I'm an atheist and I celebrate all kinds of holidays. Because campy traditions are silly and fun.

I've never met a pro-lifer that didn't celebrate their day of birth instead of their day of conception.

I've never met a loud and outspoken Christian that was really Christian.

Most Atheists use it as a gift-giving holiday.

I've met very few people, Christians included, who actually celebrated it as the birth of Christ. They just do gift exchanges, too.

I have celebrated Hanukkah with a Jewish family once. That was very interesting. My father dated a Jewish woman for about a year or so. Very religious. Never tried to convert us. They had some interesting ways about them. I was like 10 or 11, I don't remember much. I remember potato pancakes, I remember they got lame presents every night for seven days (or nine? Whatever it is). It's not like multiple Christmases. Whole different holiday.

We mainly use it to exchange gifts.

And I've met very few Christians, if any, who actually follow all the rules in the bible

Did the celebrate the birth of christ, or were they celebrating a day off work to be with their family and exchange gifts as a way of strengthening familial and social bonds?

Hi. I'm an atheist that doesn't celebrate Christmas. You are probably from a part of the world where there is a Christian majority. Honestly I'm assuming American lol

I celebrate Christmas in the sense that I get together with family for a good meal and exchange some gifts, but none of us spare a thought to baby jeebuz or any of that jazz.

Also, I'm Norwegian and I seem to recall that jule celebrations were a thing before christianity forced Thor & Co. to step aside.

Hello.

Also meet more people of various backgrounds.

Christmas predates Christianity in my culture. We just didn't call it Christmas.

Define celebrate. Do they go to church? Do anything religious on those days?

Its part of my culture but not part of my belive.

Do you mean Saturnalia?

You've never met the vast majority of humans, obvious sample size/bias issue

Atheists here who's favorite holiday is Christmas.

I do kinda wish it had a different name, and kinda wish it was on the winter solstice; but as long as no one wants to go to church, read the Bible, or reinact the nativity; it's a fantastic areligious holiday to enjoy with loved ones.

Most Christians I know only pretend it's a religious holiday while they enjoy family, food, and gifts. Though some actually go to church, and I kinda feel bad for them.

Xmas was commandeered by christians but we have been celebrating Winter solstice for a lot longer than there has been christians on this planet. (same goes for most other 'christian' holidays)

I don't celebrate the birth of any fictional character, but I still celebrate the holidays in general, they mean different things to different people and there's nothing wrong with that. It should be about spending time with your loved ones and showing your appreciation. It should be to find a little bit of peace and relaxation this world with those you love, and taking a break before starting out on a new year with new problems and challenges.

Get back in the shower and keep thinking, surely you have the imagination to understand why atheists (and other non Christian groups) celebrate Christmas. This is not a deep thought and kinda makes you sound like a dumb cunt tbh.

Celebrating cultural traditions doesn't necessarily have to involve religious themes.

“Celebrate” is doing a lot of work here. What are we supposed to do? Go to work?

Well yeah why not. The holiday was a pagan holiday long before the Jesus thing anyway. Besides the idea of gathering with your family to share meals and exchanging gifts because you love and care for them is not strictly a Christian thing.

Most Christan holidays are co-opted pagan celebrations. Easter is the celebration of spring hence the chicks and bunnies and eggs, all symbols of new life. Christmas and the tradition of bringing evergreens into the home are the winter solstice celebration. Christians can't steal peoples holidays and then complain that non-christians celebrate them.

Celebrating these holidays without being Christan is actually standing up against thousands of years of forced conversion tactics.

I'm no expert, but I think Santa Claus isn't exactly a biblical figure and neither is the Easter Bunny. These are normal holidays around here, but you'd be hard-pressed to find many children who know any of the christian stuff.

Also, I think Christmas was actually built on top of the prior winter solstice celebrations. It's not like anyone knew the exact date of birth for a random guy from hundreds of years ago.

On the flip side I’ve never met a loud and outspoken Christian that didn’t celebrate Christmas.

You know, since it’s a stolen Holliday used as a yearly excuse for a capitalism orgy.

I don't care what holiday is it, as long as you make it an official holiday that has legally mandated paid time off... 😏

We call them Christmas and Easter, but they're really just secular holidays for the family to get together. No religious aspect whatsoever, but great getting together.

Pretty sure Jesus’s birthday isn’t the first and only mid-winter celebration in the entire history of humankind. Most people are just happy to get the solstice out of the way.

What are your views on atheists eating Easter eggs?

I'll be your new person to meet for today.

I'm spiritual but still atheist and my family has been agnostic atheist for 3 generations. Back in the 80's my grandfather started celebrating the winter solstice because he wasn't happy celebrating holidays for a religion he didn't agree with. He picked it because it's the longest night in the year and that's a good reason to give a gift.

40 something years later, I'm raising my kid to celebrate the solstices and the equinoxes. Winter is a quite calibration of your closest people and you exchange gifts that will help them through the next year. During summer it's a celebration of the people you know and everyone gets together and brings everyone they know to eat and party with the goal of meeting some one new. Both equinox are a celebration of the community and we go out to do community service.

That's 4 generations of non Cristian celebration.

Christmas is a pagan holiday co-opted by Christians. Christmas is most definitely a secular tradition in the US and there is nothing unusual about an atheist celebrating it.

What is unusual is Christians trying to bring Christ into the celebration when the timing just doesn't make any sense. Was he actually born during this time? Where does he fit in with Santa Claus? Why do we bring a tree indoors? What about Jesus equals buying gifts to give to loved ones?

Clearly Jesus doesn't belong in Christmas no matter how hard Christians try to pretend he does.

Now you have.

Christmas can - and I simply can't over-stress this - fuck right off.

Pro tip: talk to child-free people estranged from their parents and/or siblings. High chance they want nothing to do with any of it, likely because it dredges up unpleasant memories (which frankly stand a good chance of also being the source of their eschewing of religion).

Rather than having to buy gifts other people don't want, and pretend to be happy about receiving the same, I just buy the things I want when I want them, and encourage those around me to do the same.

I will add that it's not helped by living in the southern hemisphere, where a bunch of misguided people insist on emulating northern hemisphere traditions, making everyone around them miserable by serving a three-course roast dinner in the height of summer.

Eh, whatever religious significance it ever had in the West is long gone, but it's still a nice occasion to meet up with family, break bread and share gifts. I'm not much for rites and celebrations, to a point my wife hates, but I see the value of it (and in sharing with your loved ones, ofc) even if it's completely separate from religion.

Christmas is now a secular holiday. It was here before Christians anyway.

Saturnalia Gang rise up! Our time is now!

Happy Saturnalia.

Did they haul out a nativity scene? Go to church? No? Then it was a cultural celebration, not a religious one. Nothing hypocritical about that.

Might be a good time to remember that Christmas has adopted many pagan traditions.

I have, including myself.

It's still a public holiday where I live, so it's a convenient date for visiting family for a few days. But apart from some joke decoration (like a single bauble on a tiny potted citrus tree) there is nothing Christmassy about it.

What do you mean with celebrate? I mean, i get free from work but hardly celebrate anything (although maybe slightly at the winter solstice, when the shortest day had happened, happy that the days will get longer again)

I don't most years, unless a friend really wants to do something with me for it in which case I might go along for their benefit. Not really a holiday person in general though.