Personally I find it odd that Christians still insist that Christmas has anything to do with Christ.
History teaches us that there is no evidence that Christ was born on 25th of December.
It appears instead that Christianity adopted traditions taken from the worship of Mithras, who was born on December 25th. It was the Roman ruler Constantine who declared that Christmas was on December 25th, and this was done to make it easier for followers of Mithras to convert to Christianity. The Romans rulers had good reason to want to co-opt followers of Mithras into the Church as many of the Military were followers of Mithras.
Mithras pre-dates Christ by about 600 years, and in fact there are startling similarities between their stories - does this sound familiar ... ?
- "Mithras was a divine being borne of a human virgin on December 25th (the Winter Solstice by the Roman Julian calendar)
- his birth watched and worshipped by shepherds.
- Mithras healed the sick, made the lame walk, gave sight to the blind and raised the dead.
- Before returning to heaven at the Spring Equinox Mithras had a last supper with 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs of the Zodiac).
- Mithraism included Zoroastrian beliefs in the struggle between good & evil, symbolized as light & darkness.
- black-and-white morality (including a final judgment affecting an afterlife of heaven or hell)
- Mithraism was like an ancient fraternity: a mystery cult open only to men which had seven degrees of initiation ? including the ritual of baptism and a sacred meal of bread & wine representing the body & blood of Mithras.
Sound familiar anyone? Christianity basically nicked the Christmas story (and other key bits) from Mithrasism!
"The Church was pushed by political forces and pulled by the desire to co-opt a popular pagan holiday, despite a lack of evidence that Christ was born in December"
Points above taken from this page
It's also likely that the the reason people worship Christ on a sunday is also down to making it easier for the Mithras followers to convert. The bible is pretty clear that the holy day is Saturday - the Sabbath. But Mithras was a sun god and he was worshipped on Sunday, so the holy day was changed.
In this historical context, I don't see it as any weirder that I - as an atheist - would choose to join in on some largely pagan traditions (decorating trees, celebrating the winter solstice) than that you would join in on some traditions based on a religion 600 years older than Christ.
It's a funny old world 