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Why are we hated for hating xmas?

Every xmas and easter is the same, mostly since I have a child:
People who normally do not have strong opinions about anything criticise me when they find out I don’t do xmas and easter because I’m an atheist and for political and ecological reasons.
Suddenly they all start having strong opinions, calling me a Scrooge and other names. I try to make them understand the logic behind my reasoning (like what’s the point in celebrating the consumerist bastardisation of a religious event I don’t believe in, that along with ideas like degrowth and over-production and over-consumption) but they dismiss it all and say I should celebrate for the sake of my daughter.
If I told people I don’t celebrate because I’m Jewish or Muslim or any other religion, they wouldn’t bat an eyelid. I tell them it’s for political or any other reason, they get offended!
Does it happen to anyone else?

(I do do something for my daughter to not deprive her of joy and happiness but, at 4.1/2, she’s still doesn’t know what santa is)

SergeyCornwall 4 Mar 24
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70 comments (51 - 70)

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0

No one serms to care when I tell them I don't celebrate holidays.

0

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

EMC2 Level 8 Mar 26, 2018
0

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

0

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

0

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 .

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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 🙂

0

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.

0

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.

0

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

0

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.

0

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.

0

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.

0

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 🙂

Varn Level 8 Mar 24, 2018
0

It has happened on occasion, but honestly I don't care, and I make no attempt to jusify or explain. I prefer to let it be their problem !

I don't hate any holidays - I simply ignore the religious ones .

0

In situations like that I try not to be in opposition with anyone. The way I choose to celebrate life doesn’t get in the way of others’ view. A respectful dialog is always the preferred route. Someone once told me that people do not change their mind, but can make a new decision based on new information. When I start from a defensive position, there is very little chance the conversation will end well.

0

I can see your point. Both holidays are very overly commercial but that is one of the reasons I have no problem with celebrating them. Instead of celebrating christian reasons I simply use them to mark the changing of the seasons and enjoy the older pagan trappings that have been wrapped into the holidays.

I find the mindless commercial aspect as revulsing as the religious one. Producing and buying unnecessary goods that nobody even wants and thereby squandering already scarce resources at a time when we should be busy making up to the planet is pretty low and thoughtless!

@SergeyCornwall are you accusing me of being greedy and thoughtless because I disagree with your point of view?

@Donna_I is it a “point of view” to acknowledge that we’re all (me included) over consuming and thereby being a threat to the planet and all future generations?

@SergeyCornwall nope just hoped for a clarification.

0

For those who hate x-mas, you are hated for two reasons.

First. The religious aspect.

Secondly. What is morre Norman Rockwell Americana than Christmas.

Hating Christmas is viewed as Un-American.

I’m not American, I’m a Frenchman living in Scotland. But this is the West, the McWorld so some sensitivities are very similar.
There’s actually a yearly debate in France, a secular country, about the growing number of town halls and other public buildings that put nativity displays up. Some say it a bid to preserve our heritage in the face of the march of islam. I don’t buy into it. No nativity display for moi!

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