This question goes out to the atheist's from christian families....

[Source]

I'm just curious as to whether or not you celerbrate christmas.

It is after all a religious holiday celerbrating jesus's birth, right? So do you except presents form people? do you give presents to people? Do you refuse point blank to acknowledge such occasion altogether?

1. Christians stole Christmas from the pagans.

2. I celebrate for the free presents!

[flatplat]

I'm from christian grandparents, so I'm going to say I count.

We celibrate christmas mostly to keep the older generation happy. Its also the only time in the year our greater family actually has time off to get together.

And as Raw_Power said, everyone like to induge in presents. If you haven't seen everyone in 12 months, you like to celebrate.

[This message has been edited by flatplat (edited 09-05-2006).]

quote:Originally posted by Raw_Power:

1. Christians stole Christmas from the pagans.

2. I celebrate for the free presents!

Every Christmas when I was a kid I would get up, wait patiently (as patiently as you could expect a child to wait in front of presents) until my grandparents arrived, and then my sister and I would open said presents.

We would eat a bit of chocolate from our Christmas stockings, the adults would have a drink or two, and then we would go over to a friend's house to meet up with a host of family friends. The adults would chat away, and I was good friends with a couple of lads there and we'd go upstairs to play our new Playstation games. This got better as I turned about 13 and I was allowed a beer or two. Extra special day.

Then in the afternoon, we'd go home and have Christmas dinner, a host of wonderful desserts, more time to play with our presents, my grandparents would leave, and I would go to bed.

Coming from a family of football fans, Boxing Day usually consisted of a trip to the Blades match with my Dad.

Now, after that seemingly pointless drivel, let me get to the core of my post:

Never once do I remember anyone ruining my holiday by mentioning Jesus.

As far as I can see, Christmas is drinking and family first, and religion as a VERY distant second.

I think most people just think of Christmas as a family get-together sort of thing. Without that jolly holiday, winter would be really bleak.

[Source]

So what your telling me is, you're just in it for the presents. Fair enough, I suppose it's a good a reason as any.

[This message has been edited by Source (edited 09-05-2006).]

I don't see it as really religious in nature. It's a nearly worldwide and very famous, prevelant holiday that's a lot of fun besides; why not celebrate it?

[HandOfZek]

I call it christmas because that's what everyone else calls it. It's just a title and won't do any harm anyway, so it's not a big deal.

I celebrate time off of work/school and family instead of the birth of Jesus. Of course, we'll teach our daughter the history of christmas and she'll be familiar with the Jesus story, but she'll also know that I don't believe in any of the christian religion (her mom kind of does).

quote:Originally posted by HandOfZek:



I celebrate time off of work/school and family instead of the birth of Jesus. Of course, we'll teach our daughter the history of christmas and she'll be familiar with the Jesus story, but she'll also know that I don't believe in any of the christian religion (her mom kind of does).

Actually this is how I was raised, except both my parents are atheist.

I was always encouraged to be in the school nativity, to take part at Easter etc. etc.

Equally they never encouraged actual religion, just that I should be a part of everything. When I was old enough to actually start asking them questions, then they didn't lie about their stance.

I think it's really the best way.