An Atheists view on Christmas holidays
Posted on: July 20, 2006 - 10:34pm
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An Atheists view on Christmas holidays
By "Christmas" holidays i mean Hannukah, New Years, Kwanzaa, etc. I don't necessarily mean "Christmas"
Anyway, what do you guys do for the holiday season? Since my immediate family is consisted of Atheists, we still present gifts and keep a tree up, but don't have any of the jesus stuff. Nor do we pray, midnight mass, etc.
What do you guys do?
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Personally, I still celebrate it with my mom and brother and sisters, but it isn't a religious thing. It's just a family thing, where we do the presents thing and really just enjoy the time together. Some of my mother's family who are catholic live with her now so they will probably go to church, and my mom may go to humor them, so we'll see how much jesus comes back with them. But yea, we still like the holiday just for family time. And we still call it christmas.
"It's not so much staying alive. It's staying human that's important." - 1984
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I still celebrate it, in a purely secular way. No Jesus bullshit. Hey, giving and getting gifts is great.
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I celebrate it and I even go to mass with the family, because it makes them happy. I actually enjoy it, quite honestly. Midnigt Mass in a Catholic Church on Xmas Eve with tons of candles and traditions is a sight to behold.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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I don't celebrate Christmas holidays. I remind my family members not to give me any gifts prior to Christmas, but some of them choose to give me gifts anyway, probably out of spite. Last year, I politely accepted the gifts, but told them I wasn't opening them until April. This year, I plan to tell them I will be donating their gifts to charity.
ah yes, midnight mass....every year without fail is THE only time you'll see me in a church..
My mother and I had a HUGE fallout one christmas. I refused to go to church and it made for a very bad christmas. I promised myself, I would swallow my pride adn go. And I've been every year with her and only for her.
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I'll celebrate any holiday provided it promotes love and kindness.
Or gets me stuff.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Like most of you, I celebrate the corporate holiday not the religious one. I celebrate pretty much all holidays, mostly because it gives me a reason to dote upon people and vise versa.
I hope they cannot see
the limitless potential
living inside of me
to murder everything.
I hope they cannot see
I am the great destroyer.
I do the family thing - tree, gifts, too much food, etc. But I wish we could skip the gifts; it's SUCH a pain in the ass. My thing is, when I want something, I buy it if I can afford it. If I can't, nobody else who's gonna get me an xmas gift can either. So I generally end up saying "very nice. thanks" and wishing they hadn't bothered.
Also, I try to give whatever I can whenever I can. If I see something my mom, dad, wife would like, I BUY it and give it to them. (I've actually seen people hoard this kind of stuff and wait for xmas. What for? Time is precious.) And it's so stressful - not only do I have to come up with gifts, I have to do it at a time when everyone else is packing the stores (and I hate crowds) and yakking up "the reason for the season".
I'd as soon we skip the gifts and just eat too much, watch "a christmas story", and build a snowman. THAT would be a holiday.
What's stopping you from doing that jester700? When I have the money I purchase gifts for people when I feel like it, not because of a holiday. The same thing goes for getting together with family. If I don't see them during the year, chances are I won't care about seeing them at christmas.
i try to avoid at all costs, yet even my atheist friends have dragged me into some sort of 'christmas' year after year.
though I'm all about new years.
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Actually, I just can't convince my agnostic/atheist parents to stop with the presents. Mom likes to see wrapped boxes under the tree. I think it reminds her of when my brothers & I were kids - you know, idyllic memories, rose-colored glasses, etc. I said to just stick empty boxes there and she gave me "a look". It's just so ingrained. When my parents are gone, wife and I will stop. We actually don't do a tree or decorate at our house - it's all at mom's.
But it's ok - it's worth the hassle for the dinner & family (though we actually do dinner there every sunday anyway).
an excuse for free gifts.
And a good dinner!
I did the Santa thing with my daughter because I think it's fun for kids. But now that she's a bit older (nearly
and no longer a believer, we don't play into it. Last x-mas was the first time ever that I did not put a tree up. I still give gifts and she opens them on Solstice. I'm still trying to convince my family to not give ME gifts. None of us are church-goers... and my brother and father are the only Christians.
