To ask why do you celebrate christmas if you don't belive in god?

[bollywoodfan]

Mostly everyone seems to celebrate chritmas - making the dinner, having people round and giving presents, but there are very few people now who are celebrating it as the 'birth of Jesus'?

A lot of people I know say they are atheist and don't beleive in god at all. So then why all the fuss about one day that doesn't have any 'significance' for you? I am not criticising anyone, just seems that people get stressed about making the perfect dinner & even getting into debt to buy presents etc and then don't even acknowledge the 'real' reason for christmas. We have our festivals e.g diwali where we make special food and have lots of family round for a party, but we always have prayers before the celebrations and it is inconceivable of anyone celebrating diwali without that.

Not meant to be an offensive post at all, just a question which is difficult to ask in real life for fear of upsetting people.

Christmas isn't about Jesus. Christmas has been going on since before Christianity got invented.

I don't celebrate christmas at all.

However, I suppose everyone is off work, it is a time of rest and to get together with family and they just give each other gifts.

No way Jesus would have bought into all the hype, materialism and costs involved and if you look into the meaning of most of Christmas it is all pagan anyway.

Its not about Jesus for us either. It's spending time wItha family, exchanging gifts and the magic of Santa. Nothing to do with religion.

I do believe in god but I can also see that Christmas has evolved to be about more that just the nativity.

I don't see why how (or why) other people celebrate Christmas bothers people at all really!

we celebrate Christmas because we are culturally and perhaps atavistically Christian- neither of us has faith but because we are white northern European it is 'our' winter festival... and midwinter is grim, we need a festival of lights, feasting and.good cheer to get through it!

[glances around messy flat]
I wouldn't say I feel a lot of pressure to do things 'perfectly ' though we have a very laid back day, not tied to any one dish or ritual, just things and people we love.

I am not religious but I do 'celebrate' Christmas. Christmas it a time for family (and friends) to get together and feel good. It is an old tradition that I like to keep to make the family happy. If I was on my own it would just be another day except I do not have to work on it. It has no religious meaning for me what so ever.

Christmas is about Jesus. Most people celebrate neither this nor Yule, but continue the traditions of gathering and feasting. Every culture seems to do something similar, whatever they call it.

What brandybutter said. I think was a pagan(?) celebration before the church hijacked it.

I absolutely believe in a God. I don't believe his son was born 2012 years ago, though. And if he was? It wasn't December.

But Christmas is an amalgamation of many traditions that are, literally, thousands of years older than 2012.

Y'all stole them. Time to confess your sins...

...or whenever they hold it.

To me, Christmas is about family. One day of the year where we all get together, watch crap telly, eat dried up turkey and get really fat eating crap i wouldn't eat throughout the year. Plus lots and lots of presents!

I love waking up in the morning and watching my childrens beautiful faces light up as they open all there gifts. It's means a lot to me.

Plus Christmas is really a pagan thing isn't it? And giving gifts has nothing to do with religion. Jesus didn't start the whole xmas tree either. Come to think about it, you can celebrate xmas without the religious element.

Christmas has been around for longer than Christianity.

We look at it more like a Festival of Lights at the darkest time of the year.

As I understand it there have been pagan celebrations at this time of year since very ancient times. It then got hijacked by Christianity. I don't see any difference between celebrating one type of fictional 'fairy story' for another. If the shared sentiments between all are for giving, sharing and generosity, does it matter? Christianity doesn't have the monopoly.

I do believe in God, but before Christmas, there was a Midwinter celebration - for spiritual reasons and because it's a nice thing to have something to look forward to at the point where the days are the shortest - and that is still a good reason to celebrate now, I think.

Anyhow, as a Christian, it doesn't bother me if 'non-believers' celebrate Christmas, because as another poster has said, it's a good thing to be with friends and family, and show people you care.

I do agree, though, that people shouldn't get so stressed over the practicalities that they can't enjoy the day. Mind you - I am saying that as someone who,had a to do list longer than my arm, who, in the days leading up to christmas, was lying worrying about not having made the mincemeat or the marzipan yet!

I like the feeling of deep mid-winter. Family. Light in the dark. Replenishing feast. Pagan brining in of nature (tree) to remind us of the coming rebirth (spring).

And the booze.

Sorry - that should be lying awake worrying.

OK, I'll stop with the presents and the nativity if the Christians give up all the stuff they stole. So, lights, evergreens in the house, food, chocolate eggs and bunnies at Easter (they can keep the palms and ash). There are mid-winter festivals in almost every culture. Oh, and Jesus wasn't born on the 25th December.

Tsk - he was right there behind the shepherds, MakeIt!. Don't you know nuffink?

British people have always had a winter feast/feztival/celebration we need it to get us through the winter. Christians have hijacked it which is fine but abit rich of them to say its all about Jesus and always has been. Wrong - they transposed their story onto what was already happening at this time of year.

What exactly do turkey, trees, crackers, tinsel & Santa have to do with "god"?

Like it or not, Christmas is a mid-winter festival that has existed longer than Christianity has and the vast majority of traditions associated with it have nothing to do with any religious festival.

And, by the way, Jesus (if he existed at all) was most certainly not born on December 25th. So why do you celebrate his birthday on the wrong day?

Getting rather tired of this dumb question.

Easy answer- because it's fun! Timed well- darkest, coldest part of the year.

Our Muslim neighbours sent us Christmas cards, a wrapped., present, they are having a party tonight. Shall I send the stuff back?

You don't need to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas- the same as you don't have to believe in the Devine mothers to eat the feast, don't have to be a heathen to have a Christmas tree, no need to believe in saturnalia to give gifts, don't have to believe in Odin for there to be a santa etc.

It's your day, do what you want with it!

I can't see myself doing Christmas in the future if I'd ever not go to my parent's house for Xmas. I mean, I'd drink and eat nice things and buy presents for people but I wouldn't do it in a big way. I can't spoil things for my parents though. Plus they work hard and I like buying them little luxuries which they wouldn't ever buy for themselves.

It's a tradition. If you remove traditions people get unsettled!