Those of you who are atheist do you do the holiday thing, like putting up lights, trees, buying present etc or do you do nothing because it is a relgious holiday?

Christmas is religious? Wow, i couldnt tell with the rampant consumerism and santa. '

But since all holidays have become secularized, yes, i do enjoy christmas, and I would believe that most people enjoy the non-religious aspects of it as well. Opening presents, spending time with family, decorating, etc...

Yep, I love Christmas time. Spending time with my family, giving presents, decorating my house...plus my BD is on the 24th, so my whole life this time of year has always been exceptionally fun. And I don't personally see christmas as explicitly for christians, there are other holidays that have been changed from their original origins to what we celebrate now.

I love Christmas, although I dislike how the holiday has become so commercialized. While I respect the religious aspect of it for others, it's not something that is emphasized at my house. However, I do enjoy some of the religious parts of this special time, such as the many community choirs and their concerts and contatas. I don't have to be a believer to enjoy all that comes with this special period. It seems that most people are at their best during this time of the year. I also love the winter season with its possibility of snow and family togetherness, the holiday music, the wonderful food and aromas, and my collection of old Christmas books comes off the top shelf to be read and enjoyed once more.

We always put up a huge tree and our eldest grandchild helps us decorate it with ornaments that have become family heirlooms. Each one seems to spark a fond memory. Many of those ornaments and baubles were given to me as gifts from students. There are a few tattered ornaments that my daughter and I made together over 35 years ago. My husband and I always purchase a new ornament each year, something which commemorates a happy time in our lives during the passing year. I purchase gifts for family members, and we always donate to our Humane Society. I will attend a Madrigal dinner at a nearby college, and a special Christmas concert at a church near to the college. I may attend a handbell concert at the Folk School, and I'll definitely go to the Christmas bazaar the local Catholic church always has a couple of weeks before the holiday.

Because my husband has an English background, we always have plum pudding and Christmas crackers on Christmas Day. We look silly wearing those colorful paper crowns that come out of the crackers, but we don't care. At my uncle's house, the extended family will gather for a Chinese Christmas, and on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, my husband and I will hike up into the mountains where we'll hope to find snow, have lunch cooked on his campstove, and take some wonderful video of the surrounding countryside.

Hey, i love to go see Handel's Messiah!

Cath, what a fantastic way to celebrate Christmas. Lefty I also agree with you that many of the religious holidays have be taken over.

I spent to many years away from home while in the military and because of my job was usually working on holidays so I lost that traditional Christmas feeling. I have young children who still believe in Santa and I will never change their minds on that. I love seeing their little eyes light up when they see the presents and my wife always makes a huge dinner with so many favorites.

I love to look out and see freshly fallen snow that is unmarked and it makes it seem like all is good in the world.

I asked this question for religious reasons, and did forget about how commercialized everything is now and to me the true meaning has been taken away. But that is just my opinion.

Thanks for answering.

Although Christmas is suppose to a religious holiday, it's hardly celebrated as one.
I celebrate Christmas because everybody I know, other than my boyfriend, do. It's all about getting together with the family. It's nice that everybody tries to make time to get together with family at least once a year.
Plus, there's presents.

Greenie, I happened to be in Bath, England at Eastertime in 1982. Handel's Messiah was being presented at Bath Abbey. My friends and I opted to forgo the scrumptious dinner the hotel had prepared for us so we wouldn't miss this wonderful performance. We were not disappointed.

AND, of course, during the Hallelujah Chorus, we all stood up. The cathedral setting made for marvelous acoustics.

DK started this thread, asking how we atheists celebrate Christmas. I do hope to someday return to England during the Christmas season and celebrate the holiday in a real English setting and return to Bath for a Christmas presentation of Handel's Messiah.

what a beautiful picture Cat. My ancestors are from England and have a small town named after them. I have always wished that I could go there and walk the hills that they had walked.

One day .....maybe.

You jerk, im green with envy.

We celebrate the death of the year and its coming rebirth on the 21st. Then we don't have to celebrate christmas or new years.

One thing about the messiah. I don't think I could Handel it.

Hardy, har, har. That was funny, DO.g! hehehe

Christmas isn't actually a Christian holiday anyway, they just apropriated the birth of Mithras rolled it in with Yule and renamed it. So yes I do celebrate the holiday, I celebrate Yule just as the few remaining true pagans left have done for a long time.

By the way I would like to point out to any Christians that all those decorations you are putting up, you do know they are (I admit somewhat altered) pagan religious symbols? And for any Catholics out there you do realize that the practices of your Church, including Mass, were ripped directly from Mithraism with only a few name changes?

Glad to see someone knows their history! (and easter is full of paganism as well!)

Yes, but the christians substitute son for sun.

Many other Christmas traditions have their roots in pagan practices, such as the holly wreath, a fertility symbol. Even the date of Christmas, near the winter solstice, is linked to sun worship. Modern Christians have stolen Christmas from the pagans.
"Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. . . . They are altogether brutish and foolish." (Jeremiah 10:2-8)