Do you celebrate Christmas?

I do. I was raised Presbyterian. We did a secular xmas except for going to church for late night Christmas Eve services. When I got older we went to the Episcopal Cathedral downtown in Houston (Christ Church Cathedral) because they had a beautiful old church and the best choir in town.

I do the secular xmas because I enjoy it. I also put up orange and purple Halloween lights, and put an electric menorah in my window and turn on one new bulb each night and read the ritual in Hebrew.

I live in a rural area so nobody knows what those electric candles in the window are for, and they don't notice it.

I enjoy the lights, I enjoy the cooking, and I live with a serious Clark Griswold (Electrical Engineer - loves putting up the lights) :D

We are retired and the kids are grown & live far away (no grandkids yet), so we can't get anyone to come over for Thanksgiving or Xmas. We usually go to a Unitarian Church potluck for Thanksgiving back in the big city.

Not at all. Broke my mother's heart.

Just cannot do it.

-Cindy

we do the tree and everything. I still enjoy the christmas music...even the religious stuff.

Thanksgiving and Christmas both are family holidays and religion has nothing to do with it as far as we're concerned. That's how we enjoy it.

I'm getting a couple more yard decorations this year.

And it's not such a burden. It's not like I'm a secular saint and she has *nothing* to put up with.

Besides, the commerical Xmas is pretty cool in its own right.

Tree, gifts, big dinner with the expected food, family gathering.

Watching kids go gaga with the new toys is good for the inner self's health.

What's wrong with Santa and peace doves?

I do listen to Xmas music, most classical, because it's great music first, Xmas second.

We don't go to religious services.

My kids aren't big eaters, so we don't even make a big deal about the meal. It's mostly about watching a few traditional movies and bathing in the warmth of the season.

The whole family gets together at my parents to eat buckets of food, but that's just because we like to eat and hang out together and don't get a chance to do it very often.

during the christmas season they gave her a nail with a ribbon. It was to hang on a christmas tree.

They wanted us to remember baby jesus birthday by hanging a nail on the tree.

Needless to day, no kid of ours ever went back to that church.

Exactly how we spend the Solstice too.

run around like a mad-woman, buying for all my friends
and relatives...

On Xmas eve, I pop in the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol",
open a bottle of red wine, and cry like a baby...remembering
this was the "tradition" I shared with my father.

After my cathartic tear-fest, my husband and I wrap every
damn present for the kids and whomever else will actually
be here Xmas morning, put them under the tree and fall over.

On Xmas day, I have my whole family (mostly non-believers)
over for a HUGE roast beef dinner, then we collapse.


Happy Holidaze!

We dine about 9-10 pm (more accurately, we eat and drink non-stop from about 8 to midnight) and the children wait anxiously for midnight (yes, they do stay up after midnight. Hey, there's no school next day) to open the presents. Happy chaos ensues. Typically nobody is able to sleep until, at best, 2am. Whew. I know (from the movies, nacht) that kids in the US only open the presents at Dec 25 morning. We have less restraint.

Dining Dec 25 is your particular time-management thing, correct?

Leftovers were supposed to go with the servants
on "boxing day".

Maybe it's just an English tradition....

When I was a kid, we would frequently pull
an all-nighter waiting for "Santa", who we
pretty much all knew were a very tired Mom & Dad...

Of course there's no religion involved. I like to have the excuse to splurge on my kids, we eat well, spend time together and just relax & enjoy. It will likely be snowing here, that makes it really beautiful.

Julie

same as many others here. Tree, gifts, big dinner, etc, even the music is fine with me. No Jesus, no "Christ." I'm comfortable with the pagan roots of the holiday and I like the tradition in my life since it never was a religious time for me. Easter on the other hand, I don't do.

Stop telling people they are not atheists. Merry Christmas!

I love it. Decorations go up early in October & don't go down until the last Jack o'Lantern is gone.

