What do YOU celebrate this time of year?

[Southpaw]

Christmas.... the lovely American way + religion as well.

[Airn]

My family is Christian so I suppose they celebrate the religious part as well as the gift giving and tree part. I have two young brothers so I usually go to mom's house and wake the kids up at 5 AM. I love Christmas. (Although this year will be quite a bit different). I'm agnostic so I celebrate my birthday and presents. I just pretend everyone is giving me late birthday presents..... Although my youngest brother's birthday is the 23rd. It's just a gift giving, family time.
Oddly enough, my mom didn't become religious until she found out I wasn't. Around here it's a lot of nativity scenes and "Don't take Christ out of Christmas." I'm with Fran as far as still using religious terms. I say "Oh my God" and "Bless you".

These holidays sound interesting. I'll have to look into them. : )

[Laurelin]

Christmas both religious and secular. We usually do our religious portion on Christmas eve actually. We always go to church. It's honestly one of my favorite parts of the season. Everyone goes and we have a lighted candle service and sing hymns and carols. It's very pretty. Then the family has dinner together that night and we will each take turns reading the bible.

Then christmas day is the gift giving and all that stuff.

[crazedACD]

Non-religious Christmas. I do think the gift-giving thing is getting a little out of hand though. I don't even know that many people and I'm finding myself with a long Christmas list this year...I'd be happy if we all agreed not to gift .

I doubt in the future when I'm not living with family I will have a tree or anything. Maybe a counter top one haha.

[crazedACD]

Originally Posted by Greenmagick

As a Pagan, I feel VERY comfortable with the traditional trappings and celebrations of the secular version...I just dont know if I like the idea of keeping the name the same for me (not for anyone else!) Its a tradition and a "normal" for me, I just question why I use it

I like the Pagan/Wiccan opinion of holidays, that it is acceptable to celebrate traditional holidays in a secular way. Of course I'm atheist but that seems pretty reasonable to me.

I work with someone who is of a certain religion that does not celebrate holidays and although I try really hard to keep an open mind, her attitude is hard to swallow. If anyone tells her "Happy holidays" she gets disgruntled and makes it extremely well known that she does not participate.

[*blackrose]

Christmas! Complete with tree, stockings, presents, and brunch Christmas day. We normally have a Chirstmas Eve church service, then Christmas morning we wake up, dismantle the stockings for goodies, unwrap presents, have brunch, then head to my Grandma's house for a family get together. The Sunday before Christmas my dad's extended side of the family gets together and has their celebration.

I had to beat Mike over the head to get him to let me set up a tree in his apartment, but he was bah-humbug last year and I wasn't going to let him be bah-humbug this year! So now his apartment smells like Christmas tree and the dogs take turns sleeping under it. LOL

I'm Christian, so I sing just as many Christmas hymns as I do holiday songs. And even if I wasn't Christian, Christmas would still be...Christmas. I don't understand why people feel offended calling it that. Even if its origins are religious...its just the official name for the holiday. And if someone were to wish me merry Christmas (or happy holidays, or merry solstice, or what have you), I would take it as the gesture of goodwill it is meant to be, even if I didn't celebrate. I will say I cannot STAND when people write/say Xmas. I don't like the way it looks spelled out and I don't like the way it sounds when you say it. Drives me nuts.

[Emily]

Secular Christmas, with all the trimmings. Since most of "the trimmings" are Pagan leftovers anyway, I guess it's largely a non-spiritual Yule? LOL

We're all atheists but I joke that we're "culturally Christian" just like some people call themselves culturally Jewish. We keep the holidays but in reality it's about family gatherings and seasonal celebrations. We also do an Easter brunch with spring time activities as well.

[Lyzelle]

I don't celebrate anything in particular, but I would call my "celebration" mostly Pagan. I like decorating, I like the food and the spirit and it's a very spiritual time given the Solstice. But otherwise, we don't do anything super out of the way like dressing a tree or what have you. The entire month of December is pretty much a party and I like celebrating the spiritual aspects of the entire month and it's many holidays.

The red in the modern Christmas holiday came from Persian Mythology. Mithra was born to a virgin mother on December 22nd at dawn. So the red represents his birth and the dawn in a time of darkness. Good over evil. Christianity sort of came along and replaced the story with Jesus. Idea is still sort of the same though.

So I take from a lot of holidays in December, as they all virtually mean much of the same thing. And then the Solstice on top of it.