Why do you celebrate Xmas?

[CoffeeTeaCoffee]

Why do you celebrate Xmas or what does it mean to you? Especially if you are not religious?

The fun, the love, the children.

I love to love Christmas. Nothing religious just the experience of the season.

I celebrate it because I'm religious

Well schools are closed anyway, my
work closes so we are off work/school.
christmas is just one day for us,
We are as agnostic as they come, nothing in our house is about Jesus. But we love the time together, us and the wider family, we go on holiday on the 27th and just enjoy the time off.
We do presents and the tree but the tree is up for about 10 days and down on Boxing Day.

Because it's expected

It's a time for getting together with family and celebrating life.

In the bleak midwinter, I love the sparkly lights and excitement the kids have even though they are growing up.
Couldn't give a hoot a Jesus and Mary but enjoy a nicely decorated tree and a mince pie. Some time off work, see family I've not seen in ages.

Honestly, because everyone else does. It means just a bit of fun to me. Since having kids I have changed the way I celebrate. It’s very simple, the day itself is a relaxed day of fun.

Something to look forward to in what what otherwise be a very long and bleak stretch of the year.

It’s just a family time for gifts and getting together that celebrates the end of a year for us .

Because we are all together, the whole family, and it is great to repeat traditions, make new ones and enjoy the time together.

I was bought up as a Christian. When I was young Christmas was definitely a celebration of the birth of Christ. At the same time it was the most precious family time, a time where I felt most loved. It was absolutely joyful and Christmas memories remain precious to me.
Im not religious now but that glorious closeness of family is what continues to make it special and in particular to pass on to younger generations that joy and wonder, that little bit of magic. I love it.

For me, there's some magical about being cocooned up with my family, out of any normal routines and just spending time together. It feels like something to be celebrated,

I do realise however that it's very different for those who have difficult relationships with their families or any number of reasons why it's not a happy time of year for them.

Because it’s tradition. My family is not religious but our grandparents were. We continue to celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday rather then a religious one

It's a time for getting together with family and celebrating life.

Those two things are mutually incompatible.

To add, if we weren't a Christian country, we would still have a midwinter celebration to get us through the dark part of the year. Yule celebrations existed before Christmas did in Britain. So I don't think it's odd that non-Christians, atheists and the non-religious might also want to celebrate and enjoy themselves.

If Christmas didn't exist we'd just invent something else quite similar. It provides an anchor point to the year and is a key part of the golden thread that links people across both distance and time.

Oh because it's cosy, sparkly, bright and beautiful! Also my annual work Christmas do is bloody brilliant and involves me getting paid to go to London.

DS 13 isn't overly arsed, DP 50 couldn't really care. But I just love every aspect of Christmas and I will always get excited by all the traditions and rituals.

I don't. I can't stand it. I avoid as much of it as I possible can

I celebrate the solstice and the fact we will have re-entered the getting lighter phase!

To celebrate getting through the darkest part of the year and looking forward to the coming light.

Also a time to spend with the family, just enjoying each others company for a little while.

And I like the christmassy bits, going to church, singing carols, being part of a community.

I like the marking of the solstice and the turn of the year. I think humans have always needed some light and celebration to get them through the darkest part of the winter. Christmas is just a later appropriation of ancient festivities.

I celebrate Christmas as the midwinter festival, marking the passing of the shortest day. It's a time to eat and drink, spend time with families and friends, decorate houses and give gifts. People have been doing that since before Christianity arrived and added their religion to the mix.

I don’t.

no tree
no tat
no generic presents no one really wants

It’s winter solstice/Yule…our old English (pre-Christian) tradition or celebration which marks the shortest days of the year. A time to mark the darkest part of the year, when nature is almost entirely dormant but soon will be the coming of the sun/son 🤔

Because for me it’s a time to come together as a family or with friends or neighbours and exchange gifts and mark midwinter with lights, a tree and feasting.
Im not religious at all but I love Yule/Xmas.

Food
time off
family time
chocolate
tree
giving gifts