Do all you atheists and agnostics celebrate christmas?

I must have missed out then. Or maybe I'm not old enough to remember that.

adds a yes to that..

I never got into advent, even in my best believing child days, much less almost believe adult days.

I never got into advent, even in my best believing child days, much less my almost believing near adult days. I almost but not quite remember finding all that annoying.

My grandparents raised me, and they were very "hands on" in their style of living. We grew most of the food we ate, other than meat, and we gathered a great deal of food, too--walnuts, hickory nuts, blueberries, blackberries. When we fished, it was a food gathering exercise. None of us went fishing individually unless we thought we could bring home neough to feed everybody in the house. None of this was uncommon where i lived, either. I didn't hunt much, because that mainly would have been rabbits or squirrels, and there weren't enough available in farm country to fill a stew pot for several people. Other kids i knew did hunt, either because there weren't many people at home, or several kids would go off in several directions.

Everybody in town lived that way. We didn't do the cranberry and popcorn thing, but others did. My grandmother was not about to shell out cash for cranberries; we grew our own popcorn--Japanese hull-less, a white popcorn--and that was reserved for the best popcorn balls on the face of the earth. Other families did it, though. I remember a time in the mid-1950s when my grandmother learned that they wanted three dollars for a tree, three dollars! After that, we went out to the woods to get a tree, even though my grandfather groused about the needless effort--he was willing to shell out three bucks, but my grandmother wouldn't hear of it.

If you don't mind my asking, where were you living then?

Winter solstice is fun, especially since it happens twice per year.

Everybody on this site knows I celebrate Christmas, despite being an atheist. To me it means weaving an atmosphere of wonder for the children, a time of closeness for families, a casting once again for Peace on Earth. I don't have to believe in gods or religions to embrace the concept.

What wally shall eschew public holidays?

My house . . .

I celebrate, and am in line with the thinking that goes "this is a wonderful break in the middle of a cold ass winter". Food, lights, presents, socks, a tree, going skating or sledding with the kids, building snowmen, and everyone getting together.

Sometimes I even go to Xmas mass. Though I am not of a religious persuasion myself, I do like the Catholic Xmas mass. I almost feel guilty to say that, which is perfectly in line with a Catholic upbring! What started out as an obligation became something I actually enjoy. Go at midnight. Sing some songs. Have lots of hugs. Make G-ma believe I am not going to hell for one night in the year - because frankly, once she is gone, so goes that religion right along with her in this blood line.

Talk about cherry picking. I'm an opportunistic celebrater.

I suspect that's the case. Opie's pretty dang old

I'm wearing my Hannukah pants under my long Christmas tunic.

Going to Caplansky's deli for a kishka and a brew before attending a recreation of a Praetorius Christmas Vespers service tonight.

I know I could look that up, but what is it?

Michael Praetorius was a German composer of the late Renaissance period--he died shortly before the Baroque era of music began. Vespers refers to evening prayers--so she will be attending a performance of music written by Praetorius to accompany evening prayer services.

Much the same here. I drag my kids to to the annual church service to keep my mom and dad happy (although they would prefer I go at Easter, to keep my soul in check). I like Midnight mass, (although it's a 8:00) I get to sing my heart out, sometime I even throw in some harmony, just because. I like the smell of the incense and the lights. I see old friends and teachers. Then we walk home, freezing our butts off, under the starry skies and have warm mincemeat pies and strong eggnog/moosemilk and open one present each. The next day we feast and open the rest of the presents. We play games and usually have a few "strangers" at the dinner, last year it was a pakistani muslim guy who was renting a place from my dad. He loved it, he said his family never laughed together or played games, they were always serious. He just got his Canadian papers and told me that he will forever celebrate Christmas too because he had such a good time with us.

You know what's funny is that I'm not certain that I am atheist or agnostic & I DO believe in a concept of a Creator, however I must admit that I agree most with Phoenix on my feelings about all the Christmas movies, the music, Christmas lights, hooey, food and on and on and on. I enjoy a huge light display that neighbors put up only a few streets down from home, but as Xmas approaches, it causes a dreadful traffic jam and my enjoyment of it stops then and there. I like Xmas, but only up to a point.

That's really lovely.

I do like giving presents.

Our parish church is bigger than average, but at Midnight Mass, we are packed to
the rafters. It is a cultural and social event as much as it is religious. That
used to bother me a bit, but not anymore.

I too love to sing my heart out. I love to sing Christmas songs. I'd rather sing than
eat. Most people would rather hear me eat.