As an atheist or agnostic, do you celebrate (admittedly secularized) religious holidays? If so, then how? I'm thinking holidays like Christmas and Easter. I can't think of any others off the top of my head and I'm not familiar with any examples that might exist outside of the US, but feel free to chime in with those as well.
I stopped decorating when my sons stopped believing in Santa and the Easter bunny (tales explained by their dad, not me). I still buy the xmas gift because my youngest son is born on December 26th. So I buy him something pricey and tell him it's for both. The older one just gets a birthday gift. My family just gets together for food but they don't pray over the food, thank goodness.
I'm Pagan...and my holidays are based on the seasons. And I have many Agnostic peeps that celebrate the seasons as a way to have holidays.
BUT
Because of where my life is right now...I'm going to celebrate as many things as I can, because why not?
I usually do to spend time with family, but as far as any church services related to the holiday I steer completely away from them.
Most "Christian" holidays have pagan roots or are celebrating a season of the year or important event. Thanksgiving is sort of like a harvest festival. So my decorations & such emphasize those aspects of the holidays, or include things from my memories as a child of those celebrations.
I absolutely adore Christmas!! Shiny lights, garish colors, happy music, hot cocoa, great movies, everyone being of good cheer! I go for the commercialism of it all not for the religious aspect. It just makes me ridiculously happy.
Easter I pretty much ignore. When my kids were young I'd do Easter baskets and hide plastic eggs but that was about it.
Damn, now I want to put some Christmas music on....not sure my coworkers would appreciate that in July.
I celebrate them without getting overly involved in the religious aspects. I will occasionally watch religious themed movies for the sake of the atmosphere, and might stretch to a miniature stall at Christmas time, but that’s about it. It’s mostly about enjoying the party together with everyone else.