I can celebrate Christmas even though I am not a Christian, amirite?

Of course you can... But I still think the true meaning of Christmas has been perverted to 'what can I gain for myself' etc. so I'm not sure how to vote.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Sure you can, anyone can. But just not the "Christ" part.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Neato! This year will be the best Mas ever!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Oh crap Mas is basically mass with one s taken off… Which also means church sooo… You'll be having a _____ this year

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Only reason I can think of celebrating Christmas when you're not Christian is that you want presents.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Maybe they just like the mythology behind Santa Claus. Or, maybe the holiday has sentimental value from their childhood. Also, strange as it may seem, some people really do feel it's better to give than receive. I'm not a Christian, but I absolutely love this season. The lights, the music, everything is so nostalgic and beautiful, minus the materialism.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Uhm, I'm sure that made sense in your head, BUT... the whole thing about Christmas is, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. How can you say you don't believe in Jesus throughout the year and on that one special day, you want to get the benefits that everyone else gets.... I'm not saying, you can't "celebrate" it, because there no law against it, but you're not really celebrating it. It's like using a book as a paper weight... sure you're "using" it, but you're not using it "properly" or for the intended purpose.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It made sense as is. I believe Jesus existed and he was probably cool as shit. I just disagree with his supposed divinity. Also, if it's such a religious holiday then what's the point of Santa being involved?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It doesn't matter if you believe he existed or not... what matters is people celebrate the Holiday for a specific reason. If you decide to partake in it, that's fine, but you can't add your own thing and say that's also the purpose of that Holiday, because it's not. If the definition of Christmas to me is making people miserable, I can't say that's the purpose of Christmas, it might be to me, but that's not what the day was intended for. What are you talking about? You're asking why did Saint Nick go around and do nice things for other people? I have no idea, never met the guy, but I'd assume he was probably, "cool as shit."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm talking about the fact that Santa has nothing to do with Jesus, yet he's a staple to the holiday. And I didn't make up any definition, so I don't know what you're referring to?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That whole spiel about childhood and giving... I'm not saying it's bad, but it's something that people decided to add alongside all the other stuff. Santa happens to be one of those things, since it's good.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well added on or not, you have to admit Christmas has evolved into something else and the change has been perpetuated by Christians so they can't really complain about the holiday becoming more secular.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If Christians want to change it, then that's our prerogative... however outsiders can't make the changes. If I make a toy, I can adjust it as I please, but I won't allow others to do that, can you accuse me of doing anything wrong?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't think you understand. Growing up Christmas is just part of our culture. Children are taught to believe in Santa and Rudolp, Jesus is often an afterthought. The holiday has evolved to include everyone, as often happens. And that's fine.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

What you're thinking about is Yule, besides I just said it's up to Christians to make that change... not the rest of the world. If Christians decide that it's about Santa, then it's about Santa, if they decide it's about blowing up Muslims, then it's about blowing up Muslims... people who aren't Christians can't make that call for Christians

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lol sure they can. If I'm, or anyone, is immersed in that culture from childhood through family life and public schooling then it involves us also. So ha fucking ha.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You can be immersed in it all you want, it's not against the law... yet. However, you can't go out and say/expect that your beliefs hold any value/weight/significance.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Of course I can. If Christians want to celebrate the birth of their lord and saviour, then they should do so on a day closer to his actual birth and just leave Santa to us. Everybody wins.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Alright, find us a time machine and we'll get right on it. Santa was a Christian....

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No time machine needed. They can start now. Oh, and no the fuck he isn't! Why would you assume that??

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Saint Nicholas? Are you serious?

Look him up. And I meant to find his true birth date

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The character has many different names and is derived from, and is still a part of, many different cultures. Out of curiosity, wouldn't a horde of magical elves and flying reindeer kind of go against Christian teachings?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No no... Santa Claus comes from Saint Nicholas... a man who went around giving gifts. LOOK HIM UP. I can't argue with you, unless you know what you're talking about. How would it go against Christianity? Christians aren't allowed to use their imagination? Besides "horde"? Also, it brings me back to my point, a person can do whatever to THEIR stuff, so long as it belongs to them and not anyone else.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I did look him up. Like I said, the character has several origins. And magic goes against Christianity, does it not? And I still maintain that if the holiday is all inclusive then it belongs to anyone and everyone, albeit for different reasons. Although I do find it very fucking hypocritical that Christians of all people are complaining about others honing in on the holiday. I mean, come on.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Give me an example of any other origin... that is before Saint Nicholas. The holiday isn't all inclusive though... it's Christian inclusive. Yule (still celebrated) is all inclusive. What do you mean? "Christians of all people"? Christians are being attacked at every angle... the whole religion is being torn apart. Anyway, how would you feel if I came to your house and started telling you how you should live your life?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lol You're being over dramatic. This isn't near as personal or invasive as your example. And I'm not attacking Christians, but they honed in on another holiday and now they're upset about the same thing happening to them. And some of the influences of Santa are from, who'd ever have guessed, paganism. Look, whether you like it or not over the years the meaning has changed. Christians can't just call dibs and expect anyone to take them seriously. Agree to disagree?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah.. I'm tired of arguing

