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I'm taking part in an online book club covering A Christmas Carol, and one of the discussion questions was about the meaning of Christmas for us. What is the meaning of the season to you?

It was an interesting question to reflect on, because I'm an atheist that takes part in many of the traditions of the season and enjoy them, which I guess could seem weird to some other people. In fact, when I was getting to know one of my first atheist friends, he actually berated me over it...he felt that atheists shouldn't 'enable' religious holidays and should just go about their days like nothing important was going on.

I will say this though...to me, the holidays are such a festive, warm, celebratory time of the year...everyone seems happier and looking forward to things, and from the decorations to the food to the gifts (though I can be mehhhh on gifts), whatever the reason, it's such a special time of year...why wouldn't I want to participate in that? I appreciate this is a cultural holiday, and for me I always end up reflecting...appreciating that I can enjoy this time of year with the friends and family that I have and all the special times we have in the process. I think you should be able to enjoy the cultural traditions of the season and all the good things that come from that without necessarily subscribing to the religious factors that others do.

And besides, this was a pagan holiday first. :p

For me, Christmas, despite my lack of respect for the religious implications, is about family. When I was a kid it was all about the gifts and cookies, but things are different now. Back then my family was whole. Now, with it split apart, I value the family togetherness that Christmas brings. For one of very few exceptions throughout the year, everyone puts aside their petty disagreements and come together just to enjoy each others company. That means more to me than any material possession ever could.

Mine is surprisingly similar to CoS.

Half my family is Jewish, but Christmas just happens to fall in a time of year when everyone can take a break from their busy lives and be together, so even though there is such a religious divide, everyone can still appreciate the day and season as a time for everyone to be together again. Of course, we have Christmas in the middle of summer, so that means celebrating it by camping/going to the sea and just being festive.

As an agnostic, who doesn't believe that the existence of gods can be proven/disproven, I still like the time of year for its non-religious implications.

As a deist, I agree with pretty much everything that's been said. I see Christmas as a seasonal holiday instead of a religious holiday. To me, Christmas is pretty much Thanksgiving on steroids. It has the same feel with family getting together and decorations and everything, except it's on a much higher level.

My parents have been divorced since i was like 4, so the past 20ish years have been difficult when it comes to the holiday season in general. I usually got twice the presents, which was pretty nice, but I can't tell you how stressful it can be to be in the middle of parents fighting over us when we were younger, then guilting us since we've been old enough to make our own decisions. My brothers and I (I'm the middle of 3) would go with one parent for Thanksgiving and New Years, and the other parent for Christmas. Then it would switch the next year. However, at least one parent would often forget who we were for the holidays the past year, so they'd argue who we should be with, then ask us like we should make the decision. For the past 5-ish years (since I moved out for college), the back and forth holidays ended, but instead we pretty much have to go to both for each holiday, otherwise apparently we only love the parent we see for the holiday -- yeah, it's kinda fucked up. So that on top of having to try to buy presents for my parents and other family members that show up for Christmas sucks -- because my parents (mostly my step-mom) say they don't want anything and give us no ideas what they'd like, but if we get them something that they think we didn't put enough thought into, then we're inconsiderate pricks.

Also, I hate how big of dicks Christians (my dad and step-mom) can be if you don't celebrate Christmas correctly. It's ridiculous that you have to say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy holidays" to them because that's what the holiday season is about, and this country is going down the shitter since it's not celebrating Christmas correctly. The same thing with that whole Starbucks red cup thing -- I don't even want to get into that.

But I'll still say "Merry Christmas" to people because I'm respectful, and even when a couple of Mormon girls came up to me the other day talking about stuff, I just kept my mouth shut and smiled.

But other than that... haha... Christmas is alright. I feel like it along with Thanksgiving are more just consumerist holidays meant to get you to buy stuff with all the sales, but the general atmosphere of the holiday is good, even though I don't like having to put up decorations or listening to Christmas music or watching Christmas movies like my wife does. I don't even know if that makes sense.

