To ask a question about Christmas, and celebrating it....

[mcrvamp]

Right! Over the last couple of months I have read many threads slating Christians and how spreading the word of God and Jesus is wrong, I hate religon..... etc, etc.

So I would like to ask a question to those of you that feel this way.

Why do you celebrate Chritmas, when it is so clearly a religous festival?

Isn't it alla bit hypocritical (sp?)

I celebrate it as the winter solstice, sun return and all that. And since I get off work on Christmas day, that makes it convenient. It's called Festuvus for the rest of us.

I do go to christmas dinners, but I also do Chanuka, and I've been to Kwaanza too. Celebrations are just for celebrating!

Haven't read the whole thread, but I'm quite sure that someone else has pointed out to you that Christmas is a re-named Pagan festival. So, why are you celebrating it then? Are you a hypocrite too?

Nearly everything we ALL associate with Christmas (trees, baubles, tinsel, turkey, stockings, Santa etc) has nothing whatsoever to do with the fictitious birth of some 2000 year old Jew - who would not have been born on December 25th anyway, even if he'd existed.

Christianity re-appropriated an existing festival - it's meant to be a celebration of mid-winter, and that's all it is for me.

Oh - and 25th December is also the birthday of a man who actually did exist and actually did make a difference - Sir Issac Newton. That's worth celebrating to me.

Crikey I did not know that! Although my RE teacher always told us that there are records of a man called Jesus existing.

I think the anti-Christmas threads are more about operation Christmas Child where you fill a shoe box with presents, and then it gets dished out along with evangelical rubbish. It's not the christmas part that's the problem, it's that particular variety of Christianity that upsets a lot of us.

Christmas is a Pagan midwinter festival from the literal dark ages

Technically, Christmas is the Christian name for the pagan festival it "borrowed" from, but the term Christmas is obviously not pagan.

Christmas = the mass of Christ.

As a (progressive) Christian, I'm fully aware of the fact that the date for Christmas was fixed to coincide with the original pagan festival, so I don't think any Christian can get their knickers in a twist about who celebrates it.

However, in the past my friend's atheist husband told me, "you Christians stole Christmas, so you're the ones who shouldn't celebrate it."

The decision to "steal" the pagan festival wasn't mine, or that of any modern Christian, it was made hundreds of years ago by early Christian leaders. Yet some people still use it as a stick to beat modern day Christians with. It happened, I'm sorry about that, but it wasn't my fault!

I'll celebrate Christmas my way and let others do it their way. As someone else said up thread, live and let live.

Although my RE teacher always told us that there are records of a man called Jesus existing

A common mistake. There are no records whatsoever that demonstrate Jesus existed. Not a single one. Doesn't mean he didn't, of course - and there are reasonable inferences we can make that tend to suggest that he may have done - but records/evidence? Nope.

And yes, have had a conversation with my DS this morning about OCC, which his school are supporting. We won't be.

I'm an atheist and I go to church at Christmas. And I listen to the Sunday Service every week on R4, but I turn it off if the choir is rubbish.

I just really like church. I always have. But I don't agree with a lot of what Christians do in the name of their religion and I find the idea of God and heaven absolutely ridiculous.

But I like the loving your neighbour and trying to be generous and kind and examining your own hypocrisy and all those bits. So I'll have all that and the music too. I'm very pick and mix, me.

But you can keep the stoning and the misogyny and the slavery and the usury and the pimping out your own daughters to be raped and the homophobia and the crusades and so on and so forth. It's not for me, ta! Hurrah for modernity and the choices it affords me.

Why do I celebrate Christmas when it so clearly a religious festival?

Well....I like fairy lights, christmas trees, lovely food, time off work, presents, the magic of Santa, Christmas carols...and all that stuff.

And also because I can do whatever the fuck I like.

I'm a strong atheist, I don't celebrate Christmas as a Christian festival, I celebrate it as a time to gather with family and friends, share gifts and have fun. No need to include anything about the little baby jebus or gawd.

As people have pointed out, Christmas Day was originally the day of a Pagan festival and the only reason christ's supposed birthday was celebrated on it, was to make it easier and more appealing for Pagans to convert to Christianity. No hypocrisy whatsoever.

OP - we celebrate Xmas because it is a tradition, a national holiday and enjoyable.

I didn't realise it was only supposed to be a festival for true believers. I guess that's why you only hear about Christmas if you are a church goer, and for the rest of the nation it is just an ordinary day.

For me it's a combination of the Pagan festival (Yule) and the fact that my family are Christian. For my part I don't use any Christian symbols/traditions in my personal celebration.

Technically I celebrate this year on the 21st, but as most of my family are working then, I also celebrate on the 25th (or this year the 24th-26th) because then I get to join my family.

iys way more pagan than christian the christian hijacked winter festival.

holly, ivy, trees, mistletoe, all pagan.

It's not a religious festival.

And this isn't an aibu. Bugger off to the xmas topic and ask there.

I just cried listening to that Outrageous

Things are a bit tense at the moment (39wks pregnant and DH been made redundant) but that song put everything in the context of my baby's entire life. And this Christmas he'll be passed endlessly round relatives like a puppy at a primary school. And the same people will be there throughout his life.

I'm really quite happy now. Christmas is magical!

Ah, Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without the seasonal appearance of a thread like this.

Have we covered all the bases yet? (Saturnalia - tick...Oestre - tick...Tim's lovely song - tick ...)

Christmas used to be a pagan holiday before ye olde powers that be moved Jesus' birthday to it in order to steal Pagans amd convert them to Christianity.

Santa and gift giving have bot all to do with christianity.

Christmas was and still is for me a celebration of life and family and a winter holiday. I dont go to church or recognise any of the religious aspects of it (as it is gatecrashing the origional holiday imo)

Waiting, it makes me cry too. My family live a long way away, and my best present is always going to see them. And drinking white wine. In the sun. While passing around the latest family baby.

I love Christmas and I want to share it with everyone who will, Christian, atheist or otherwise! The pagan roots and the modern cult-like obsession with festivities (which are mostly secular anyway) make it fair game for anyone I'd say.

I do love it when christians get uppity about non believers indulging in 'their' religious festival at Christmas, without a thought for the 'true meaning' of Chrsitmas.

1. It's not theirs, they stole it as part of their campaign to force everyone into accepting their regime.
2. So fuck off and straighten your face out.

I dont see what is christian about santa well i suppose he is a saint but i do like to celebrate christmas and I am a lapsed christian but i do like to celebrate christmas

no it was spring time, and crucified in sept apparently.

tis all bollocks anyway, in an excuse to eat drink and be merry.

santa or is it satan ?

with his drinking, redness, and sin.

crucified in sept apparently
never heard that one. Is Passover for year 29AD (or thereabouts) calculable? When in the year is Passover now, as a matter of interest, anyone know? That's what Good Friday should be pegged to, if anything.