I don't know, maybe because you're showing them to be the greedy sheep that they are.

Tribal dynamics + false dichotomy = if you don't endorse my beliefs/traditions/rituals, then you're against them and therefore a threat to my way of life and me as a person. If you don't go along with the group, you want to destroy it.

Fear of the unknown + lack of imagination = I can't imagine anything that would cause your position to make sense to me, and I'm afraid of it because I don't understand it, therefore it's bad.

Newton's Law of stupid humanity: for as deeply held/felt the belief/feeling, there is an equal and opposite backlash when that belief/feeling is "threatened".

If you want to make enemies then launch an attack on someone or a group.
You don't have to like something to tolerate it.

I don't hate Christmas, but I don't enjoy it anymore. I do hate Easter, though. The holidays are inconvenient but mostly it's the celebration of the Christian Death Cult I loathe, the imagery and the Bronze Age twaddle they peddle. Yes, Christmas and Easter are poached from paganism, but Christian Easter is a nasty bit of religious propaganda.

I have the same problems. I tell others it might be different if I had a child at home. Anything to shut them up. The problem is that believers think December 25th is Jesus' birthday and that Christians go through this for that reason. This and Easter are both pagan holidays. In fact, Easter (Passover) changes on every calendar in the world, doing so every year, so Christians do not even know when their savior died. They argue this but it is the truth. The Gospels do not even agree on the time of crucifixion. So much for Christian myths.
As for Scrooge the population at large calls you this if you do not like to spend money at Christmas. If this is what they believe they had no idea what Scrooge was all about in the first place. They need to read the book.

You don’t need to hate Christmas. Do remember it was a pagan feast celebrating the turn around from winter to summer. Furthermore you have no right to interfere with other people’s beliefe and enjoyment. Cheer up you ol bugger. James

I 'celebrate' Xmas and Easter largely because of having young children, I don't promote the whole Jesus/Bethleham rubbish but do it because it is customary to do so and I don't want my kids to feel isolated and different. It is also a good time to catch with my family, work is closed at this time so it works well, and I like Xmas dinner but there is no religious component. Similarly with Easter, it is to do with chocolate not with rising from the dead....as if!
But I share your frustrations re if your reasons were religious ones nobody would really care but because they're the exact opposite it's like throwing petrol on a fire. The public need educating and we're probably a more vocal and persistent group than any previous generation, we also have the ability to get the message (for want of a better phrase) out through social media.
We just have to balance our own non belief with religious based customs that our various societies may have without doing 'god'
Btw, enjoy the chocolate, I know i shall

The point that most people here seem to be missing is that my issue isn’t ONLY a religious one, but also political and ecological.

I don't hate Christmas. The Christians stole it from the pagans. I rather enjoy lights and I respect the pagans. So I don't hate Christmas, I hate Christianity. Just like I'm a lesbian, but I don't hate men. Sometimes I also hate men, but in addition to photography I also work part time in a tool store in the deep south, so it's understandable. Lol Why does one have to be 100% against something mainstream to be respected? Christmas is a time of joy, family, and traditions that to me, especially in 2018, have nothing to do with Christianity. Jesus wasn't even born in December.... They straight up stole a holiday and said it celebrated the birth of someone that facts (Christians' loose interpretation of facts, anyway) say was born in July. It's no more their holiday than mine and I celebrate it joyfully with my friends and family and cats.

Well, many believers think we hate Xmas...Most Atheists don't. People should do / believe in whatever they wish as long as they don't hurt others. Now, for most believers...in their ""blessed"" lack of knowledge...no to believe in Xmas equals to hate.
Are we going to fix ignorance? Eventually...but since changes must be gradual to be effective, the fixing will be accomplished little by little and at their own speed.

People want stuff. I love the idea of Xmas. The practice has declined into a ravenous orgy of commercial gluttony. The idea of giving is lost. I give to the propane delivery. He makes sure I am well stocked for the dark cold months. The mail carrier. Working outdoors all year has my respect & & show it. I give to 10 of my favorite 501C3 organizations. In the past I would shop all year in that when I saw something I know so and so would love, I would purchase & wrap it for the coming season. I so enjoyed the giving. Also the decorations on State Street in Chicago were relished by anyone who enjoyed the creative displays. Then Jayne Byrne malled (mauled) the street & the entired atmosphere changed. Plus I am sick of It's a Wonderful Life when the Gift of the Maji is so ignored. If I had children I would honor the tradition with much explanation. If I had family that observed perhaps I might relinquish my distain for the current culture of excess. But I do not so I will not. =0{

Sounds like you are amount the many who suffer the effect of a common misconception by Christians (out-group homogeneity). i.e. if you are not among the diverse and beautiful body of believers, you are a typical (insert set of undesirable traits here) atheist; as we (theists) know, all atheists (because they are all the same), (insert undesirable behavior and attributes here).

