Why do non christians celebrate christmas?

Question

I'm asking purely out of curiosity so please don't go on a rampage.

J.D. it's the celebration of the birth of our savior Jesus

actually we give gifts because Jesus was given gifts by the 3 wise men on his birth

angie dear... what? Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus... hmm

muck raker, don't believe everything random people put on their web pages

that's very understandable pagan earthgirl. I think you answered my question

I feel sorry for the people who are brainwashed into believing CHRISTmas is a pagan holiday. That's like a christian saying halloween is a christian holiday. I don't condemn anyone for their beliefs, but that's really silly guys.

Answer 1

Many people commercialize Christmas and muddle it into something about getting gifts from a jolly man in a red suit driving reindeer. Nonchristians see only this, and enjoy being given gifts. Some also enjoy spending time with their relatives. Even some Christians forget to focus on the origin and cause of Christmas: Jesus Christ. We get caught up in what we will buy people, and forget that "Christmas" is also "Christ's festival". It is Jesus's birthday, and we think about ourselves more than we think about Jesus. This helps distract nonchristians from seeing that Christmas is all because of Christ.

Answer 2

About 30 or 4 years, after Christ rose into heaven, The church began to bicker over the nature of Christ. Some said He was only a prophet and broke off into their group.

Others said, He was GOD only and they began to break off into their group. Still a third group believed that Christ is both GOD nature and Human Nature.

The apostles confronted them all and affirmed the third group and rebuked to the other two. Believing that this issue would come up again, it was decided to celebrate the birth of Christ,
even as the three Wise Men celebrated His coming into the world.
TOO, birth is how humans get here!

At the same time, many of the gentiles that were converting to Christianity, out of centuries of habit, continued to celebrate the Lunar Gods. So, the Apostles chose that date, thereby solving two issues at once. Celebrate birth date to reinforce Human nature, the 25th, so that those wanting to become Christians had Christs Birthday instead of Lunar Gods.

Actuall, the exact date is unimportant, the calendar has been change two times since Christ walked on this earth. There are some that, for lack of anything else say that the birthdate falls on a Pagan Hoilday, so they do not celebrate Christ Birthday.

But they celebrate their birthday! Would they have you to believe that the day of their birth is FREE from Human Sin? Which calendar day is? On their birthday do the celbrate atrocities?

No, They say, "its my Birthday" None of histrys evils that happened on that day are mention! But the would deny the world
the Clebration of the day our Lord came into the world!

I wonder if the night that Christ was born, if that was the one night, for all time, that no sin had been commited?

Answer 3

Most simply for the "spirit of the season".
Many were raised Christian and keep the holiday as tradition.
A few are aware that Christmas (under another name) was a Pagan holiday celebrating the winter solstice and beginning of what was than a new year. Christmas became a celebration of the birth of Christ (who's actual birthday is unknown but suspected to be in the spring) under a Cesar, trying to assimilate Christianity into what had traditionally been a Pagan Rome.

Answer 4

Because of the presents, the festive and cheerful holiday, this is one holiday that I can say is universal because everyone gets in a generous mood, the atmosphere and all the decorations and things are just so loving how could you not like it. I'm Hindu and I still belive in Jesus Christ, I realize this is a holy day and it is the day of his birth......some people realize it and some don't but for the most part it's just a cheerful day and season to prepare for and celebrate.

Answer 5

Christmas has become as much a cultural holiday (just something Americans celebrate) as a religious one. The whole Santa and tree thing have nothing to do with Jesus, just like the Easter Bunny and Cadbury eggs really don't have anything to do with Jesus. There are some aspects of the holiday that anyone can embrace.

Answer 6

The main reason non-christians celebrate Christmas is
they are conditioned by our society to celebrate Christmas. All peoples tend to accept what they are brought up with as normal. Hence the main reason non-christians celebrate christmas is because they are pre-disposed by their culture.

However there is a much deeper reason that keeps all of us celebrating Christmas whether we are christian or not. As human beings we all have a powerful need for family and friends. As a species, we are not meant to live as solitary individuals but rather to exist in families, hence non-christians often get married like christians do. Christmas, due to our conditioning in this part of the world, is the chief time of year for all of us to express our connectedness to our families and friends.

And finally in regard to the many that have answered "Christmas is not a christian holiday, its pagan". I don't see that to be a real answer at all. On its face they are saying I'm celebrating it because its a pagan holiday. So that means they are pagan? But clearly no one is truly a pagan in the sense that the druids and Romans were. Furthermore if it were a pagan holiday then an atheist wouldn't celebrate it either because even the pagans believed in divine beings.

While Christmas has a pagan pre-history, that doesn't make it a non-Christian holiday. At one time pagans had a celebration around this time of year. But after they converted to christianity, Christmas has been a celebration of the birth of Christ for the last 1000-2000 years depending on what part of the world you are talking about. In the middle ages or anytime since, Christmas has not been a celebration of the solstice. Christmas means Christ's mass. Its a christian holiday celebrating on what used to be a pagan feast.

Christianity has a history of melding the natural with the supernatural. It has taken the customs of the people who converted and built on top of them. Easter and Christmas are on the dates of pagan feasts. In every christianized country, churches were built on sites that used to be temples. That doesn't make churches to be pagan temples. St. Paul preached in Athens in front of the altar of "the unknown god". The greatest Christian theologian, Thomas Aquinas, spent his whole career melding the pagan philosophy of Aristotle with Christianity revelation.

Answer 7

For the same reasons Christians do -- it was an appropriated holiday that has no genuine bearing or basis on Christianity.

Christmas is a combination of the traditions of Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, and the Winter Solstice celebrations of the Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon, and Roman cultures. Only the application of the name made it in any way 'Christian'. In fact, every other trait ascribed to it by Christians as the Christ-Child can also be made of Mithras, a deity of a religion that was in competition with Christianity -- and was at the time, winning. So the holiday was absorbed into Christianity to basically win converts by saying, "See, it's basically the same guy..."

I've always figured if he WAS the messiah, Jesus wouldn't be too happy with his followers celebrating pagan traditions in his name, so I share your confusion, only, why do Christians celebrate Christmas?

Answer 8

For the loot, of course, why else? Besides, I like pagan holidays. I do Easter too, the old spring fertility festival.
BTW: Studying the real, written history of something is not "brainwashing." It's called "research". Try reading some books from the real world for a change.

Answer 9

As the Christians took the celebration of Yule and made it Christmas. So do people take Christmas and celebrate it as Yule.
The winter is a depressing time. People are far more shut in and far more miserable, so Christmas breaks up the humdrum of winter and the sorrows of being shut in. All around, a pretty good thing.

Answer 10

I celebrate Christmas for the sake of being together with family. People in Japan, Korea, and other countries around the world also celebrate Christmas although the majorities of their populations are not Christian. And no, it's not about the presents.

Happy Holidays.