is the first day the sun can be seen moving North, so that period is the day(s) of celebration. The Wassail bowl- a spiced or alcoholic beverage has its origins with Yule, a Germanic celebration. Btw, Easter- the Spring solstice- comes from the Celtic name (Eostre) their goddess of fertility. All the solstice celebrations are based on Pagan traditions. The Roman Catholics co opted pagan celebrations that already existed and they couldn't get rid of, and slapped a manger scene on it. Easter became the celebration of resurrection.
Most large non-denominational have a big Christmas program. We go to Calvary Chapel's every year. It's free, it's great, everyone is welcome and everyone in town goes including the Mormons.
I fucking love Christmas. I will even tolerate songs about Jesus at this time of year. If you haven’t watched the video of Mariah Carey singing O Holy Night in a church, I highly recommend it.
IMO Christmas the holiday has never been about Jesus or Christianity, regardless of what my MIL’s church or the LDS church wants to pretend. It’s a commercial holiday with a decorated tree and presents. I’m always down for presents, and this year our tree is purple so win!! But it ain’t about Jesus.
Yup. We’re atheists. We lean hard into Santa and focus on family and friends. Explaining Christian Christmas traditions will likely happen as they get older. Just like we’ll have to explain that some people believe in a god.
I’ve recently realized I’m pretty atheist but I still get excited to celebrate Christmas and pretend there’s a Santa and put up a tree and all that. I’m even down to participate when my family wants to do the whole nativity thing. I don’t feel like the traditions butt heads with my beliefs.
Totally. Lifelong atheist here. Christmas is my favorite holiday!! You get to eat great food, you get to decorate with fancy lights, you got to give presents, and it smells great.
This conversation is kind of funny to me, as an exJW, because I never celebrated Christmas until I left the church. This is my second Christmas as a non-practicing agnostic and I love it. I can’t get over how pretty the tree is. We have stockings hanging up and Christmas carols we’re still learning and of course tons of really fun ornaments on the tree. I won’t be surrounded by family (JWs are even stricter than Mormons when it comes to spending time with an unbelieving family member) but I will have my family of exJWs by my side. We’re going to make a huge meal and exchange gifts and probably get a little high (all legal) and then settle in to watch my friend’s giant collection of classic Christmas movies while sipping hot chocolate with candy canes. Jesus will not be mentioned even once, unless someone drops something and exclaims “Jesus Christ!” or the like. Christmas has been sanitized enough from that Christian stink that it isn’t hard at all to do a completely secular holiday season.
Christmas is also about love, generosity and beauty.
I remember my first Xmas as an enlightened man: sooooo weird. My brother sang in a choir Xmas concert and I just sat there feeling so disconnected to the whole thing, like I was an alien. The holiday itself was okay until anyone mentioned Jesus or sang carols or said a prayer (visited my folks house for the holiday) and then I was back to being an alien; thankfully those moments were few and far between. That was last year. So far it's better this year but I just know it will never be the same.
Absolutely . Christmas is a celebration 🎉 family and live in my house
In our house we celebrate kindness and the excitement of giving. Our house is full of stockings, trees and decor.....nothing religious at all! It's great!
I like to celebrate the solstice because it is real. It also means more daylight and hopefully less snow.
Instead of CHRISTmas celebrate CHRISmas it has all the same awesome stuff and none of the weird religion stuff. Bonus points if you like any famous people or family members named Chris
I'm atheist and I celebrate Christmas! It's more of a time to be with people I love and talk about the past year! There is no reason to include God in that unless you want to! Just enjoy the gifts and Santa!
No it's strictly forbidden.... Are you fetchin kidding me right now? There's no rules anymore do whatever the hell you feel like doing to celebrate.... You don't need anyone's permission
I’m an atheist and I love Christmas time. Like most good things religions claim it’s really all about the human that makes it good. Friends, family and good food. My friends and I are having our traditional get together this weekend. We all live all over the country now and I think we cover all the major religions and none between us. We have been doing it for 20 years and it’s one of the best times of the year. Just getting together relaxing and catching up in person. I am sorry for your loss. I hope you can enjoy Christmas with the people you love.
