Dec 19
There's a lot of conflict among
atheists when it comes to the
Christmas question. I read (and listen via podcast to) a lot of "
freethought" material. There are the 2 extremes of how atheists deal with Christmas.
Far on the "anti" end of Christmas is
Tom Flynn He's the senior editor of "
Free Inquiry" magazine and author of "The Trouble with Christmas". He does absolutely nothing for Christmas and even treats December 25th as "another day at the office". He has even mentioned his feelings on the "Merry Christmas" greeting heard by complete strangers this time of the year. He responds with something to the effect of "That's OK, I don't celebrate Christmas".
If that is one side of things the absolute opposite is easy to figure out. Picture the storybook Christian family that participates in all of the traditions of the season. They do everyhing from cutting a tree down and decorating it the whole way to going to church Christmas Eve for the nighttime service. Picture if you will, they have a teenage son (or daughter) that has reached that age of critical thinking. This teenager may have changed their feelings on religion but certainly won't be coming out as an atheist at the age of 14. That would upset mom and dad way too much. So, they continue participating in every facet of the holiday with their parents.
I feel that my wife and I fall right in the middle of things. We love this time of the year. We love setting up our plastic Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. We love outlining the house in little white lights. We love (not really) shopping for gifts. We love the sights, sounds and smells of the holiday. We don't have any kids yet, but we are still setting the foundation of our family's traditions that will live on for years to come. I always say that we celebrate "Santa Christmas" instead of "Jesus Christmas" because it is sooooooo much more fun this way.
The interesting thing about "Jesus Christmas" is almost none of it is original to Christianity. Most people don't realize that many of the Christmas traditions have been around longer that Christianity. The only part that directly comes from Christianity is the midnight mass. The rest comes from other sources (mostly
Pagan). Aside from the presents, it seems that most people like decorating a tree the most. The celebration of the evergreen is from the fact that it's the only tree that stays green year round (and thus giving promise for springtime to arrive). That was a foundation of
Winter Solstice celebrations long before people say that Christ lived. I don't believe that he did, but that's another post for another day.
This is getting long and I need to stop before I ramble on anymore. I normally don't write posts of this length but you may consider it your Christmas present.
