I’m right there with you.. with daughter's 20 years older… I’ve heard the winter solstice called ‘the christian heat season,’ they’re simply insane. But in order not to appear insane, they accuse anyone ‘not participating’ in their madness, insane.. Plus, they stole it from the Pagans, thus want to keep it!

My 25 year old recently (last week) told me how well she recalls their ‘countdown chains’ to Cmess in Kindergarden … ‘red & green’ paper chains with a link removed each day till the event ... where hers was ‘blue & white’ and shorter, with her countdown to the Solstice She confirmed that it had really set her apart ..having to explain what ‘a solstice is’ to the children of country bumpkins … but that she’s stronger and more assured today for having done it. And, neither daughter got the Santa BS.

To this day, I get better and better at ignoring the entire mess. Stood in my backyard on the last Winter Solstice looking at the stars … went inside and thought, OK, that’s over ~ Occasionally makes me feel like a freak, as even the enlightened folks I know lose it during Cmess… But this year - I had this place to visit! Good work; your daughter will be strong, her father already is

I was tought Christmas and Easter where Christian holidays. Then a friend told me they are Pegan holidays. So I Google'd them and I confirmed it. If I read this correctly, St. Valentines day is Pegan too.

I do celebrate xmas in the sense that I get together with the family and have a good time. Even if I wasn't an athiest, working in retail management for a decade pretty much killed the holiday for me. Even during those years I still got some much-needed time to be with the family. There's very little religion involed aside for prayer at lunch. My family knows that I don't go to church unless there's a wedding.

It's one of those Fox News ploys to whip the ignorant religious nuts into a frenzy..and to vote GOP to "save" the holiday traditions, which are mostly copied from pagan rites in the first place.

You just have to remember that Pope Julius was the one who moved the date to what it is now and that much of what his change did caused the use of Pagan things that Xians still use.

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.

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 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 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.