for PAGANS and non CHRISTIANS.....?

Question

MY MOTHER and sister have suggested we stop calling this month Christmas time. the word conjures up big problems with them. i'm ok with Christ (i love his teachings) but i do agree his birthday was not in winter! lol this i learned in church!! in bethlehem shepards did not herd sheep in winter(infact they dont do that in any country!), so the only time the sheperd could have been watching their flock by night was in the spring.
the point is we dont want to celebrate his bday at this time.
anyway this is a prob. in our home. kids and i call it winter solstice because that is what we will be celebrating. they are half dutch so on december 5th just like their father did as a child, they will put out their clogs on the front porch with treats for st. nicolas and carrots for his white steed. and in the morning there will be chocolate 'coins' and a gift or two in their clogs. but the whole december 25th thing.... i'm at a loss. how do you all treat this day?

on the 21st we will be celebrating Yule (winter solstice) but it's the 25th that is weird. the world practically shuts down on this day. so i'm curious what other pagans or non christians do during this day. until this year i've always 'did christmas' because it was how i was raised. now it seems so silly. and i think 'why am i giving my kids hundreds of dollars of gifts in the name of
Christ's bday? is this not weird??

Answer 1

You could call December Yule-tide and the 25th Wintermas.....

There are a lot of Pagans who celebrate a Yule festival for the Winter Solstice. Some Greek Polytheists also celebrate a modern festival called Heliogennia (Birth of the Sun), but this is not universal. Those of us who still celebrate December 25th with our families just consider it a family celebration.....

Answer 2

I'm pagan, and I just call it Christmas. By this point it's become pretty secularized; I don;t see the secular holiday and the religious holiday as the same thing. Anyway, I don't celebrate the solstice on December 25. ANd I have people I love and respect who celebrate Christamas, so why make a big stink out of it? I just call it "Happy holidays" and that way avoid any petty arguments over something as ridiculous as what people celebrate and why.

Answer 3

In my family we treat the day as Yule. It's a little after, but as my life is quite hectic I'm actually in the habit of allowing myself a few days' leeway on when I celebrate any of the 8 Celtic holidays. After all, the old pagans didn't have precise astronomical calendars - why not celebrate when it's easy?

Plus this way there's no family tension along religious lines ;-)

Anyway most Christmas traditions have pagan roots anyway, including giving gifts and having a feast.

Answer 4

Well, for us we celebrate Christmas as a part of an extended family. We have parents, siblings, nieces, friends and cousins who are Christian. Also, it is a part of my child's cultural heritage. For us, Santa is more the Holly King, sort of an Odinish dude. We also get a visit from Befana, the Christmas Witch. We are not Italian, but we've co-oped her anyway. She's a great old crone! As a matter of fact, that is who we have decided Mrs' Santa really is! We figure, with so much in common, it was only a matter of time before they hooked up. Every time we see them together in stores my daughter points out what a happy couple Santa and Befana make. (I love Tommie Depola's story about her, as well as his artwork in the Americanized Baba Yaga tale, Alice Nizzy Nazzy. )

Answer 5

The 25th is a day to sleep in, especially here in the south where everything is closed on Sunday let alone Christmas and Easter.
My winter holiday is on the 12th when it is usually easy to ask for mornings after "non-christian" holidaies off anyway.
I never understood why anybody buys gifts. Maybe was suppoed to be children's holiday bc Jesus said "Love the little children" but he also said "Feed my sheep" so why aren't christians in soup kitchens?

Answer 6

I'm agnostic, and I don't believe that Jesus was anything other than a nice guy with some good ideas (I don't believe in a "Christ"). But my family consists of...ah, what shall I call them? Casual Christians? They don't go to church but Christianity's been drilled into all their heads since they were small so they sort of go along with it just out of habit and fear.

We do the whole "Christmas" thing...the tree, presents, cookies, big dinners, etc. I just go along with it all because it's easier...I don't feel a need to "rock the boat" and be a stick in the mud and refuse to do anything relating to Christmas, just because I don't believe (besides, I like cookies).

After all, it's not as if I'm worried about pissing off some other god by opening presents and eating sugar cookies.

Edit: Since when does "Christmas" mean to eat of Christ? It's just Christ's mass...you know, like any other mass/service. Duh.

Answer 7

Christmas is only on the 25th because there was already a holiday there BEFORE Christmas was really established as an official holiday.

Its just the cheapness of the banks.

Answer 8

that's some thing that we gained't combat. each team no count if or no longer it particularly is non secular, political, etc. could have its united statesand downs; and persons who concentration fullyyt on the downs. We do an analogous to christians very frequently, as we accuse them of being ignorant, boastful, blah blah blah, all the time. no longer all christians are an analogous; no longer all Wiccans are an analogous. Like christians, wiccans are going to have our undesirable eggs who circulate out and unfold the incorrect message, who're in simple terms as ignorant by way of fact those they accuse. there is likewise the undertaking with magick. there is multiple fuss on no count if magick is physically powerful, evil, independent, or the two. Many wiccans say that magick isn't evil and that we could in no way do something to wreck anybody (it particularly is in our rede, and the undertaking we are discussing), so those wiccans circulate all out and attempt to make this a concrete actuality. that's no longer inevitably actual, as many wiccans have casted hexes,binding spells, and there ARE magickal structures that decision on demons (Goetia). That being pronounced, different pagans and witches do no longer in easy terms like the way wiccans think of, by way of fact they experience that on account that our rede says we injury none, we are in easy terms a gaggle of "brainless little fluffballs""who concentration entirely on doing sturdy. the only thank you to restoration this, in my view, is to show anybody and coach them that we're not who they think of we are, yet that may no longer possible. For now, we could continuously in simple terms take a seat returned and snort at them. we at the instant are not hurting them inspite of each little thing ;)

Answer 9

Christmas is a big part of our Economy here in America. It is not a big deal to me but to my Mother it is. So i go along with it. I tell everyone i know that buys Gifts to just donate to a Charity in my name. I do the same for them.

Answer 10

You do what ever you want to do. It's a day off. Celebrate or do laundry. The choice is yours. It looks like the way you celebrate is fun!