I'm a Catholic and I honestly dont see the big deal about Christmas. I get the whole family thing, but that is already accomplished many many other holidays. Like, I dont know, Jesus's actual birthday. So I find Christmas redundant. Nice, but redundant. Doesn't mean I dont love the holiday, though. :]

And while I have nothing against atheists and generally leave religion well enough alone, atheists like your friend, and I have met many, just rub me the wrong way. The way they act, looking down at religious people (one guy I knew immediately said I was a fool and told me not to talk to him anymore when he found out I was religious) just really, really pisses me off.

If someone refuses to talk to you solely because of religion then there's not much that can be gained from talking to them anyway.

I'm not religious but I partake in most Christmas traditions too; partly because my family is religious, but also because I personally enjoy them. Christmas to me is more of an eye-in-the-storm than anything. A neat little respite from schoolwork.

I don't really analyze the holiday's meaning to me, but I do still enjoy seeing some family members I don't get to see very often otherwise.

Yeah some atheists/agnostics are equally big dicks to the type of Christians that give Christianity a bad name. Dickishness does not discriminate based on religion.

I know it's not a question about religion specifically, but the problem I have with religion is that it's almost certainly not true. There are huge communities of insular and evangelical fundamentalist christians in the USA, and they definitely deserve some villainizing. I lived in a highly religious for the first 20 years of my life, and as such have an understandably massive chip in my shoulder about it. They really fucked me up for the real world in a lot of ways, and they are always trying to seize more political power.

Anyway, to reiterate, I dislike religion because it's a set of useful lies, not because it has holidays. I don't think holidays are a religious thing any more than weekends. Doing something on a special, federally recognized day that your family can plan around and everyone can get together to partake in partially ritualized behavior is something that I can get behind. I mean the things we do for Christmas generally don't really have anything to do with christianity at all? Santa Claus? Gift giving? Christmas trees? Christmas lights? Christmas music?

Just like Easter, so what if some guy who maybe didn't exist probably didn't come back to life on that day? Easter egg hunts are still fun for kids.

Me personally, I prefer to say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" just because I've always said "Merry Christmas" to everyone. When I worked as a Bell Ringer for The Salvation Army (I know they're assholes but I needed the money...lol) people actually thanked me and shook my hand for not saying "Happy Holidays" plus it got me more donations, which meant a bonus to my pay. ^_^

I've never had a preference as far as phrases go.  I say "Happy Holidays" and I say "Merry Christmas."  It's just up to whatever one ends up deciding to come out of my mouth at the time.  I think people who get butthurt over someone saying one over the other need to get over themselves.  It's about spending the holiday the right way that matters...not how you wish someone a good one.

But I also shake my head when people get butthurt over small things just for the sake of getting butthurt.  All of these recent Starbucks "controversies" being the prime example.  <_<  They're trying to show that they have the holiday spirit just like everyone else, and people feel the need to go after them for stupid things (Oh, they're using a plain red cup and are telling people to fill it in with their own stories, THEY MUST HATE CHRISTMAS  AND MUST HATE CHRISTIANS BECAUSE THEY TOOK THE PRETTY CHRISTMAS LOOK AWAY.  Oh, their polar bear cookies have rounded red scarves, IT'S OBVIOUS IT'S ACTUALLY A BLEEDING POLAR BEAR, THOSE SAVAGES!).  Seriously, get the fuck over yourselves.  It's people like you that are putting the emphasis on us being the Land of the Entitled Assholes.

As far as the holiday, when I DO celebrate it, I tend to take it very seriously.  I don't like the fact that Christmas has become such a big deal only for the sake of presents and decorating an overly expensive tree.  I don't even fucking care about presents, as I'll buy the stuff I need for myself when I need it.  I just want to spend time with the people I love and wish them the best for the upcoming new year.  This whole thing of Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving, and them pushing Christmas BEFORE HALLOWEEN EVEN STARTS and getting people all excited to spend ridiculous amounts of money on presents, Christmas trees, and decorations...it can all go burn in a fire now, because it's getting out of control.  When my store manager told me that we're going to start preparing for Black Friday in July this upcoming year, I shook my head.  Christmas celebrating needs to stay in its respective month so people can enjoy the upcoming holidays, rather than getting their feathers ruffled on how they're going to spend Christmas when Fall has barely started.