We don't do xmas. No tree. No gifts. No special dinner. I do like the outdoor lights, though. Remember that "Northern Exposure" episode where Chris in the Morning 'stole' lights from everyone in the community & created that wondrous light sculpture? I love that episode!

We always spend the holidays with either my parents or my in-laws, which means we have some Jesus to varying degrees. My parents are semi-Jesusy, my in-laws are super Christ-y, so we have to just keep our traps shut for the sake of harmony and so we don't have to endure the dramatics of a couple of fundy fruitcakes.

The way we look at it, even if we don't think he was the Son of some God, or born to an actual virgin, the basic philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth is pretty groovy, so we just look at Christmas as a birthday party for the Original Hippie.

It gets us through all the super-natural nonsense.

I try to visit my mother every Xmas, since she isn't getting any younger and is the only mother I have. She lives in rural South Carolina, where religion is in the very air.

Though even I was impressed last year, when we went to a Xmas dinner at the home of a man who is a life-long right-wing Repub and racist. He actually prayed for Obama and mentioned in the prayer that "our new President has a big job to do." You coulda knocked me over with a feather.

I headed off one awkward moment a few years ago. "Saying grace" is considered an honor in that community, so I took Mom aside and asked her NOT to give me that particular honor. Ever. She knows I am not religious - to put it mildly - and has never asked me to do that again.

When I stay home in Los Angeles for Xmas, I usually bake a ham and spend the day watching either sacriligeous Xmas movies, or an MST3K marathon. Especially "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" or that goofy Santa movie that was made in Mexico.

Wherever I am, I still enjoy walking around malls/stores and seeing people do their shopping. Maybe because my immediate family knocked it off years ago, and donate to charity in each other's names, etc.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It's not religious for us and wasn't for me growing up. I like the decorations, visiting with friends and family, and buying gifts for those I love.

My folks had no crosses or baby jeebus on the tree, no creche in the house either. I like angels and have one that is a tree topper.

My son in law the fundie got real mad at me once when I told him he better not have a xmas tree because it was a pagan symbol of the solstice. And no easter bunnies or easter eggs either! They are pagan!

He has since divorced the screaming banshee fundie he was married to and is starting to come to his senses somewhat. He is discovering after years of being held back by fundieism in oklahoma, that there is a big interesting world out there.

Hell, last year when he was in Houston we took him to Benihana -- it totally blew his mind!!! :D

I am gonna put up a sign that says AXIAL TILT IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON and find out how long it takes the rednecks to shoot holes in it. I kid you not.

If I was single I would not celebrate Christmas.

raised Lutheran, and I love all the old Christmas carols. My mother is still Christian, so I go to church for Christmas Eve, but it's mostly just singing, which as I said is fine with me.

I have friend who had a black xmass tree, that they would hang upside down...very funny!

I will (dutifully, if not faithfully) attend any religious observance where the food is good. :patriot:

I'll come to Christmas, sing the songs, enjoy the fellowship that comes with good food and drink. :)

(Apologies to those who've heard me say this before, but it is an original.)

--imm

:evilgrin:

I love Pagan Holidays!!!!!! Does not mean I believe any of the bullshit I just love being with family and friends like any human does.

It's strange, though. Mom is an agnostic and my sister is a pagan. Brother is still christian, and I don't know what the brother-in-law is.

Dad would be fundamentalist (and is in fact a bush voter--twice), but he doesn't want to piss mom off.

With all this (plus one atheist) you think it would be hard to put our traditions together, but having a firm grounding in christian dogma growing up has gotten us used to one tradition.

Q3JR4.

however, I get upset with myself for enjoying such a wasteful, commercial holiday.

We don't do much in the way of presents though, except for my nephews.

Grew up Jewish and now an atheist.

I give holiday gifts, but I don't give them on any particular day. I found my friend Jenna's gift in August, and it was something she could get a lot of use out of immediately, so I gave it to her in August.

I got a gift from her in December for some reason. :shrug:

The few people I buy gifts for are people I see on an erratic schedule, so I bring gifts for them when I see them, not on any holiday schedule.