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's about converting Pagans to Christianity.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Okay eldorito, can you tell me how they went about doing that?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Christmas was originally Yule, but the Christians hijacked December 25 so that Pagans could convert to Christianity and still celebrate Yule.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

So you're saying, because there was another holiday near the same day, that celebrated something completely different... you can't have another one, with a completely different name, celebrating a completely different thing? Kinda like Hanukkah and Christmas? Because as you hopefully are aware, Yule still exists... and people still celebrate it, people who are NOT Christians. Sure there are people who might call Christmas Yule, but there are also people who say Hitler was a good man. Also you should probably watch your wording... Christians didn't "hijack" anything, Christianity didn't "hijack" Judaism, it stemmed from it, so Christmas stemmed from Yule.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How about Christians let everyone celebrate/partake in whatever the hell they want? It's a fun season full of decorations and joy and family so why can't everyone participate. Don't tell me you enjoy Christmas time because you get to reflect on the birth of Jesus and go to church and shit.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Everyone and anyone can enjoy it, but they can't declare that the things they do are the purpose of the Holiday.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You got it exactly right.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Only reason Christians celebrate Christmas is for presents.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I love how everybody thumbed my comment down, even though you know it's true.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Everybody thumbed you down, because the celebration of Christmas long predated the giving of gifts, making your statement false. It's like saying, "Kim Jong Il, isn't dead, he just decided to transform into a... dog." That statement, mildly more amusing than yours, is still just as false and deserves to be thumbed down.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My cousins are fully Jewish, they go to temple and all made their Bar Mitzvahs and they still celebrate Christmas. Aside from the religion of the holiday, most Christmas traditions are not religious. Getting a pine tree, putting it in your house and putting lights and decorations on it is not a religious thing... a fat man in a red suit bringing you presents is not religious... most Christmas songs don't have anything to do with christianity in them. For the most part Christmas is an American holiday.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Christmas is celebrated all over the world. . .

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm not saying Christmas is an AMERICAN holiday, I'm saying America embraces a lot of non-religious traditions of Christmas. I know several Jewish people who celebrate Christmas or just put up decorations. America is called a "melting pot" for a reason, we have a huge mixture of cultures, languages, races and religions here so we all somewhat embrace each others differences in one way or another. Whether that be learning another country's language, listening to music of different cultures, learning history of other places in the world or celebrating a holiday of another religion!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

umm no CHRISTmas is a CHRISTian holiday ... get it dumbass CHRIST-MASS ...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Actually, the pine trees came from Yule traditions, since it was supposed to dispel bad spirits or demons, and Saint Nick is part of Christian lore, but like most other things about the holiday, he's been commercialized.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You're right, see I didn't even think of that. It may have originated from a religious thing but now it's more of just a decoration and tradition

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You're an idiot... where are you getting your information from?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Chill, bro. Some people don't celebrate like you do. Get over it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My argument isn't based on how I do anything... the way I spend Christmas now/in the past isn't exactly the "ideal" way, my argument is strictly based on facts, which KateJoseph doesn't have straight. It's like if I went around saying the reason that the Holocaust happened was because Israel tried to invade Germany and they were just war captives... it's a lie and you can call me out on it, whether or not you believe Hitler/Holocaust is a good or not.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah but come on, does it really matter? It doesn't really affect you in any way.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I like to think I'm fighting ignorance.... And it kinda does matter. Facts are facts, opinions are opinions. Don't present opinions as facts and vice versa

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah you could, but what would be the point? Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ hence the term CHRISTmas. The only reason I could think of is if you saw it as a time of giving.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well, Christmas is about getting together with your family and simply enjoying the holidays for some people. Gifts are just a nice thing to do.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Couldn't you do that without it being "Christmas"?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Couldn't you celebrate Christ's birth without it being Christmas?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Who is telling you this stuff? If I'm not Christian, I wouldn't celebrate Christmas... if I was say... Jewish, then I would celebrate Hanukkah and do what you are saying during Hanukkah. Why don't you celebrate Ramadan? Or any other religious holiday? Because it doesn't have the same benefits (or to the extent) as Christmas. Don't try to push that bullshit on everyone else....

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I celebrate Ramadan. It is mostly a time of celebration after a month of fasting. Children get money to, from all adults they come across. It is just not as widely celebrated here in America. That's why I would want to celebrate Christmas. To participate in something everyone else is doing.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm not saying that you can't physically celebrate these holidays... you can celebrate, "Happy Adolf Hitler Day" if you want, I really don't care. However, if you're going to celebrate a Holiday, that is already widely celebrated, you can't change the meaning of that Holiday to fit your own thing... if I said, Ramadan is the time where I go around shooting people, I can't go out and say that is the purpose of Ramadan... because that's not what it's about. Same thing applies to Christmas

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why do you always use Hitler in your analogies?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

O.o I wasn't trying to be a smart ass. I just noticed no one has said that reason yet.

