atheists

[ClinkatyClank]

Do they do Christmas ?

[tonyav]

Only the holidays, presents and eating and drinking.

[LazyGun]

Some will, some might not. Its down to individuals.

[ludwig]

I do. I love Christmas.

[naomi24]

I 'do' an excellent Christmas. I expect that's why I always have a houseful of people. :o/

[rojash]

I don't.
But although I am an atheist, that's not the reason.
I'm just a miserable git.

[Maydup]

I'd prefer not to but I go along with it applying the minimum amount of effort but just enough not to be labelled as a miserable git by other members of the family who quite enjoy it.

[modeller]

Of course ! The same as most of the population . It's a festival .
It's celebrated all over the world .

[chakka35]

Of course I do. It's a wonderful time of year, with lots of beautiful music and poetry. I sing Christmas carols with the best. The fact that I don't believe the content is of no consequence.
Eleanor Rigby never existed either but it's still a lovely song. Am I to scorn Shakespeare's play and Tchaikovsky's and Prokofiev's music just because I don't believe Romeo and Juiliet existed? Pshaw!

[birdie1971]

Did christianity hijack pagan religious festivals?

[beso]

My family celebrates Christmas but not as a religious festival. We celebrate the solstice which was the original festival before it was usurped by the Christians and renamed.

Unfortunately the Christians fiddled with the calandar and it is out by a couple of days. I would happliy see it moved back to the actual solstice.

And before you ask, as for the name, we still call it Christmas.

Most atheists would happily stop using that name too, just as soon as the Christians stop using the name of the ancient joyful Northern Spring fertility festival for their macabre celebration of Christ's brutal execution.

The word "Easter" comes from the same roots as estreus (and its many spelling variations in different languages), meaning fertility and has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Christ.

So next time you hear someone talking about "the true meaning" of these festivals please remind them of the facts.

[WaldoMcFroog]

We certainly do Christmas in my house. We just don't bother with all that religious guff that gets in the way of the celebration of family.

There's even a book, you know, The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas.

[maggiebee]

Why call it CHRISTmas then, why not just Happy Holiday? Leave Christ out of it altogether if you don't believe.

[naomi24]

Why? I don't mind having a birthday party for him.

[LazyGun]

Make your mind up Maggie. Either the atheists and the secular agenda is trying to hijack Christmas by renaming it Winterval, or we all call and celebrate the holidays by the convenient cultural term, Christmas.

Try not to be so precious hmmm?

[WaldoMcFroog]

I'll stop calling it Christmas when you stop calling referring to 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday' and 'Saturday'.

Or is it only the appropriation of your deity's name you're bothered about?

[ll_billym]

As an atheist I definitely believe in Santa.

[beso]

Like many westerners, I am a Frigg worshiper or at least I hold her day in great esteem. However one must be careful to not get too enamored or Odin might get jealous.

[seadogg]

Haven't there been attempts by some local councils to change the name to "Winterval" and other nonsense names?

Its great having neighbours who "do" Christmas and invite us round (jingling with bottles of Christmas spirit).

[naomi24]

I seem to recall that last Christmas we had this big thing going on here about atheists 'doing' Christmas and how wrong it was - coming from people who believe Jesus was born in a stable. Say no more. ;o)

[ludwig]

// Why call it CHRISTmas then //

That's it's name.