Hey, believing in God IS pretty much the adult version of believing in Santa Claus!
Yeah, my daughter doesn't believe in either.
I love that flyer from the war on Easter that encourages kids to ask their parents:
1. Is the easter Bunny real?
2. Is Santa Claus real?
3. Is God real?
And then it says "remember, the answer will be the same for all 3 questions for the rest of your life." :twisted:
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Stuff is good, Jesus is bourn, I get presents, jesus dies, I get chocolate.
But yeah, and it's always nice to have some time off.
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That's one of my favorite parallels. Is it any wonder that our modern visions of those characters are so similar?
Kind of. You don't believe in Santa you don't get any presents, you don't believe in God you go to hell.
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I think St. Nicholas is more impressive than Jesus, at least according to the stories that were written about him. I don't have any plans to reproduce, but if I do, I don't think I'll encourage my children to believe in Santa Clause. It's really quite insidious when you think about it.
Yeah, I just meant a (supposedly) kindly old bearded grampa figure who has majik and rewards good behavior.
Of course, santa is fat & fornicates w/elves, and god is just BIG and fornicates w/ angels, so they ARE different...
I wasn't thinking that. Also, he knows everything you do. Of course, being hideously tortured forever is just a **little** worse than not getting any toys. Of course not getting any toys is something that could realistically happen.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I make it a point not to participate. I ask anyone that wants to give me a present to give it to a charitable organization.
Just like presents, secular or not, it's the thought that counts. I undestand though when someone has children still holding the tradition. They're children after all, not getting a gift when the other kids do is just mean.
I have to admit one friend did give me a present that I kept this year. It was " Buddy Christ " and that's just way too cool
The paper read yesterday, the earth exploded, nobody noticed the passing of this hapless planet.
I like the songs. Could care less about gifts.
I celebrate easter by uh having a bigger than usual dinner, eating candy and coloring eggs and stuff and on christmas singing songs albeit religious or night lol I love silent night......and um we eat a bigger than usual dinner and give and take gifts and stuff...im my family's only non-christian.
---George Carlin---
Christmus,... Bu hum bug. Chrismus is just another day to me. I actualy atempted to go to work last christmas but the house I was working on was all locked up. lol Dame seventh day adventests contracters. Now,... don't get me rong, giving is a grate thing, but why can't I give all the time and/or even when I can't aford it if I want. Why whate for one day out of the year. What if I get you somthing for December in October and you die in a car crash in November. You'll die and will never have known that I cared enuff to give to you. Although, it is weard to see somones reaction when you give them somthing just for the sake of it, and it's not a holady. They thank you have some alteryor motive. I gues you realy can't be nice to some people. Well,... to dame bad I'm going to do it enyway.
"Keep Fighting The Good Fight"
Joshua D. Jones
My family has a tree, and we light a Menorah (my husband's a recovering Jew), and we do all the Santa/Reindeer stuff, because it's fun. But we make sure to give the kids accurate information about what Christmas is all about and why we don't believe in God. Most of the celebratory stuff (like the tree) has its roots in pagan traditions anyway, so we talk about that too. It's like Halloween, in a way. What used to be a pagan celebration has turned into an excuse for food and getting dressed up. Good times.
"People said I was dumb, but I proved them!"~Fry
My birthday is on 12/25, so Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.
Double prizes!
I still decorate a tree, wrap gifts and help my mom, aunts and grandmother cook, because I enjoy doing it. I love the nostalgia of it all. What sucks is having to split the day between my family and my husband's family.
my family isnt rational, all but my brother and i,but we conform, my friends compare me to jesus, same birthday, similar philosophy, but i exist, yeah i guess celebrating is ok, as long as i keep my secular beleifs to myself my mom dosent explode.
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.-Karl Marx
I'd consider being compared to Jesus an insult.
Hey, at least you weren't named after him! Were you also born on 12/25? If Jesus did exist (which I doubt) he wasn't born on that date.
eh I like making colored eggs on easter and eating candy lol and on christmas I still love all the songs and decorating a tree, eating a big dinner and exchanging gifts.
---George Carlin---