Calm yourself.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The main reason was originally, and still should be, celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't you get together with your family any other day? What makes December 25th so special?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Simply because there is so much joy in the air. The feeling in the air is happy. Why not December 25th? Christians don't own that day.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The main reason originally was to convert Pagans to Christianity by picking days that they already had holiday celebrations and then changing the reason why they were celebrating. Jesus wasn't born anywhere near December 25th and Christians didn't celebrate births, that was a Pagan tradition. December 25th is the day my family celebrates and gets together because it's the only time we all have the day off because it's a national holiday.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Sure you can you just don't understand the true meaning of christmas

by Anonymous 12 years ago

By "the true meaning of Christmas", you mean how a long, long time ago, pagans had this week-long festival called Saturnalia that ended on December 25th, so the Christians made that day Jesus' birthday, even though it really isn't, so that they could convert the pagans and still let them celebrate Saturnalia but in a Christian way?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Like. A. Boss.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Actually, Saturnalia ends on the 23rd, excuse me.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not to sound politically correct, but I would say you like to enjoy the holidays rather than celebrate Christmas. To say you celebrate Christmas seems to imply a celebration of christ, but people can definitely enjoy the traditions of the Christmas/holiday season without actually celebrating Jesus's birth.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

A lot of people's traditions also include going to church. We attend midnight mass every year. We also put Jesus in our nativity on Christmas.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Excuse me. I meant "some of the traditions of the Christmas/holiday season". I too have Jesus-related traditions like a nativity pageant, christmas eve services, nativity figurines, etc. But other traditions like giving gifts, getting together with family and friends, community service projects, and christmas trees and parades can be enjoyed with or without celebrating Jesus's birth.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

A couple weeks ago I was buying a Christmas tree with my family, and while we were outside, a car pulled up. Then a little kid jumped out of it and exclaimed,"Smells like Hannukah trees!". And once I met a Jewish girl who said that she and her family paid homage to ancient Roman culture by celebrating Saturnalia.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lol Saturnalia was a week of lawlessness when no one could be arrested for any crimes. And at the end of the week they sacrificed someone. This Jewish girl did that? Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like a dick, it just came out that way.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'd always thought that it was just a week of continual partying and gift-giving. It was in the name of Saturn, and I bet the Romans did sacrifice people, but the girl I knew said her family only did it to have a Christmas-like celebration that wasn't actually Christian.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The story of Saturnalia is disputed, some sources say it was the week of lawlessness, some say it was just parties and gifts, I don't really know which is right. But I just go with the lawlessness because it sounds awesome.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah, it's hard to determine facts about something that happened many millennia ago. I have to admit, when I first saw your comment I thought you said "lawlness", and immediately thought, "I just murdered my entire family and now I won't get arrested, LAWLZ".

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Haha that actually did just make me laugh out loud!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You can celebrate the holiday but not specifically Christmas if you don't care about jesus...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't think there's anything wrong with celebrating Christmas as a secular, commercial holiday.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

hey... i don't celebrate yom kippur or your buddhist or even atheist holidays so why should you be allowed to celebrate my RELIGIOUS holiday just cause you want presents or it has strong childhood memories? It would be nice if you RESPECT the holiday but please don't say you celebrate it if you dont believe and celebrate the true meaning of christmas.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You do realize Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th, right? We just picked that day because it was cold and dark, and people needed a holiday to cheer them up.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's not why the day was picked, it was because it was already a Pagan celebration and Christians wanted to convert them so try said that they could keep the day and customs but change the reason why they were celebrateing to the birth of Jesus. Birthdays were originally a Pagan tradition as well.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Atheists have their own special atheist holidays?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think Christmas break/time should be about celebrating family & friends in your life& being grateful for everything... no man's laws/ god's laws are against other religion celebrating it so why should people judge if you do or do not?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why would you celebrate the birth of Jesus if you do not believe he is Lord? Do you see Christians celebrating Hanukkah or Ramadan?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I said to celetbrate family & friends * & no one is stopping them from?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why would you celebrate what you don't believe?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You're not getting the point, I'm saying that we should be able to celebrate our family & friends w/o involving Christian beliefs it any type of beliefs at this time, despite if it's Christmas or not

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Or* not it

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why do you absolutely HAVE TO celebrate your family and friends ON CHRISTMAS!?!?!? respect it for the religious holiday it is and celebrate your family and friends on the 26th! respect our holiday please and only say you celebrate it if your going to celebrate the religious parts too! I think thats to the point.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't agree.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ex.) Halloween is a Christian holiday, but everyone celebrates it, don't they?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't celebrate Christmas, I celebrate X-mas.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The X is actually a shorthand for Christ. It comes from Greek or some language like that

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lots of people who identify as Christian celebrate it while hardly referring to the religious element, so I don't think that's much different to non-Christians celebrating it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yes. You may celebrate the birth of someone which you don't believe in. (Sarcasm?) In my opinion, you could do something specal with your family on Christmas day but you shouldn't refer to it as celebrating Christmas because then you'd be saying you're celebrating the birth of Jesus. Which you're not. You just want presents and family time.

by Anonymous 12 years ago