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.

Global stats are pretty meaningless. I feel pretty normal here I'm the UK according to the last census:

• For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as “Christian”, a 13.1 percentage point decrease from 59.3% (33.3 million) in 2011; despite this decrease, “Christian” remained the most common response to the religion question.
• “No religion” was the second most common response, increasing by 12.0 percentage points to 37.2% (22.2 million) from 25.2% (14.1 million) in 2011.

Agree with this. And I find the christmas story very moving. 9 lessons & carols is a highlight of my year! I am a completely committed atheist.

I'm an atheist, though raised and educated religiously (RC). I still put out a nativity set every Christmas and have Kings' Choir carols running on the day, and not in the spirit of irony. I see it as part of my culture.

I've never been to a religious service since teen years, but wouldn't mind a high CoE church service as long as they used the King James Bible. I find the RC services a bit bereft, though acknowledge this is likely due to the years of the KJB and Book of Common Prayer being central in UK representations of Christianity so it's ingrained. Such beautiful language, the rolling, well-remembered phrases.

I remember when the New Testament was modernised - can't remember which and by whom, where the "swaddling clothes" of the infant Jesus became "strips of cloth". Horrendous.

My husband was an atheist and celebrated because his family did. But I celebrate. He would everything other than go to mass.

I'm a believer with extremely good reason but totally agree with this. Why shouldn't an atheist feel moved by the Christian aspect of Christmas. It's better this than being angry it exists. It will forever be with us whether we believe or not. A small minority of people do not believe men landed on the moon. The vast majority of people believe they did. Who is right? 🤔
Anyway again I digress.

Happy Christmas to believers and non believers alike. We are all worthy 😁

In some countries it is something you would be shamed for.
But as I said earlier not all surveys adequately separate race, culture and religion.
A person raised Jewish may actually be an atheist but the only way to reflect their heritage and culture is to say they are jewish.
Other people just default.

I am agnostic but still feel the Christmas story is a profound one. For me it expresses the the concept that you do not have to be rich and strong to be important and have influence.

"Christmas" we regard as an umbrella term. The parts we celebrate probably pre-date christian traditions in the uk;

• mid winter feasting
• lights/fire/candles at the winter equinox
• singing and orchard wassailing
• gift giving
• bringing in evergreen foliage

We aren't Christian and in our home there are no nativity scenes, its Christmas rather than Santa/st nick.

Our children when younger loved playing with our rather large nativity scene figures. The wise men often found themselves in major battles with the angel flying in as the peace negotiator. It's a wonder we still have it 🤦‍♀️🤣

Lots of presents, xmas jumpers, panto, the tree, films... Christianity doesn't come into it for us.

Our crib scene has "Baby Cheeses" according to my GS. Who am I to argue?

Love this 🤣 ❤️

In Germany, which is still fairly religious, Christmas is now marketed as the Festival of Love, Fest der Liebe.
Make of that what you will.

Wasn’t that a Simpson’s thing?

@alwaystroubleonmn Kath and Kim 😂

I'm an atheist, so are the kids (made up their own minds). Husband an agnostic.

Love Christmas Day. Love a good hymn and a carol.

You can agree with the Christian message without believing in god.

Sadly I know far too many (delete as appropriate) mass/church-going catholics, Protestants.. none of whom I would consider actual Christians.

It's not difficult day to celebrate. Seeing as how it's about spending time with family and doing gifts.

It would be interesting to see how Christians celebrate Christmas. Do they go to church? Sing carols. Discuss the impact of Jesus on society and what he means to them.

There are some so called Christians who seem to have forgotten the Christmas message. I bet the Daily Mail would hate Jesus and call him "woke".

So many people saying Santa is a secular figure - he's also known as Saint Nicholas and ended up Santa Claus via the Dutch Sinterklass. The dude is probably the most famous Christian figure of them all!
Cultural in evolution is fascinating.

Especially the type that like to marry Christianity with nationalism and being British - religion has always been weaponised and it surprises how genuine believers seems to accept this this so easily - if I was a believer I’d be furious.

That's a pretty simplistic view, especially when you consider that Father Christmas (which is what many people in England still refer to him as) had nothing to do with St Nicholas at all. It was only in the 19th century that Father Christmas and SinterKlaas/Santa Claus were merged and the whole "Father Christmas is actually Saint Nicholas and therefore Christian" thing was invented.

In reality Father Christmas/Santa is as pagan as they come with a veneer of Christian respectability applied by the Victorians. Why do you think he is so often accompanied by evil spirits (Krampus, Pere Fouèttard, Perchta etc)? That's classic European pagan good/evil dichotomy. The elves are just sanitised versions of these evil spirits. Personification of seasons, events and places ("Father Christmas", "Old Father Thames", "Brittania") harks back to much older pagan and animistic traditions.

I don't opt out of anything...just don't do any of the religious stuff, but then again neither do any of our non-atheist family members and friends.

Same here - Christmas is the best time

I'm a Humanist. I do the lot at Christmas because I enjoy it.

I went to a carol service the other evening and really enjoyed the sermon. It was an RAF padre who delivered it, and a lot of what he said really chimed with me. I didn't feel like I was taking something I shouldn't, a lot of Christianity translates as just being a decent person.