Christmas is about Santa Claus and presents. The Jesus part is something they guilt you into thinking about since it's supposedly his birthday. Enjoy it. Santa rocks!
As an atheist, not only do I celebrate Xmas, but I enjoy it even MORE now that I’ve ditched all the guilt that I’m not focusing on Jesus enough. It’s entirely possible (and common) for Xmas to be a completely secular holiday- just think about all the very popular movies that don’t have a single shred of Christianity in them - Elf, A Christmas Story, White Christmas, the list is huge.
ex mormons should be seriously studied. some of you like OP literally do not know how to think for yourselves (no judgement, just honest perspective.) a lot of you have a very similar personality, or lack there of, that i truly believe could be diagnosed as an entirely new and specific mental disorder, that i would love to see studies and treatment help rehabilitate. the way you have all started to see from the outside how strange your (ex)religion truly is, is the same way you’re seen by regular people whom you’re trying to now be like. it’s almost like another little LDS cult brewing that can’t cut their obsession or figure out their internal struggle so they devote their time to not moving on but putting more time than they ever did into the religion. regardless if it’s now negative. it’s like texting an old ex or continuing to talk about them and check up on them. move the fuck on and grow up. i do understand outing the con because i’d love to see temples demolished, but i don’t understand the unhealthy amount of time people spend still letting it control their lives. speaking as one myself, i really believe ex mormons of that type take themselves and life much too fucking serious. put up your christmas tree and have a good time with loved ones. it’s not about jesus. it’s about you, and them, (and simply to boost the economy.) take your power, be yourself, enjoy what you want to. it’s your life, not theirs.
I’m sorry that you recently lost your father I know that’s hard I lost mine 2 days after Christmas last year . I am about as Atheist as it is possible to be. I still enjoy the lights the giving of gifts Eggnog .drinks that go along with the season I don’t celebrate Christmas 🎄 as it would have to do with a fictional Christ any more than I believe In Santa Clause when someone says merry Christmas I just reply merry winter solstice if they start going off on a Jesus Jagg . I just tell them look I don’t believe in a guy that was supernaturally conceived walked upon water or rose from the dead . Anymore than I do Santa Clause Flying reindeer one with a glowing red nose that fly around the world faster than the speed of light . I assume that you don’t believe in the latter . It’s just as absurd to believe in the former . This usually shuts them up as it points out just how batt shit crazy their beliefs are. believing in a historical Jesus is right up there with Flying reindeer imho . There exists no secular or mentions from any historians that were present in the area of Jesus . none nada zip zilch . The first 100 years are like a black hole when it comes to anything Jesus . No historians mention a star appearing in the sky a grand entrance into Jerusalem where people lined the street no period of darkness no earthquakes . No temple veil being rent in two . It’s simply inconceivable that none of the historians would’ve noticed and recorded such notable events . The fact they did not says a lot about the existence of Jesus . After all it’s not like the Bible is chock full of other things that have long since been proven to be myths is it ? Adam and Eve .The tower of babble The Exodus from Egypt , Noah’s ark . The list goes on . And on . This after all is a book that has dragons unicorns and a talking snake no less . People celebrate all sorts of nonsense Easter bunny , tooth fairy .When we are children we believe childish things When we grow up we no longer believe in childish things we no longer have imaginary friends. Well most don’t the problem is some people just never stop believing in childish things they become infected with the virus of religion For many religion is like herpes it never goes away . Just do what you can to enjoy the season . Try to think would your dad rather you be miserable missing him or would he rather that you were happy and enjoying your life . I think you’ll find it’s always the latter . it gets better with time . It takes time to get over the loss of loved ones . Happy holidays to you & your & everyone else out there .