I have also experienced this behavior by Christians.

No but only because nobody knows. Also my children are grown up and so are my grandchildren so nobody minds. I live in sheltered accommodation and what happens behind closed doors is un-noteworthy - Nobody sees me not doing christmas, easter , etc (I do do April Fools day)
When my children were younger we would just go out on christmas day and have dinner in a restaurant we made a booking once and the restaurant burned down overnight so we had to decide what to do - my son said he would love baked beans on toast and that became our new ritual. Our children said it was the best chrimbo dinner they ever had .

I agree with you 100 percent
I used to go along with all that h s
Now I get a kick out of watching everyone
Around me go xmas apeshit
Just a big consumer holiday
I like to be nice to people year round

I agree with you 100 percent
I used to go along with all that h s
Now I get a kick out of watching everyone
Around me go xmas apeshit
Just a big consumer holiday
I like to be nice to people year round

I like many things about Christmas. I went on liking Christmas long after I stopped believing.

I would say it’s the two most important events in Christian history and we hate it because it’s been turned into a capitalist hell while there are people still chanting and preaching that it’s abour Jesus. If there’s one thing we atheists hate more than God, it’s hypocrites. In the case of Xmas and Easter, it’s people who preach about the goodness of Jesus while simaltaneously endorsing an economic system that they are supposed to hate. Christians who get this pointed to them either get a disappointed look of agreement while going about their daily lives like they never heard it or defend the holidays as religious when their capitalist bank accounts say otherwise.

I live with a self-taught theolgian and he doesn't celebrate either. Nuff said.

I love Xmas. I celebrate it for what it is, the celebration of the Winter Solstice, before the Borg assimilated it as a religious holiday, along with Easter (Ishtar).
Xmas is a time for the three Fs in life.
Family, friends and food.

If you did not live in the US you would not be hated, We cannot judge the world as we see it , hell we have trump as president. Go figure

I don’t hate Christmas. I don’t hate Easter. I don’t celebrate the religious aspects at all. But I love family and friends and food and lights decorating and Easter egg hunts with little kids, and for years I enjoyed spoiling my niece and my daughter with things that they wanted and more things that they needed. I also get all of the major religious holidays off, including good Friday this week! ? I don’t have any regrets.

Christmas is hated? ... it must be by some, perhaps knowing the full story of Christmas and Easter might make those not keen on so called christian recognised dates a bit more accepting of the festivals as more a family time to come together, thing is, Christmas is as far from christ as a thing can be, the 25th of december was the date the Pagans worshiped the sun, and the presentation of a tree decorated comes from the worship of Tamars, a pagon god who died and came back as a fir (pine) tree, Ishtar is the god of the moon and fell to earth in an egg according to the pagans on the full Moon that Easter is always celebrated on, her son was Tamars, the Roman conquered the Pagans and adopted these rituals, eventually the Roman Empire morphed into the holy Roman Empire or Chatholic church, many of the churches diates are from the ancient Roman Empire ... so in essence these festivals are Pagan, a system spoken against in the bible, why can't we just come together as a people and use the time to relax and be with the ones we love, cause it sure as hell aint no christain thing in reality!

I used to hate christmas - thinking I had to get the show on the road, cook food I didn' t want to eat then our family started to dumb down christmas , we gave the children money to buy whatever they wanted .We made it simpler for three years we went to a restaurant for dinner on christmas day came home and played games which is what we would have done on any weekend . It was such a relief to take the pressure out of it have a normal day that was just a bonus holiday.

I do not celebrate xmas, but I don't hate it. Whe people ask me why, I simply say, "Christmas is a great holiday for Christians and I am not a Christian"....I tell them that I do not celebrate Hanukkah either, cause I am not Jewish....end of story.

While I really don't celebrate Christmas (do typically do something for Solstice though) - I can't say I hate Christmas or avoid celebrating it in subtle ways.

Just do what I do - embrace the gift-giving and family reconnecting aspects of Christmas, and tell yourself that you're just celebrating Solstice a couple days late - and with people you love.