Muslims “celebrating Christmas”

[lastofallthebugs]

I follow a fair few Muslim footballers from the premier league on social media. Every year they post pictures of their children in front of Christmas trees, wish followers/fans a merry Christmas and seem to be enjoying the holiday for exactly what it is - time with family and friends. They always seem happy and grateful for the break.

And every year, without fail, they are attacked by a seemingly strange subset of people who think they shouldn’t be doing this at all and shouldn’t join in. The same seems to extend to other Muslim people I see online - they get hatred for having a big family dinner at Christmas time.

AIBU to think you can’t have it both ways? You can’t say you want people to integrate, but get angry when they do!

Yeah, but strict Islam (some branches) bans all celebrations, singing, dancing and excess food, not to mention alcohol. As far as I know, most religions have severely ascetic sectors. There are even plenty of non-religious characters making sour comments on 'disgusting displays', overconsumption, etc. The only difference is that they don't spend festival days in solemn prayer ... they come on Mumsnet instead, to berate everyone else 😏

Why shouldn't they join in with the spirit of Christmas and some of the fun bits, if they want to? I am sure the UK is chockful of people celebrating Christmas who also don't believe that Jesus is the son of God!

There's something really sweet and funny about the thought of Muslims wearing Santa hats and doing trees and presents. 🥹

As a practicing Christian, we do all sides of it. We love the tree/presents/big dinner and toys and games. But for us there's a constant undercurrent to what is - for us- the 'true' meaning of it. So on top of all the secular stuff, we do church and prayers and lead up mixed in too.

Jesus, if you really wanted to go into that deeply, loved everyone regardless. He wouldn't turn anyone away on xmas regardless of religion I'm sure. So why should we?

Not too sure if he'd like Wham!, though.

I was surprised when as an adult I first met actively practicing members of other faiths (not just Abrahamic) who also had a big family Christmas, but I entirely blame that on the way that 'World Religions' was taught in school/guides with 'X celebrates this festival but Y celebrates this one' rather than describing anything more nuanced/grounded in reality.

I'd also feel uncomfortable celebrating a festival from another religion at home myself without anyone from the relevant faith involved (even though there are several that look appealing!) because I'd be worried about cultural appropriation/making light of the religious part by doing it wrong or not practicing that religion all year round - but doing Christmas in 2025 Britain doesn't really have either of those concerns because the way that most people now celebrate it here, it has become an almost entirely secular cultural practice rather than a religious celebration (in the way that commercial Halloween has already become 100% secular). So, mince pies and crackers are available to all!

I think the point is, Christmas is no longer a strictly Christian holiday in this country.

The vast majority of people do not go to church, or say a prayer or anything.

My mum grew up in Kerala and they do do share food for each festival. All religious festivals were celebrated and people joined in as they wished. I don't suppose they ' celebrated' but they participated . It seems to be some idiots who have probably never seen the inside of a church who want to gatekeep a 'Christian festival from theit keyboards.

Yes it is gatekeeping. These racist xeno/Islamophobes don't want Muslims integrating into "our ways", they don't want to share spaces. The whole integration/assimilation argument is just a smokescreen.

Christ. That’s absolutely fucking awful, I’m so sorry he experienced that.

Interestingly I’ve just had this exact conversation with my mum who’s been taken in by the GBNews/reform lot. She started off by saying that she wanted Muslims to integrate. Then when I said about Christmas she said “of course” they shouldn’t celebrate and they should be working. When I pointed out that most workplaces closed she said they should be doing charity work, because they “want us all dead”.

seems some just don’t have the capability to think clearly

The hate I've seen online is predominantly from muslims who don't celebrate and are saying it's not islamic to celebrate. Not from christian or christian adjecent Brits.
We have mix of friends who don't and who do celebrate. None of them have issue wishing merry Christmas.
Glad my work is keeping Christmas and not doing that divisive, sorry, "inclusive" "winter fest bollocks.

Nobody’s doing “winter fest” 😂

My US friends say ‘happy holidays’ - doesn’t bother me - has the same meaning.

Poster earlier posted that their work does... So somebody seems to.....

yabu for the click bait title.
And for pretending that everyone else who isn’t Muslim celebrates Christmas for its Christian meaning. They don’t. They celebrate for the family joy, presents and food. Most are not thinking of Jesus regardless of race or religion.

yabu for the click bait title.
And for pretending that everyone else who isn’t Muslim celebrates Christmas for its Christian meaning. They don’t. They celebrate for the family joy, presents and food. Most are not thinking of Jesus regardless of race or religion.

In my previous job, I was most likely to get Christmas cards from a Sikh and a Muslim. We also got various sweet foods from the Muslim guy at Eid. Plenty of the Muslims I know are as religious as many nominal Christians- they do the main festivals, but they don't go to church/mosque every week or anything like thst. Others, both Christian and Muslim are a lot more devout and regular attendees at their places of worship. There can be more differences in how people practice a single religion than how some of the less devout deal with their different faiths, if it's not that string a faith.

One year I was in Malaysia just before Christmas, staying with a friend- I went to their church Christmas do, where they had invited neighbours, regardless of religion. They'd been to the Diwali celebrations with one of them a few weeks earlier. I really liked that they all went to each other's celebrations.

Many years,back in the '80s, my father was organising the readers for the Carol service in our small rural parish. He asked one of the farm workers if he'd do one - and the man admitted he had converted to Islam wh8ch was fine to admit to Dad, but would have been more challenging for some others on the farm; it is still not a very diverse community, but in the '80s, it really wasn't. In the end, he did do a reading- it was old testament, possibly foretelling the coming of Jesus. Anyway, it didn't declare Jesus to be the son of God or anything that contradicted with his Muslim beliefs. I think he'd spoken to his imam, too. It wasn't like he was taking communion.

In any case, it is no coincidence that Christmas is celebrated at the time of year of the shortest days in Western Europe - much of it is pagan as much as Christian.

In the end people are people. Some get along well with many others, others are generally misanthropic. Religion makes no difference there.

I think for me and my family it’s very much a more pagan thing now - celebrating the end of the year, gathering and eating a lot!

My neighbours are Muslim every Eid they come over with loads of treats for us. At Christmas they always knock in with a card and small gift to wish us a happy Christmas. As I type this I'm conscious we haven't reciprocated so I need to do better next year.

I grew up in a multi faith household, we were the only family at both temple and the mosque that didn’t celebrate christmas.

A large number of people celebrating Christmas don’t do it for the religious element and Santa/xmas trees/presents/turkey and tinsel have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus (which did not take place in Christmas day)

Agree its click bait. Shame the OP had nothing better to do on Christmas night.

A lovely little snippy comment, typical Mumsnet.

i had a lovely Christmas. I posted this well after my 70 year old parents went to bed!

We have a completely secular Christmas in our house. Santa in the morning. Family and consumerism is in the afternoon, followed by some Santa based films.

Everyone can do it how they like - every tradition was made up at some point

I think he'd likely be alright with "giving my heart"
The drinks are free at Club Tropicana too... I wonder if that wine used to be water...

Whatever culture we come from, we all like a good story and the Christmas story is a good story. Without considering the principle of a Messiah it is a story of a baby of humble birth generating millions of followers that spread to every country of the world in a few hundred years.
When we move into January stand by for reports of Muslims buying Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns.
Q. Why do 'these people' buy these items?
A. Because they are nice! They and we enjoy them.
Happy New Year.