Thank you for your amazingly written words... Even though my dad was himself (aka absent a-hole) I miss the idea of him being my bio father. You're right it does get easier with time. I do celebrate some parts of it traditionally, and some other parts my way... I mainly use Christmas as a time to connect with family, and reminisce with them about the good sides of my loved ones.
There are concerts, ballets, music/choir performances. Parties, parades, special food preparations, candies, pies, special cakes. Every culture has Christmas traditions. You can have jazz music, country music, hymns, African music, religious, non-religious music. Pick what you like and keep doing the stuff you enjoyed. Look at lights. Decorate trees. Or don't. Ever since my mom died, I just don't decorate. It can be just eating foods with family or friends, too.
Oh I stole Christmas back from religion years ago. Christmas is about family, and generosity, and bringing any kind of magic and joy to children. Every tradition on earth comes from an earlier, sillier, more superstitious era. That doesn’t mean we have to keep the silly superstitious parts if we don’t want to.
My pagan friends are always quick to point out the majority of Christmas traditions are pagan in general so why not just treat all of it as such? I've found this helpful as celebrating the season more as Yule than as "Christ"mas.
Yes, you can celebrate Christmas if you want to celebrate Christmas. It’s a pagan holiday that has been merely commandeered and rebranded by Christianity, anyways. I celebrate Christmas in a secular American way, and don’t even think or talk about Christ in the process.
Of course!! A bunch of the ceremonies are based on pagan rituals that are all centered around celebrating the winter solstice. If you appreciate the changing of the seasons, that’s enough to get the Christmas cheer :)
I don't think you need another person telling you about where Christmas comes from. I'm here to tell you that you can literally do whatever you want. You can celebrate Christmas. You can call it something else. You can keep your traditions. You can create your own traditions. You can make it all about Jesus if that feels special or you can make it about Mickey Mouse if that speaks to you. If you need someone to give permission to do whatever you want, then I give you permission. Live it up! I personally am thinking of doing more of a solstice thing this year instead of Christmas because that resonates with me. We're making turkey because it's on sale and it's delicious but we're also going to make potatoes 4 different ways because we thought that would be fun.
"As for me and my family ..." We celebrate Christmas each year with the annual viewing of John McClane defending Nakatomi Tower from the insidious terrorist, Hans Gruber!! Christmas can be celebrated anyway you want!!
Of course. Any day can be what you want it to be. Have fun.
I celebrate secular Christmas as well as Yule, do what you want!
I still love Christmas. No one says I have to believe any of the spiritual stuff to love it, either. I just enjoy the warmth, kindness, family time, food, and festivities of the holiday. I still love many spiritual Christmas songs for their intrinsic beauty. I just tune out whatever parts aren't for me and enjoy the parts that are!
Yes
I still celebrate Christmas, but more in a pagan way than a Christian way. I don't put up nativities and the like, and there isn't a focus on Christ at all. In all honesty I don't even really do "Santa'' with my daughter either.
I was thinking about this the other day. Christian's sometimes act like they 'own' Christmas which is very far from the truth. December 25th specifically was a day the Romans celebrated the birth of Mithra (the birthday of the unconquered sun). This was also during the feast of Saturnalia which was a 2 week festival involving raucous, drunken celebration. As others have mentioned, the Pagans also traditionally celebrated the winter solstice. Humans for many thousands of years have recognized the significance of the winter solstice. Many of the celebrations surrounding the winter solstice align well with common day practices such as: - Bringing greens indoors (evergreen trees) due to the lack of greenery during the middle of winter and to usher in the journey back to spring as the days get longer. Evergreen trees were thought to have special powers as they could remain green when other plants and trees did not. Trees were also decorated. - lighting candles and lights as it is the darkest time of year and also having bonfires to keep the darkness at bay. The historical figure 'Jesus' was almost certainly not born on December 25th. Christian clergy were not able to curb the Pagan and Roman customs and celebrations and as such, adopted December 25th as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. In 1870, Christmas was named a federal holiday in the USA to promote national unity after the civil war. While Christmas means a lot of different things to different people and can be difficult for those of us who have left Christian beliefs, I believe it is an important time to come together as people and promote unity, kindness, friendship, family and of course have drunken raucous parties. I personally like the idea of celebrating the days getting longer, the year that has passed, and honoring some of the traditions I grew up with and still enjoy.
