Christmas is what.

[Pasithea]

Ok so all the posts about Christmas. Very few about religion or winter solstice.

So why do people celebrate at Christmas

Am I AIBU to think that it’s hypocritical if you don’t celebrate either solstice or the birth of Jesus. ????????

Hypocritical? Just piss off with that fun sponging joy sucking attitude!

You don’t have to “celebrate” anything. You can just have fun. Well, you can’t, clearly - the rest of the Unclenched can!

The origins of winter festivals are simply that winter is long and dark and cold and a bit miserable - so we need to lighten our spirits. So anyone who JUST HAS FUN (try it someone!) is honouring those origins, and celebrating them.

It's something to cheer us up on the cold dark nights. Winter solstice/ yuletide/ family gathering/ sparkly lights etc, it doesn't really matter if it lifts the spirit.

OP you know that Jesus wasn't born 25th December.

Obviously you’re being unreasonable. It’s not just a religious holiday, it’s an important cultural one too.

Lots of the things we associate with Christmas had little or nothing to do with Jesus… but lights, cheer, and a feeling of goodwill are pretty universal in their attraction.

I agree, @Cocomarine. We need a bit of light and fun, at the darkest part of the year - even more so at the moment!

Christmas to me is about magic, childhood, happiness and spending time with the people you love. F all to do with religion

Christmas to our house is about Jesus birth, nativity my son was a very happy shepherd at the church.

We don't go over board with gifts but we have loads of fun having our quiet peaceful Christmas Day with family.

It's cultural, innit.

Plenty of atheists in muslim majority countries still celebrate Eid for example.

Because winter is fucking depressing and Christmas is a little spark of joy in the dark days.
I hope your hair shirt annoys the ever loving crap out of you OP.

We continue the pre-christian/non religious traditions of midwinter feasting, evergreen trees/foliage, and being with family.

It really does my head in when Christians try to act like people aren't allowed to celebrate at this time of year without adding in the religious aspects. Midwinter feasting/yule predates the Christian festival.

Yabu

Christmas for us is the one time of year when all parts of the family have time off, time to travel, when we can relax together, when stress levels reduce and we eat together, play together.
We give gifts, enjoy ourselves, it's a vital part of our non-religious family year.

It is a deeply significant festival. It is pre Christian and to do with surviving winter and a joyous festival of light and survival in the midwinter. Things were so different for people in the olden days and now the festival has endured because it has been constantly reinvented. I love Christmas and I think it is our most magical festival. There must be something to it for it to have endured for this long.

I celebrate both

Week of feasting! Try it.

YABU. I am culturally Christian, because I grew up in a culturally Christian country. It's perfectly normal for people all over the world to continue to celebrate festivals and traditions which have been embedded in their country's culture over the course of hundreds or even thousands of years, even if they are no longer believers in the religion the festivals came from. To say otherwise shows an ignorance of the way these things have always worked. And also makes you a sanctimonious (and very unoriginal) killjoy.

As a practising Christian I can't understand why anyone gets upset about people who aren't celebrating Christmas. It's a very old cultural tradition in the UK, and there's also a reason so many cultures have mid-winter festivals; they're needed. I do get a bit sad about the materialism and waste of aspects of Christmas, but that's a concern shared by many people who celebrate it in a secular way. I think that though of course the nativity is of central importance to me, any celebration of generosity, fellow-feeling and togetherness is a good and important thing in the world and I'd rather people celebrated that than nothing if they don't believe in the religious message of Christmas.

Well I'm a Christian and I don't celebrate Christmas as Jesus' birthday as no one know when his birthday was. And theres a reason for that. The Bible says to not celebrate birthdays. I still get people gifts and enjoy the day as a day where we can all get together and enjoy each other company and give people gifts I think they will enjoy.

I like christmas trees, lights, treating my loved ones, wrapping presents, unwrapping presents and sitting with an open tin of Celebrations in front of Christmas specials. That’s why I celebrate it.

It’s-a festival of chocolate and consumerism.

We aren't religious.
Christmas is a traditional celebration in England and we partake in the whole event.

It's cultural for us, OP, rather than religious.

Oh, the rant about people enjoying all the festivities when people should be celebrating their faith, exclusive Christian and Pagan traditions like ...enjoying a meal with your family, watching the Queen's Speech, singing Last Christmas too loud and out of tune, pulling crackers, Whatsapping family who live abroad, sharing a toast, watching DieHard, spoiling their children with gifts and drinking Bucks Fizz before the coffee machine has fired up - things like that?

You can’t gatekeep Christmas I’m afraid. People can celebrate whatever they wish.

It’s a fun family event that we enjoy. No meaning behind it other than a reminder that another year is closing and that we love and appreciate our families. It’s a pause. A marker. A way to unite. You don’t get to say what other people can celebrate or what it should mean to them.

It’s fun. We eat lots. We enjoy gift giving. The decor is top notch and what the fuck else is there to do in the depths of freezing winter.

A midwinter celebration is part of our culture and heritage. It evolves and changes for the generation that is celebrating it but it is a way of acknowledging the darkest part of year and being grateful for what we have and the people around us. We currently call it Christmas but it has had many names. I think it's nice that even in modern times we still remember this tradition from far older times.

I think it's more a Western European/American cultural tradition now - I don't actually celebrate it as we're Jewish and seems a little disrespectful as it's not our tradition, plus as an adult I'm glad of not having the faff! But I can see why people celebrate it as a cultural thing, I don't see people have to 'believe' to follow it. We observe Judaism without believing in God, as a cultural tradition, so I don't see why people living in nominally Christian societies shouldn't.

@Tillsforthrills

The birth of Christ is unlikely to have been on 25th December.

Apparently most likely around September, according to theologians.

As to the OP's question - because winter is long and dark and cold and quite scary and breaking it up with a festival of light is a way of helping you put one foot in front of the other, no matter what you choose to call it.

Humans are basically monkeys with shoes.