Christmas as an athiest

[Bleakmidwinter1977]

Those of you who are celebrating Christmas, but don't consider yourself to be Christian...just wondering why you do, and what parts you opt out of/in to?

Asking as I'm interested, not because I have an opinion either way.

Oh God, not this again? Christmas has nothing to do with Christ anymore. Santa/ sparkly tree/ nice food/ family time/ presents/ break from work.

I enjoy and do all the aspects of Christmas that others have listed above and which have no religious connection. I don’t go to church. I will go to the Carol service that ds is in at school because it’s about him and his friends, just as I did the nativity play in reception class. Ds learns about it all in the same way as he learns about Eid, Diwali, Holi etc. I wouldn’t object to him being in a performance for any of these festivals as part of education.
Most of the ‘traditions’ are non religious now.

These threads always seem to descend into chaos so before anyone says otherwise, let me just say...

I am a churchgoer and nobody minds you just turning up for Christmas and nothing else. Really. Come and get your carol on. We don't mind. We like seeing the church full.

Anyway as you were!

I'm a Muslim and although I don't celebrate xmas, this time of year is a great excuse to see friends and eat loads and then eat some more. everyone has days off and it's easy to organise a get together. don't do presents except for my friends that do celebrate xmas. for dinner, I am partial to a roast goose with traditional trimmings but also... (am I going be lynched for confessing this) bao buns, hoisin sauce etc. and roast goose with cranberry sauce and bao buns is amazing.

For me a lot is tradition. Even visiting a church links me to previous generations of my family who habitually did this. The feasting is another very strong link which predates for most folk who lived before at least the 18th Century, the exchange of gifts.f
The Nativity inspired so much wonderful music both religious and secular which one doesn’t need to be an observant Christian to enjoy.
This country is culturally Christian and I believe a knowledge of the story of the nativity and other Bible stories is necessary to understand a tremendous amount of literature etc and does not require a religious belief anymore than Grimms Fairy Tales etc.

I celebrate it because it is the main winter festival of the culture I was born into. Because I like traditions, music, food and sparkly things. Because I would celebrate the opening of an envelope. Because it's fun. Because-why wouldn't I?

I like parties and gluttony and debauchery and excess, and don't need an excuse for any of those things. At Xmas there are just more people who are willing to join me.

Bao buns with roast goose and cranberry sauce... you have INSPIRED ME. Big fan of all three and yet have never had them together. I have to try this.

My Christmas celebrations are about:

• celebrating Yuletide (as the festival originally was)
• getting together with all the family and treating them
• enjoying the Christmas music - I am a singer and much in demand at this time of year!
• acknowledging the beauty of the Christmas story, as I do with folk tales and opera
• finding opportunities to encourage young peoples' music and singing.
• enjoying the company of friends in this miserable wet dreary time of year

Happy Christmas to all!

I appreciate your welcoming attitude, but as an atheist I have absolutely no desire to go to church, at Christmas or any other time.

Merry Christmas!

We put lights and a tree and do a family dinner on Christmas eve with presents. For the rest of the holiday season we drink copious amounts of mulled wine, do puzzles or model-building, go outside for walks, listen to jazz and eat loads of fancy treats (caviar, gravlax etc.), have a drink of champagne on Christmas morning with friends in a pub, watch a film or two, hibernate.
Christmas is always stress-free at our house.
We don't do church, turkey or mad dashing for mountains of presents. It's just a nice week in winter we can be together in our matching knitted socks with a nice bowl of stew and a festive platter.

Christmas was adopted from the pagan festival as a symbol of the celebration of the birth of Christ hence the new name CHRISTmas. It is a Christian celebration recognised as such across the world. It is up to the individual how, who or what they wish to celebrate in December. The fact remains for the vast majority of people who recognise Christmas it will forever be a traditional Christian celebration celebrating the birth of Jesus christ.

Haha that's fine too! I wasn't trying to lasso you 😆

Merry Christmas to you!

I like your style and this is my Christmas too.

Although reading your list I automatically read 'quality street for breakfast' rather than quality time with family!

I like sparkly lights, silly tree decorations, Hallmark movies and getting/giving presents.
I'm not interested in "traditional" Christmas dinner but it's nice to get some special treats to eat.

I like novelty Christmas themed t-shirts and my little Elf. He doesn't do naughty things. He's just there hanging out and I take him places and take silly photos of him.
I like making Christmas themed crafts.
The actual "important bit" - baby Jesus to me is just a story. If I watch a nativity it's just a cute little play. I also like Christmas Carols - but again they are just songs. I like Away in a Manger as much as I like Fairytale of New York.
I like how - even though the UK is a multi cultural society and less people (from a traditional Anglo-Saxon Christian background) would regard themselves as Christian - the celebration of Christmas has become a more cultural event that unites much of the country.

@gannett I get the goose fresh from a farm and cooked it stuffed with ginger slices, garlic cloves, orange and lemon cut into quarters, spring onions, sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds and star anise. brushed it with a mix of chinese five spice powder and honey towards the end. it is glorious. there is a great bao bun recipe in the great british chef website if you are looking for one.

Incredible. I just started drooling a bit. This is going to happen in my near future.

Atheist, raised in a family who never went to church unless on holiday as a sightseeing thing, or for special Christmas services with choirs while back in the UK

I love
• Christmas carol services, and Midnight Mass
• Listening to Carols at Kings
• Fresh greenery and trees in the home, not necessarily a Christian thing though, I'm celebrating the winter and evergreen life
• Bucks Fizz (is there a significance to this delightful drink?)
• Gift giving to loved ones, charitable giving, etc.
• Christmas pudding on fire
• Christmas Day meal (kind of, I just like food in general!)

Not sure what I opt out of... besides the whole baby Jesus thing. I don't stick to the rules about advent days etc. but I don't know many who do.
Oh and I don’t do Father Christmas (atheist DP does) or elves, but that’s not religious either is it?

I'm a staunch atheist, but a big fan of Christmas. Imo it is perfectly normal for the popupar cultural elements of religious festivals to be retained long after tye majority have stopped believing in the deities. I doubt that's something that's peculiar to Christianity either. I like all of it tbh, and quite happily sit through a church carol service. It's part of my cultural heritage.

Mainly the mid winter festival thing. However I do find the nativity story compelling, but as a story rather than believing that Jesus was the son of God.

@StrawberrySquash as a Christian (and one of my best friends is a vicar) I think your message is absolutely lovely and so respectful! That is exactly how it is. Even if you don’t identify as Christian, you can get a lot out of the messages in the Bible (just as you can out of poems) and feel the peace of a church and the community and togetherness of a carol service. You would be welcome with us any time! Thank you!

I'll call it Yule if you prefer. The atheists can get all the traditional Yuletide stuff like feasting, presents, trees, decorations, parties.

If you took all the secular stuff out of Christmas like the Puritans tried to do and made it a purely Christian event, I'm afraid I'd have no interest in it whatsoever.

Feel like this emerges every year.

Answer is - watch 99% of Christmas movies.

For me it feels like the one time I can take a break, guilt free! It can be a bit busy leading up to it but then it's just relaxation (in my house at least!). It's like everything just slows down in between Christmas and New year, in a nice way.

I'm not at all religious but I don't think it's necessary to be, to celebrate Christmas. I take it as a time to enjoy being with family. A nice way to finish the year before the reset of a new one.

We have raised our DC as atheists but as a family we still do Christmassy things like winter ice skating and Winter Wonderland. Mostly because it breaks up the Christmas break and it's too expensive to go away during this period. If we could afford it we would fly to Thailand or similar. That's the dream ! Until then, we just soak up the Winter vibes in London.