Many Jewish people celebrate Xmas by eating Chinese and going to the movie. Most other establishments are closed. Perhaps atheists celebrate Xmas in the same non-way
Our family does pretty much what everybody else does. Exchange gifts, eat too much and sleep on the sofa all afternoon. We try to get together as a family even though, as the years have gone by and our family has scattered about the country, it has gotten more difficult. But when we do get together, we appreciate it all the more.
Yes, we do all the typical Christmas stuff - we just leave out the religious component. Christmas as a secular holiday is great fun!
They always ask the atheists what they do for Christmas. They hardly ever/never ask us Pagans, or the Jews or Hindus or Buddhists. It sometimes seems that some Christians think that you are either a Christian or an Atheist. Maybe because they think if you believe in God, then you must believe in THEIR God. Just some rambling of my thoughts on this thread...
I'm a yogi, and on Xmas I will eat well, hang with whichever of my loved ones is lurking about, and meditate. Laughs, pie and ice cream, with a side of bliss and ecstasy...
For the record, we celebrate Yule... we just conveniently celebrate it at "Standard Pagan Time," which in this case is four days late since we already have the day off from work.
The religious aspect of it can be done on Yule. The family and secular aspect is on the 25th.
And we go out for Chinese among all of our Jewish neighbors and have a fantastic time.
Christmas trees, exchanging gifts and turkey dinners have nothing to do with christianity! That was all invented in the 1800's by commercial interests trying to figure out to stoke the engines of consummerism.
So if you are Jewish, Pagan, Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist, whatever--throw up a tree and have a party! Nothing to stop you from having a great time--enjoy! (Just be careful who you invite over to share in the celebration . . . ;-)!)
My then-wife and I discovered this the hard way. Oooo, Christmas in London would be so, oh, Dickensian. Well, maybe if you have family or friends there. Otherwise it's a lot of thumb twiddling and TV watching.
On Martin Luther King Day, I don't do much of anything different. Same for Memorial Day, Veterans Day, or Colombus Day. These are all days off for many government jobs, but stores are open. I think the same way about Xmas.
We do have a small tinfoil tree, and draw names so everybody gets one gift. Our kids are all grown, but they drop by to watch tv for a while. None of them are religious either.
I celebrate Xmas as a way to remind me how far humans has gone wackee and cookoo....
to believe that so called all powerful God had to sacrifice his son in order to save the world.
This sort of theology is as stupid as ancent men swearing that the earth is flat. And that you will fall over the edge if you try to walk to the end of it.
And just like Chritians are constantly being told that if they walk the straight and narrow path to the end, they will go, to a place nobody even know exists, Heaven.
I'm Jewish, and DH is secular. We have a secular Christmas celebration (in addition to Hanukkah). We have a tree, decorations, gifts, fantastic food and drink, and generally have a wonderful time without any of the religious component at all. So much of Christmas is Pagan in its beginnings anyway. It's purely social for us, and that's exactly the way we love it! I actually LOVE Christmas the way we celebrate it!