I am not a religious person by any means. I do not believe in God or Jesus (or the Devil for that matter)... but I do still celebrate Christmas with my family every year. I do it because I enjoy being with my big family and I love seeing everyone and buying them gifts and spending many days together... Obviously I don't celebrate the holiday for what it supposedly means, but I'm curious as to how others who do not believe in God handle this?
2007-12-26 07:29:32 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Christmas
I am interested in ANYONE's answer on this, however I'm not looking for spiritual direction. I don't believe in all the hoopla that surrounds your religious beliefs. I just want to know how you celebrate if you don't have the same beliefs about God and such... It can be difficult but to me it's more about family and I love giving much more than receiving...
2007-12-26 08:00:03 · update #1
Great answers from everyone! Thanks you so much... already! Looking forward to more too!
2007-12-26 08:02:08 · update #2
If you know the history of Christmas, you know that it wasn't originally the celebration of Christ's birth.
I'm a Christian. I am so thankful for what Christ did, but I have absolutely no issues whatsoever with atheists celebrating Christmas. It's a time to spend with family and friends for whatever reason.
Christians are not supposed to judge others, anyway.
2007-12-26 07:35:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Well, I believe in and worship God and Christ, and so does most of my family, but admittedly the religious aspects of Christmas get lost in the shuffle of gifts and travel sometimes.
I think for some Christmas has become sort of like Thanksgiving in that it's a secular holiday but you can certainly work your faith into it with prayer (private or public) or of course by attending church. But if those things don't move your spirit or apply to your beliefs, then I'm not going to fault you for enjoying the Santa/Snowman/Rudolph imagery or buying your family gifts.
2007-12-26 07:49:06 · answer #2 · answered by MikeTX 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My family and I celebrate it as an American Traditional Holiday. I love the specials and the songs, and the gifts and decorations.
If pressed, I will say that I'm celebrating the solstice and the rebirth of Ra (the Sun God). The tree is a pagan holdover, and for that matter, so are the gifts and everything else. Ha. The Christians ought to be celebrating Xmas in the spring, when their Jesus was allegedly born for real. They just stole the old pagan holidays and renamed them.
2007-12-26 07:40:32 · answer #3 · answered by ♥≈Safi≈♥ ☼of the Atheati☼ 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
It's fine to do the outward displays of 'Christmas' even if you aren't a Christian. Those symbols (like misletoe, Christmas trees, etc) while nice to look at don't really have anything do with the the true meanign of Christmas. So... you might SAY you celebrate Christmas by doing those superficial things but you don't really celebrate Christmas if you don't believe in Jesus. It's fine if you want to get together with family and give presents to people at this time of year but if you dont' believe you're celebrating the birth of Jesus then you can't really say you celebrate Christmas.
Christmas is about your heart and if in your heart you know that Jesus was born to save you from your sins (sorry if I sound 'preachy'... not meaning to) then you are celebrating Christmas. Gifts, trees, decorations... those things dont' really have anything to do with what's in your heart. In fact, most things can be traced back to pagan roots that the Christian's 'borrowed'. Many people associate them with Christmas now because it's 'tradition' but they really have nothing to do with Christmas. And for the people that say Christian should celebrate the birth of Jesus in the spring when 'experts' think he was really born... it doesn't matter WHEN you celebrate his birth... all that matters is you believe he was born of a virgin and died for the sins of the world. I could celebrate that any day of the year I like.
2007-12-26 07:34:58 · answer #4 · answered by hootie 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Christmas isn't a pagan trip, the party of the wintry climate solstice is a pagan trip and whilst the Romans bought christianity to something of the worldwide, it grew to become into much less complicated to get people to rejoice the start of their saviour on a date that grew to become into already being celebrated by employing tens of millions of persons. in spite of the fact that in case you rejoice the wintry climate solstice, the start of Jesus or no longer something in any respect is as much as you yet extremely, it extremely is purely an excellent time to get including kinfolk and there is not any longer something incorrect with that. As for it being materialistic? of direction it extremely is! we are residing in an extremely aggressive, cloth worldwide i'm afraid.
2016-10-19 23:50:51 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You sound exactly like me. I don't believe in God or Jesus either. I've only been to a church twice in my life and that was to be baptized and my aunt's wedding. I celebrate Christmas and my family is very big on celebrating. Some of my family members believe in God and some don't. Either way, we all are very big on giving and spending time together for the holidays. In my opinion, all that matters is that I get to spend time with my boyfriend, my family and his family. We go to his parent's house on Christmas Eve to spend time with his family and my aunt's house on Christmas Day to spend time with my family. It's great.
2007-12-26 07:34:43 · answer #6 · answered by Pink Princess 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
The holidays are a great time to relax. And not worry about religious differences. I share similar beliefs, actually. And I pretty much do the same thing.
2007-12-26 07:33:42 · answer #7 · answered by sara p (hugs trees) 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I know your question is directed to other atheists or agnostics like yourself, so I may be out of line by answering since I am a theist.
I just couldn't help but point out the hypocrisy with certain Christians who say the celebration of Christmas is strictly reserved for Christians yet they see no problem with THEIR celebrating holidays like Halloween.
Interesting....
2007-12-26 07:37:08 · answer #8 · answered by Feelin Randi? 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
When I didn't used to believe in God, I was more focused on the matterialism(getting new stuff!). Which is really shallow. Giving gifts to people and enjoying them is a good thing. I can't take anything away from that. But matterialism is the cancer of this nation.
2007-12-26 07:34:59 · answer #9 · answered by Shamgaur 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Where you from Kim S? I guess you can celebrate it? Some parts of the country are more conservative though.
2007-12-26 08:22:55 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