ATHEISTS - what goes on in your house? (and Pagans if you're interested)

[MrsTerryPratchett]

DH and I are atheists. After much compromise and tradition and stuff we...

Do have Santa (but when DD [5] says he doesn't exist we don't try to convince her)

Go to a 'living' nativity. Which is weird but really cool.

Don't talk about the actual 'story'.

Take part in carol stuff, Hanukkah with my Jewish friends and Christmas concert (hideous mash-up of traditions). We live somewhere with separation of Church and State so school doesn't do Nativity.

Presents, booze, a Muppet Christmas Carol, holly and ivy and a tree (star, no angel).

What is part of winter and Christmas for you?

Raptor thank you for posting that- I hadn't heard that before but it sums up what Christmas is (apart from the sun ). We have family over, we give presents, tree up, decorations. It's a time to celebrate us!

We Athetists but culturally Christian and we do a bog standard British Christmas. I too like spreading it over the whole 12 days (we're always last in our area to take the decorations down) and this year ds1 has asked if we can spread present opening over into Boxing Day too.

We do FC with reasonable gusto but also have always told the FC about other Christmas gift traditions so they are well aware that not everywhere has FC.

I'm a pagan. I think our celebrations are quite like everyone else's but without Christian imagery. We celebrate Yule with a walk and stories, but I don't want to make it into a second Christmas.

We gather greenery to bring in the house. On our tree I avoid nativity scenes, angels etc. We mainly have nature symbols - acorns, mushrooms, animals with the odd child's creation thrown in.

I think the main difference is I'm keen for the dds to hear the nativity story as one story among many rather than the main story. So we do sing carols, but they weren't the first songs they learnt. We talk about how some people believe Mithras was born on the 25th, some people believe Jesus was born, etc.

We talk about Christmas as a time to be together with our family too.

Oh, and we do Father Christmas. I don't like to call him Santa due to the Christian connotations. Obviously the dds know the names mean the same person.

Dd1 does a nativity which is fine. It's just acting out a story.

Presents, lights, tree & other greenery if can be bothered, food food food. Still working out what we will tell DS about Santa.

I'm the same as most people, but have such a mix of friends, some christian, some pagan, some jewish - and christmas looks about the same in everyone's house! Pagan tree, family, food, gifts - almost all the traditions can be traced back to pagan origins anyway.
I do have one guilty pleasure, tho - I do sneak into the occasional carol concert, as I love singing!

We're atheists. We decorate with a tree and wreaths and lights, eat festive things, see friends and family and exchange presents and cards. We have non-religious Christmas music cds. Love the Tim Minchin Christmas song and cry a little every year since first hearing it.

I think the main difference is I'm keen for the dds to hear the nativity story as one story among many rather than the main story. That's a good point.

We do Santa because we're in North America. I'd much rather do FC.

Blimey. I obviously don't take my staunch and lifelong atheism seriously enough!

This is an atheist household - at least, I am, DH is, DS1 (7) is more militant than I've ever been, after his first year in school which was rosy-tinted awww-baby-Jesus-angels-fairies, but thereafter he developed an interest in Science! and a strict line in secularism. DS2 is autistic and unlikely ever to believe in anything like a god.

And we do the lot. DSs go to CofE schools because that's where we live, and we go to their school church services and have even, willingly, been sucked into the crib service on the 24th because DS1 was in it once, I've helped out with Sacred Craft for it, and it's rather nice. Plus half the village get involved! We've even taken in a couple of Christingles, although they were pretty tedious. A major part of Christmas for me is going to hear Handel's Messiah. We have a nativity set (a tiny one) in the house as part of the decorations, it's pretty.

We also talk about Yule, and other old religions, and how Littlenose welcomed the sun back at the Fire Dance (Littlenose, anyone??) and how people in other parts of the world celebrate midwinter, and the solstice (though celebrating it isn't part of my background and I'd feel a bit forced introducing a Solstice Celebration now). It's all a mishmash with, probably, the Christianity on top, which is fine by me. It is, after all, most latterly, a Christian festival, as well as everything else it is. Doesn't stop me not having a devout bone in my body.