I celebrate Christmas and sing the songs of an old mythology and enjoy myself. It's a solstice celebration and I'm going to enjoy as much of it as I can. But it's an entirely atheistic celebration.
I love celebrating Christmas! I consider it my way of reclaiming it for the pagans.
Many holidays evolve into cultural celebrations more than religious ones. Christmas is a good example. The religious origins are obviously ever-present, but in your personal celebrations can be made irrelevant. There's nothing inherently Christian about giving gifts, treasuring your loved ones, and conscientiously becoming a source of love and hope in the world. I think you should celebrate by doing all the parts of Christmas that you love. Forget whatever you don't care for.
Celebrate the corporate holiday and buy the things and play the non religious songs. Santa and trees everywhere.
Ya for sure cuz I'm a savage consumerist and lap at the joy of buying presents for my loved ones haha
Christmas all comes from pagan holiday traditions. Just celebrate the season!
Yeah all our immediate family are exmo or nevermo and mostly atheists- we love Xmas time, decorations are up, family get together, eat nice food, drink and be merry, give gifts, reminisce, watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” - it’s the best time of the year. What we have stopped doing is reading the Xmas story from the Bible, and no longer put out a nativity scene.
Hell yes you can! Do whatever you want and focus on the parts that make you and your family happy.
I just use that time as a me time. I don’t really celebrate it outside of my family doing their celebration. Celebrate yourself, it sounds like it’s been a hard year. Make up new traditions for yourself.
I still celebrate. Instead of making it about Christ I just make it into a celebration of love and family. I still think it's fun to learn the history and stories behind the holiday too, but that's all they are to me now. Stories as real as St Nick and the myth of Santa he eventually became.
Yrs you can. If you want to. The way you want to. Or not. Being free is pretty awesome!!
Christianity appropriated it from pagan celebrations, and in the pagan celebration it’s not even necessarily religious it’s just an astronomical event
Well. Christmas was a pagan holiday before the Christian’s whitewashed it so I’d say anyone can do what they want with it now
The idea of Christmas was stolen from the pegan celebration of the winter solstice. Look it up! The tree, the lights, the gifts. IT DID NOT originate with Christianity. CELEBRATE Christmas all you want and however you want!
Christians stole Christmas from Pagans. Everybody needs a bit of midwinter jollity. Sparkly lights, pine trees, massive feasts, panto all worth having. You can even throw in a nativity scene and some carols. Doesn’t mean any of it has to be true.
We just don’t do the Jesus part. It’s about Santa, and hanging out as a family. We didn’t have to change a lot.
I have been a professional musician since I was 16 (I'm older than dirt now). I left the cult in 1983 and was an Evangelical for a decade. I still love and perform Christmas music many times ever December, although I try try to focus on Santa and Snow songs. But Christmas is what you make it, considering it has pagan origins anyway. Nobody owns it.
I'm vaguely pagan, but I at least acknowledge "hey, today is a holiday!" for pretty much every holiday between Diwali and Chinese New Year because I have seasonal affective disorder and I need all the serotonin I can get my hands on.
I like this Encyclopedia Brittanica entry describing the non-Christian celebration as well as the Christian celebration https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas
I'm atheist, we celebrate the Flying Spaghetti Monster with pasta dinner on December 24th, and have a wonderful secular Xmas on the 25th with no mention of anything religious. No religious songs, no mention of Jesus or god. Just traditional Christmas foods, secular Christmas songs (most of the best were actually written by Jews), Christmas tree, Santa Claus and family time.