Nice thing about this Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays aspect is that here in Finland, we say "Hyvää Joulua", which as a wish has no literal connection to Christianity like Merry Christmas does. December itself is called "Joulukuu" and Santa Claus is "Joulupukki", so we automatically avoid that fundamental flaw that English has. (Wishing Hyvää Joulua is technically more pagan than christian.) Yule ftw!

I'm currently at a point where I appreciate getting together with the family pretty mildly, I essentially see them several times a year anyway. Gift giving as a tradition is pretty dried up currently as well. It's just one more holiday, made special mostly by the darkness and the whole world sharing the same theme. Dwelling on memories can be nice too.

Merry Christmas, everyone! (I normally say "Happy Holidays" to avoid offending people, but I have no qualms when people say Merry Christmas to me and say it right back in those instances)

I agree with pretty much everyone's points here. Gerrick's piece resonates with me especially so because my parents have been divorced since I was 3, and for the longest time my parents fought each other through me and my two brothers. I was just glad the fighting stopped around the holidays. Lately, though, my relationship with my parents on both sides has improved, so I hope it remains positive when I inevitable move out for college and come home for the holidays.

I do largely see Christmas as a secular holiday, though the festivities make me joyous just the same, even if they're corporately-contrived

I just have one question, though:
I live in Wisconsin, a place notorious for its winters, and while my area doesn't get nearly as much snow as the rest of the state, we still expect to have some on the ground come Christmastime. But this year we haven't any. At all. Not even a flake. A lot of rain, though, which is still nice, but not necessarily Christmasy, so to speak. So to those who grew up not used to a white Christmas, how do you get into the Christmas spirit without the snow? I can probably speak for the rest of my state and say that we're all pretty bummed that there isn't any snow, so I suppose we could appreciate the advice

I just have one question, though:
I live in Wisconsin, a place notorious for its winters, and while my area doesn't get nearly as much snow as the rest of the state, we still expect to have some on the ground come Christmastime. But this year we haven't any. At all. Not even a flake. A lot of rain, though, which is still nice, but not necessarily Christmasy, so to speak. So to those who grew up not used to a white Christmas, how do you get into the Christmas spirit without the snow? I can probably speak for the rest of my state and say that we're all pretty bummed that there isn't any snow, so I suppose we could appreciate the advice

Yeah. There wasn't much in Minnesota this year, either. All of it has been dumped on the west. I'm glad to say that it's still pretty cold here, though. I'm not sure how I could get into the Christmas spirit without snow, either. Perhaps Laurentus is the best person to answer this—after all, it's summer in South Africa right now. But Merry Christmas, everyone!

I just have one question, though:
I live in Wisconsin, a place notorious for its winters, and while my area doesn't get nearly as much snow as the rest of the state, we still expect to have some on the ground come Christmastime. But this year we haven't any. At all. Not even a flake. A lot of rain, though, which is still nice, but not necessarily Christmasy, so to speak. So to those who grew up not used to a white Christmas, how do you get into the Christmas spirit without the snow? I can probably speak for the rest of my state and say that we're all pretty bummed that there isn't any snow, so I suppose we could appreciate the advice

Yeah. There wasn't much in Minnesota this year, either. All of it has been dumped on the west. I'm glad to say that it's still pretty cold here, though. I'm not sure how I could get into the Christmas spirit without snow, either. Perhaps Laurentus is the best person to answer this—after all, it's summer in South Africa right now. But Merry Christmas, everyone!

@Laurentus would definitely help, as would @Bodobol, who I believe is from Oklahoma, where I'm pretty sure they don't get much snow.

Here in southern California, growing up, at least for me, Christmas was never really associated with snow. To tell you the truth, I haven't felt real snow until two years ago, when as a family, we decided to go skiing during the holidays, and I haven't been in a snowy environment some then.