Pagan christmas and christian/catholic christmas, what are the differences?

[DingdongmerrRADLEYonhigh]

I've got a good friend who doesn't celebrate christmas etc and is total athiest.

We were talking the other day and she said to me that after a drunken conversation with someone she has realised that she does actually celebrate christmas in a pagan way.

I know this will sound stupid, but, I don't know what she means.

If one person was to celebrate christmas and the other one celebrate it pagan style, what would be the differences?

I'd love to be able to sit and talk about it with her but don't know much and to be honest, I don't think she knows that much.

she probably just means she has a celebration without any reference to God or Jesus. Lots of Christmas traditions are pagan in origin - such as christmas trees, and the mid-december festival date. presumably the pre-chritian Brits drank a fair bit too.

Well, the solstice was yesterday (yule) and it usually involves celebrating the year as a wheel of life. Yesterday was the shortest day/longest night, which means we hope the sun remembers toc come back and not stuck in winter! So a yule log is burned (or a candle!) to encourage the sun to return. And feasting etc can be part of that. I am generalising to make it simple!
Other people who say they don't celebrate Christ-mas as a christian festival but mark it in other ways, mean they try and do the peace and goodwill to all men thing. Which is fine!
Be nice to try all year round though, eh?

I doubt that´s what radley´s friend was referring to though, fmf.

do you think she just meant ''I get pissed and like decorations then??''

(can't fault it meself...)

SHe probably means she enjoys her day/s off, has a nice meal with friends/partner/family and maybe a drink and a shag. There are loads of traditions about having some kind of party/celebration/good time in the middle of winter, at least in the northern hemisphere, many of which have been co-opted by christianity (as is the case with most 'christian' festivals, christianity is a successful religion mainly because of the tendency of its practitioners to 'reclaim' great chunks of other religions).

OH yeah, forgot about the shag bit

Well I don't know what a pagan christmas would be like, but our christmas is fairly heavily christian - we do all the carol services,nativity plays, midnight, 9 lessons, everyone goes to church christmas morning. We have 2 nativity sets in the house, plus christmas tree and other lights. Turkey dinner, then seeing lots of family, listening to Kings on the radio. Can't imagine it without any reference to Jesus tbh.

Tortoiseshell, no references to Jesus at christmas is as easy as it is the rest of the year if you don't follow a christian religion

But if you are going to leave Christ out of Christmas then why not celebrate Divali without any reference to Hinduism and lights? It just becomes meaningless to me.

Well, depending on the catholic, a religious Christmas is quite different.

For instance, in our family we don't 'do' Father Christmas, he's not what the festival is about. Instead we tell the kids the story of the birth of Jesus. I might say a couple of prayers with them. I encourage them to think about other people and we always do something for the community, such as drop things off for the homeless shelter and so on.

Christmas Eve we'll go to an evening service and then have warm mince pies and wish Jesus a Happy Birthday. We'll light a candle in front of the crib too. The kids will then go to bed and we'll have a few drinks.

Christmas Day is presents but after all of that we'll say prayers in front of the crib again.

So the difference is the emphasis. People think I'm cruel for not telling the kids about Father Christmas. If I told them we didn't do Jesus they'd be fine about it, but telling them you don't do FC and they get on their high horses! My kids still believe in magic and instead of listening for Santa's sleigh bells they listen for angelsong.

So there you go, a religious Christmas.
Christmas

Shortcake: because a midwinter festival is a midwinter festival (Saturnalia, Solstice, Midwinter, Christmas etc), why not enjoy a celebratory day or two when you (probably) are getting time off and so is everyone else... I can't see why some people get sticks up their arses about what other folks are doing or not doing - it doesn't detract from or hurt your Christian Christmas if your neighbours up the road are ignoring the event/going to work/having an orgy in their basement while you are doing your Christian thang.