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Christmas is supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Why do i see atheists buying gifts on this day, making a Christmas tree and getting into the holiday spirit. Shouldn't it be like any other day for them?
It isn't the Christian Christmas they're celebrating. They're celebrating the one time of the year that they know they won't have to work, they'll eat decent food, the homeless are being fed, and they'll spend time with their family. They deserve these things as much as any Christian and a good Christian would want them to have it.
Actually many of the celebrations of what we now know as Christmas were part of solstice traditions before Christianity claimed them
That's true. Whether you like it or not, Christmas is now a commercial festival more than it is a religious one.
Also even given the latest meanings projected onto the celebrations a lot of people feel it's been watered Down by marketing etc and is seen as a time of celebrating family
Christmas is about a fat guy doing a 'reverse break and enter' on everyone's house and having sex with your drunk Aunt in the garage when your uncle is playing Nintendo Wii.
Christmas has also become a secular holiday during which families and friends celebrate and exchange gifts.
For most atheists who celebrate it, it's only nominally linked to Christianity, and is otherwise simply a winter festival and fun tradition. An excuse for a party.
Actually, prior to the spread of Christianity across the world from its beginnings in the Middle East, there were winter festivals falling around the same period, including winter solstice and Yule. So even if we didn't have Christmas, we'd probably still celebrate some kind of winter festival :)
Also, a lot of the traditions associated with Christmas (such as 'Christmas trees') come from different festivals and religions entirely.
Anyway, that's why we celebrate it - it's a traditional cultural festival that provides a great excuse for a party and to bond over some good drinks, good food, terrible movies and PRESENTS!
What most people on here have already said. Also, some atheists and agnostics celebrate Xmas with their Christian family members.
Someone seems to post pretty much the exact same post about why Atheists shouldn't celebrate Xmas on here every single year, and it's getting very boring.
You got it right, but seemed to have missed it. I've been celebrating X-mas as a holiday for my whole life without buying into the religious bullshit. It is a time of getting together with friends and family, no more for me.
Of course, many groups celebrate something around that time, such as Kwanzaa, which sure as shit ain't got nothing to do with jesus, either.
I see all the religious hoopla and feel pity for all those poor brainwashed folks. Apparently it isn't even jesus's birthday at all, so it's the dumb ass christians who are the hypocrites. Just a made up day on a calendar.
Next you'll be trying to tell us the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock?
Mate, do you mean you missed out on Nativity plays at school?
You get to wear a tea-towel on your head and say things like, "Look. Yonder star over Bethlehem. The King is born..." in monotone whilst trying to see if your mum or dad are watching in the audience.
Best one I ever saw, the "sheep" got loose and wandered all over the stage baa-ing, and Mary held baby Jesus by locking yhr dolls head firmly in her armpit while staring open mouthed at the audience before crying.
It truly WAD magical :')
We did one every year.
I was Joseph, once. I was proud to have knocked up Mary, only to find out it was that bloody fella in the sky, God. I gave her a stern telling off, the cheat.
I'm sure you could have sailed on stage with your wife in one arm and a scimitar in the other, snatched the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh and sailed off into the cardboard horizon - had the school been open minded :P
I will answer your question but first, I need to inform you, and everyone else who may not know, that Christmas is not just a religious holiday. Christmas, just like the Fourth of July and Labor Day, is
A FEDERAL HOLIDAY!!!
Christmas is A FEDERAL HOLIDAY declared by an act of THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!! That means Christmas is a holiday FOR ALL AMERICANS!!! Please stop being so intolerant of those who don't share your beliefs.
Now the answer: The nonreligious celebrate Christmas as A CULTURAL HOLIDAY while Christians celebrate Christmas as A RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY. I am not an atheist but I believe that atheists have every right to celebrate Christmas as all other Americans do. By the way, Christmas is celebrated by people in all walks of life THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE WORLD!!! One more note: According to a historical webpage of the University of Illinois, the first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510 (many centuries after the Birth of Christ).
It's still fun to have the good memories of family and friends and good times from Christmas, and then create new ones too. Celebrating Jesus' birthday is not a necessity for having fun. Plus I like a lot of Christmas music, especially the Christmas rock.
The commercialism and capitalism has ruined the "sprint" of Jesus's original message of giving and helping the less fortunate.
I love this quote:
"Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.” -―Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
The most perplexing question to me is why do christians celebrate christmas?
Christmas is Pagan in origin. It has not a dime to do with Jesus and his birth. In fact, there's evidence to suggest that he could have been born in summer instead of the winter.
I'm an atheist, and Christmas is my favorite holiday. Haven't you ever seen the Christmas Carol? There was no mention of Jesus in that play, just that Christmas was a time for family and friends to get together, a time of cheerfulness and gratitude, a time to give to the less fortunate so they can enjoy the holiday. I refuse to say "Bah, humbug!" just because I'm an atheist.
Religious majority are Christian...so I'm going with the sheep theory. There's just so much hype over it,which annoys the HELL out of me, and people tend to just follow.