It seems to be traditional in the USA that this time of year leads to lots of “War on Christmas” headlines in the media. The UK also suffers from this though it’s usually limited to readers of the Daily Torygraph. Here in Ireland I think we’ve largely managed to avoid this sort of silliness, and it seems to me most people enjoy Christmas free of any connection to Middle Eastern myths.
This months poll question is about how you feel about Christmas. Personally it seems to me Europeans have been marking the Winter Solstice (or warding off inner and outer darkness) long before Christianity and we shouldn’t accept the Christian attempt to claim this as their holiday. If there was an historical Jesus there is nothing to suggest he was born on the 25th of December.
Filed under: debate | Tagged: christmas, poll, polls, war on christmas |
colmobri
cru5ad3r
Jason
larry1506
JohnM
peterohara
robertbennett69
stilldoubting
Sully
Mid-west Humanists - An Irish Atheist Community 
I enjoy Christmases spent at home with my family of liberal churchgoers, some of whom bugger off to church, others who don’t. The Christmases of my childhood spent with my more authoritarian aunts who forced us to attend these inane rituals has left a lingering unwillingness to venture within 10 miles of their respective premises around the festive season.
I picked ‘other’ on this poll, because as much as I like the Christmas day tradition of the gift giving and unrepentant gluttony, the total bullshit one has to endure before getting to this enjoyable day mars the solstice celebration somewhat.
Christmas is Deadly. I love it, especially since I became a Father, to see the excitement and anticipation on all the children’s faces. Its a happy time of year brought about by the lengthening of the days and the looking forward to spring. And the booze and good food of course!
My family has never been religous, we celebrate christmas as a day to get together and give a few presents.
The christian holiday has been bogus from day 1 and even the christians know it. Most of the christians I know get together and treat it like a family reunion just like me. Sure they have a prayer at there meals but that’s no diferent that any other get together.
The whole gift thing is a nightmare that our family did away with, now it’s more about the meal and getting together as a family. In that respect, it’s like a second Thanksgiving for us.
I really love Christmas because of the family, food, decorations and the presents.
Since getting a job I don’t get that excited about receiving presents, but I love giving them. I always find really cool things on the internet.
I don’t know why, but tinsel just makes me really happy.
I love Christmas,
have fun
Just a day where I have to feel guilty about being jobless because president Clinton agreed with Bush and Reagan and passed NAFTA. I’ve lost count of how many jobs that I have lost in Novembers because of those idiots. The whole world’s economy revolves around America’s stupid spending for mostly this one day.
I am one of six kids. Christmas this year is going to involve five of those kids returning home. I am looking forward to the (vegitarian) food. I can’t wait to sit down and talk with the family I don’t get to see very often. One sister is flying 2000 miles to be there, and I am driving several hours. wo of my siblings and i have already agreed to simply make donations to Heifer International, instead of buying gifts.
Interestingingly, we are all atheist. We were raised atheist. The reason that Christmas is still celebrated is because it is when we get time off, and when a natural celebration should occur.
The winter is cold and depressing, and honestly it is still a lot harder to make ends meet in the winter (our father worked seasonal construction for most of our lives). You need a moment of celebration in the middle of the cold gray winter.
Just happens that some loons tied Jesus and Santa in to the mythology surrounding the festivus a while back. As an atheist family, we basically ignore that end of it all.
I’ve found that over the past several years it’s been pretty hard for me to get excited about xmas anymore. My solution was to start celebrating my own version of festivus, which I begin on Dec 21st (Sam L. Jackson’s birthday) and ends Dec 26th. Celebration is done around an unadorned, lusterless aluminum pole while I eat ravioli. (I’m totally serious about this, it’s really fun.)
It’d be great if we could get a lot of people doing it, and then demand to have festivus poles placed alongside the xmas trees.
I don’t have any kids and I’m not a kid myself christmas is a time for parents and the children. Also it doesn’t help being single its a festival that doesn’t cater for the lone gunman. My parents are more preoccupied with religion and tradition on the eve and day so. I find christmas a very boring and lonely time so thats why I put down nay I hate it because I really do. I hope that changes in the future.
I love Christmas, as do my kids!
Unless you are a Christian wing-nut, or just ill-informed it’s obvious that it’s nothing more than a collection of pagan myths and traditions, shamelessly embraced as doctrine by the religious. My house remains a religious-free zone at all times, Christmas makes no difference to that. I don’t feel you need to be religious to eat and drink too much, and it’s an excuse to be with the family for a few days.