I wouldn't dream of telling DS1 not to believe in Father Christmas because he's made up. He might think god doesn't exist but he's also only 7, and I'm buggered if I'm going to muck around with his childish innocence and lack of logic, killing a lot of his joy at Christmas, by insisting that if god doesn't exist, neither does Father Christmas.

Atheists who do a British style cultural Christmas here. It's the Christmas story and a celebration of family, home and things we hold dear.Father Christmas is a part of the deal as is the tree and the lights.

I obviously don't take my staunch and lifelong atheism seriously enough! Clearly

I was brought up in a very religious household, so Christmas was very much about the birth of Jesus for me growing up. We had religious advent traditions too and didn't do Father Christmas. Not because my parents thought it would make us doubt god - to them God is totally real and the comparison with Santa would make them quite cross I think. I doubt very much that they imagined that their children would lose their faith. We didn't have Santa mainly I suspect because my mother is a bit puritan and worried that Christmas was already far too over the top on the hedonism side without introducing more presents. She didn't approve of Father Christmas at all!

Our atheist Christmases are a lot less organised, and definitely more hedonistic I do miss some of the traditions though, especially advent things like opening the same traditional advent calenders, lighting the advent candles and moving Mary and Joseph (and the three Kings) a little bit closer to the shepherds every night.

Atheist household. I do pretty much the same as you, with the exception that for the past 10 years or so I've done an "orphans Christmas" at my house - any friends who don't have family they spend Christmas day with are welcome at mine. People would usually arrive Christmas eve and leave boxing day or the 27th. I have a tree and decorations and lights and food and we all sort of celebrate with light and warmth and feasting in the darkest part of the year. More people usually come for Christmas dinner. The last one had about 20 people at dinner. I do Christmas stockings for people who sleep over. I don't have a nativity, and I avoid any really overt religious symbolism (my tree has a star or a disco ball on top) but I do love traditional carols and Handel's Messiah. It's enjoyable for me to include any of the bits of the seasonal celebration I like, regardless of their origins.
This year I have a new baby and a new house and can't do orphans Christmas and I'm quite sad about it, but I just haven't got the time, space, money, or energy. I hope I'll be able to in future, though.

We're atheists but we don't do "atheism as an alternative to religion" the way some people do. We just think that religions are stories/myths that people developed in order to subjugate and control others understand life's mysteries and stuff. It's not a big part of our lives.

We do the full British style cultural Christmas, although obviously we don't go to church. We play carols on the radio, have a Christmas tree with a star on top. We never made a big song and dance about Father Christmas but the kids have fun with it and we didn't stop them in that rather po-faced way that people tend to have. DS1 was in preschool when he decided of his own accord that Father Christmas was just a legend, but it doesn't make Christmas any less magical. To be honest I am always really gobsmacked that people think their 8, 9, 10 year olds still believe. Some people seem a bit over invested in this aspect I think, so kids will go on "believing" because they can sense adult disapproval or an element of taboo. And also of course because it's more fun . I can remember knowing that my dad would be filling my stocking and yet listening out for bells or noises on the roof.

To us the important bit about Christmas is the midwinter festival aspect rather than the tacked on birth of Jesus bit. But it's no biggie. Eat drink and be merry and all that.

I have upset lots of people over the years when they say to DC

"Have you been good? Father Christmas is watching."

I say, "everyone in our house gets presents as we all try to be good."

That "have you been good?" question is weird. 3yo looked when someone asked her today.

Can I join in from another place. We are Christians from a more minority/non trinitarian standpoint and we don't consider Christmas to be a religious event at all - we note the pagan origins. Some in our faith just treat it like another day, we treat it as a cultural event in our house - tree, presents and loosely father x. We don't go to church etc

Interesting post.

Atheist parents here. We have everything, tree, fc, pantomime, plus all the religious stuff. We go to church on Christmas day, I even sing in the carol service. The vicar and others know we don't believe and are still very happy to see us all at Christmas. My children know all about the story of Jesus's birth, and it is a lovely story, we talk about what might be true from it. I think the proudest moment of my life was when my youngest was Mary in the school nativity.

I'm white British, Christianity is part of my cultural heritage and has a lot to offer and I'm going to make the most of it. If I lived somewhere else I would embrace the (fun) local celebrations as much as I could as well.