to wonder if perhaps only christians should celebrate christmas?

[gingertabbywithsnowypaws]

what do you think.

i am COE btw

do you think only christians should?

Can you clarify what you mean?

it orginates from a pagan festival though

erm....no, I don't agree. Jesus not born at Christmas and pagans celebrated winterfestival long before.

IMO everyone deserves a winter celebration, anything to break up the monotony of winter

I happen to be a Christian. But I was celebrating Christmas before then. A lot of the customs and rituals predate Christianity, particularly in Sweden where I grew up- and where Christianity arrived rather late.

no i dont because, i think it can welcome people into the church and teach children about religion etc.

Well from a Chrsitian perspective perhaps

but a non-Christian isnt seeing it in that way is he / she?

Yabra

(yab rather awkward)

Father Christmas isn't a religious figure anyway. I know he originates from St Nicholas but he's morphed into something very different.

I am atheist and celebrate it partly due to tradition (my family growing up were Catholics). and partly as a sort of pagan festival, really - I take the tre/decs/food/gifts bit of it and just dont really bother about Jesus's birthday . Ok, I do bother a bit, as DH is a Catholic. And I do love the atmosphere and ritual of Midnight Mass.

Do you want a fight? 'Christmas' as a Christian festival is a completely made-up confection ie nicked from a mixture of the Celtic/Norse/Roman midwinter festivals.
And anyway, WTF has it got to do with you whether or not other people celebrate? How does it actually affect your celebrations?

I know that plenty of perfectly nice, likeable, sensible people just happen to have religious faiths, but there do seem to be an awful lot more utterly bucketheaded Christians around these days.

Was it called Christmas though when Pagand were celebrating it ? I think The OP might be refering to Christmas as the birth of Jesus, In which case I think she is right. (I am not a Christian BTW).

When you sasy you celebrat it do you mean the gift side only or the birth of Jesus Kerrymum?

thats a bit miserable We are not christian but have always "celebrated" christmas with a family meal and some gifts.

YANBU because Christmas is not about "celebrating the birth of Christ", at least in our day and age. It has become much more - holidays, presents, lights everywhere, families getting together, etc.

It was a pagan festival LONG before it was adopted by the Christians. Build a bloody big bonfire to encourage the sun to come back and all that.

Call it Yuletide, call it Saturnalia, call it Christmas - everyone deserves a mid-winter festival!

I'd be prepared to put a small bet on Father Christmas developing from pagan rituals as well as St Nick, too.

I celebrate Yule time - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule as it was taken in and all swallowed into YABU it isn't just a christian festivle

Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians, aren't they? But don't celebrate Christmas. Clearly Christians don't have a monopoly on this...

YABVU, as others have said Christmas isn't really a Christian celebration. I don't think that it can therefore welcome people into Christianity unless they already have leanings to that religion.

ginge, no. That is a silly idea.

In Swedish it is still called Jul and not Christmas. Does that mean English non-Christians must not celebrate it but Swedish non-Christians may? What it happens to be called in different languages doesn't make it into anything different, does it?

Most Christians include pagan ceremonies in their celebrations whether they know it or not. Perhaps all non-bona-fide pagans should be banned from the mistletoe?

we don't celebrate Christmas but enjoy a midwinter feast with decorations, gifts, singing & alcohol

Everyone certainly needs a midwinter celebration. My DB and DSIL live in NZ and have a midsummer celebration to get them through their winter.

We celebrate as atheists but focus on the celebration of halfway through winter / family gathering approach.

meh