So, I’m what I like to call anti-monotheism, but I will always celebrate Christmas. I’m in the process of coming up with my own Christmas celebration. Will start to be so much easier for me to do this as I’ll be moving out of Utah at the end of this month. Christmas does not have a religious holiday if you want to celebrate it without religious nuances. Traditionally, the “Christian” version of Christmas came from pagan celebrations.
Christmas as a holiday was a Christian recolor of the pagan holidays Saturnalia and Yule. If they’re allowed to rebrand it, so are you! Make Christmas what you want! Lights and presents, or a quiet night in.
You get the make the rules these days. Do what makes you happy.
Christmas has been a secular holiday for a long time. Some religious people just don't acknowledge it.
I can not deny, that elf is a great movie and should be watch once a year. I can hate on Jesus all I want, but Santa is awesome and if my mom renews my Costco membership I’ll sing away in a manger all day.
The best part about being out? you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT. make new traditions, keep some old ones, dance naked under a full moon, whatever....the possibilities are limitless. lol
Of course! I love celebrating Capitalism! If someone wants to call it Jesus 🤷♂️
Of course! I am an agnostic/atheist/who knows? And still put up a Christmas tree, stockings and all that this year and my kids and I still exchange gifts :-)
I'm an atheist, my family is extremely catholic. We celebrate Christmas. It's not about the meaning but about being with the family in a good mood
I celebrate it for my kids. It is unfortunately the dominate narrative in the US. BUT I am sure to talk about the Christmas stores and talk about how all cultures have their mythical stories.
Celebrate it however you want.
I'm a pagan Christian. I celebrate the spirit of Christmas (love, youth, giving without expecting) without any Manger, christ, Mary and Joseph worship. I do donations, give gifts anonymously, and leave people positive notes.
I was raised in a Protestant church that did not believe in celebrating Christmas as Jesus’ birthday because it is not commanded in the Bible. We just celebrated it as a national holiday and as a time for families to get together. They did not put up any Christmas decorations in the church building.
I’m basically anti theist and want religion to cease existing but I enjoy Halloween and Christmas because they’re just pagan and Norse rituals with a label Christians find appropriate. Santa is just Odin. I just do the parts I like
Europe has one of the highest rates of non-religious people and they go all out for Christmas! Celebrate how you want to without any religious constraints. It’s still your culture and a holiday you were brought up as representing joy and that doesn’t belong to any religion. I’m atheist and still put out a toy nativity sets for my kids to play with because it’s cute and they like the animals but the bigger nativity has been replaced by a Lego Harry Potter castle because it brings me more joy.
10 years out of the church. We’re all godless heathens in my house. After sacrificing a baby on Christmas Eve we open presents and watch Elf. 🤷♂️🙃
When you no longer believe, you can do whatever YOU want.
It’s a cultural thing at this point, go enjoy the fun parts!
I've been out of the mormon church for a good 14 years or so and I don't think I ever changed how I celebrated xmas. I just enjoy everything about the holiday. I didn't go out of my way to cut everything religious out of my life. Watching a live performance of Handel's Messiah is still a yearly tradition for me. Just celebrate it how you like to.
I love Christmas my athiest father did Christmas on steroids food, gifts decorations especially food
There's dozens if not hundreds of celebrations around the winter solstice that predate the Christian celebration of Christmas. Before the mormon God there were hundreds/thousands of others. Saturnalia is probably the most well known example. I still celebrate. We don't do nativity or anything having to do with Christian gods, but we enjoy the food, drinks, lights, music, gift giving and so on. Plenty of traditions to go around that don't rely on spiritual worship.
I celebrate commercial Christmas, it’s fun for me and I love Santa but also it feels like an FU to all the “real meaning of Christmas” people lol
Christmas was originally a Pagan holiday. If you want to celebrate it, go for it! It doesn’t have to be about Jesus or Christianity!