@Garban

Celebrating other's peoples traditions is what the Christians did. Renaming a Pagan festival as Christmas.

If you want to do it, you will find every justification out there or create new. To me, leaving religion means, leaving everything about religion. Being atheist is not about picking and choosing. It's like saying I don't like Jesus but I believe in Mary.

Create your own happiness, gather any time, you don't need a holiday. Christmas gift giving is yet another. In my and extended family, we gave and received gifts any time we wanted or felt like it. We did not even call it gifts. Those were things we gave or received with love. We said "he bought this thing last year." There was never 'holiday gift giving.'

If you have a clear mind about what you believe in, you have clear thinking, unclouded mind. If not, you are in between and will find every excuse there is to justify. No matter where you are, enjoy your bliss.

There is a lot of half baked atheists even on this site. They celebrate Christmas lights, Christmas tree, they continue gift giving, accept all symbolism, go to church and say I go for other reasons, will say I am not racist until a daughter starts dating one. These have not left religion and all bigotry, narrow mindness, fear that religion gave us in the name of god. If you are continuing any of these, your are religious. Religion is not just about church going or continuing traditions in life but it is about what your identity is now, who you are, how are you conducting yourself. It is about your whole belief system.

@St-Sinner I agree with some of what you say. I disagree with the notion that anything that was adopted by religion makes one religious. I have morals and values that religion claim as theirs, it doesn't make me religious.

As far as I'm concerned religion of all kinds have appropriated traditions and celebrations from existing cultures and society to grow their numbers, not the other way around.

In my circle of family and friends a holiday was an opportunity to come together and celebrate and be with each other. If in your opinion that make me religious, then fine. It is not my opinion.

@St-Sinner, @Garban I like that too. Celebrating a holiday doesn't mean "just because" but an opportunity. Time off from work to allow travel that otherwise could not happen is the convenience of a holiday. It just makes it easier to get family and friends that may need to travel in one place for the party.