andhow cna you be an atheist an go along wiht fatehr chrismtas

[TheHighwayCod]

why nto make GOD and father chritmas the same deity

the only way to ensure more presents is to follow as many religious festivals as possible

so for example over the winter period you start off with eid .. big pressie

then go for chanukah .. with a present every day for 8 days

then christmas

am sure I'm missing some out

What do atheists do at Christmas?

Celebrate Saturnalia or Yule (like we did BEFORE it was annexed by Christmas)

Santa clause slash - I've seen it all now. Is Peter an elf?

Message withdrawn

and chrtians do all that but feel abad about it

arf

Iklboo's right, all the major festivals existed before the Romans brought their new-fangled Christianity over. Early Christians were very pragmatic, just adapted the existing celebrations into Christian ones.

And Father Christmas has GOT to be pagan, he's all about presents and stuffing your face. (Not that pagans aren't spiritual but FC definitely too earth for Christianity.)

'earthy'

this is silly. i dont believe in god, i dont take my kids to church but i do encourage them to believe in father christmas. whats wrong with that? its all about personal choice i dont actually believe in fc myself but dont see any reason why my kids shouldnt

atheists do the same as everyone else at xmas

get into debt on presents, food and alcohol

hogmanay is much more fun than christmas anyway

Remember - cod is better at winding up than anyone I know

testing testing

Perhaps because you can not do God and Mumsnet doesn't mind at all, but suggest for one moment that you don't do Santa and you might as well have given your child a sausage roll in his/her buggy... People who don't do Santa have taken to meeting surreptitiously in dark corners of the talk boards and identifying each other through funny handshakes, rather than broadcasting it to all and sundry. Or something.

Twiglett -- if you're going down that path, you can also do both the standard Western Christmas and the Orthodox one, for a double-whammy of Yuletide consumption (ditto at Easter for extra chocolate)

Ooh - hogmany would be fab! We just have "New Years Eve" round ours (eg chavs drink loads, vomit, fight, shag on car bonnet...same as a normal weekend really).

We stay in an watch Jools' Hootenanny

(DH almost crashed car when I said Hootenanny sounds like au pair with enormous norks - Hooter nanny)

my friend is dutch and htey celebrate christmas ages before we do

i have no idea why

she is married to a scotsman and insists he buys her 2 gifts at each christmas

lemonaid- can i just ask whats wrong with giving your child a sausage roll in their buggy??? bit confused

Np, my Dutch friends celebrate St Nicholas day on 6 December (his feast day). I think he's called Sinterklass in Dutch

It's a standard MN in-joke [lemonaid preens slightly at now having been around long enough to be in on the in-jokes] -- shorthand for anything that causes MN to throw up its collective hands in shock and tut loudly. I assume that there was once some thread in particular that kicked the whole thing off, but there my pretence at being an old-timer breaks down rather...

oh right now i see lol

ah thats it mercy

arent the dutch the coolest people on the planet? my friend certainly is. she also makes me roar with laughter

LOL @ lemonaid