why just western. most cultures celebrate the solstice in some way, including eastern ones. and in the southern hemisphere, a lot of explanations here are irrelevant.

What I celebrate is getting together with family and friends. Don’t care if they call it Christmas, after all none of us go to church.

I ate a gummy and went for a ride looking at the lights. I feel fine. Christmas is about Santa and the lights, not religion. I can't even remember the last time l saw a nativity scene.

Religious people give way too much credit to a non-existent sky daddy, and not enough credit to the people who actually get things done, IMHO. The following anecdote illustrates this point.

"There was a man who worked for the Post Office whose job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses.

One day, a letter came addressed in a shaky handwriting to God with no actual address.

He thought he should open it to see what it was about.

The letter read:

Dear God,

I am an 83 year old widow, living on a very small pension.
Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension payment.
Next Sunday is Christmas, and I had invited two of my friends over for dinner.
Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with, have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope...
Can you please help me?

Sincerely, Edna

The postal worker was touched.

He showed the letter to all the other workers. Each one dug into his or her wallet and came up with a few dollars.
By the time he made the rounds, he had collected $96, which they put into an envelope and sent to the woman.
The rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of Edna and the dinner she would be able to share with her friends.

Christmas came and went.

A few days later, another letter came from the same old lady to God.
All the workers gathered around while the letter was opened.
It read:

Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me?
Because of your gift of love, I was able to fix a glorious dinner for my friends.
We had a very nice day and I told my friends of your wonderful gift.
By the way, there was $4 missing.

I think it might have been those bastards at the post office.

Sincerely, Edna"

Happy Holidays

I have made this point before but here goes again...
Back in the days of yore when we lived on and off the land. There comes a point of time in the year when you had to decide which livestock you kept through winter and which were for the chop. Now to keep this consistent and before the really bad weather comes, you ideally do this at the solstice. But there is only so much meat that you can preserve so of course you have a feast and invite all your neighbours and family around as it is probably the last time it's possible before the snows.
So when we celebrate the holidays be it Christmas, Channuka, Yule tide etc. it is a throwback/connection with our ancestors.
Happy Holidays peace and love xx

At least you're asking questions...not stating some totally imaginary stuff as if its real

I celebrated the birthday of my Pope yesterday, the late Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead and today, the birthday of the only Lord Savior and Messiah, Brian.

The winter solstice is the real reason for the season and I see no reason why it should not be "celebrated"--no deities involved. However, if anyone tries to fool her/himself into thinking that Xmas is about Jesus, they are delusional. While fundies might celebrate Jesus, the vast majority are into the holiday for presents and getting together.

I personally keep to myself during the holidays for personal reasons, but I don't mind enjoying the festivities around me as long as they are in an inclusive style, not excluding anyone who do not believe.

For me, I have memories of childhood Christmases and there was no religious test in order to enjoy them. Maybe that was because one of my grandmothers was atheist.

When I got older, engaged to be married, my dad died on Christmas morning, just before my fiancé and I were due to go to his parents house for my first time joining them for Christmas breakfast and to open presents. His family wanted to pray for me, and I said, "Oh, please don't, I'm a heathen, haha!"

Well my life was hell after that admission. During my 29 years of marriage, I'd do the gift shopping, cooking, decorating, etc, but my in-laws would invite my husband and kids for Christmas dinner, while requesting I stay home. Same for Thanksgiving, etc. Because of my non-belief, since I wasn't going to thank God for the turkey, I was excluded.

So, I get a bit triggered when holiday events are overtaken by a requirement to believe a myth is reality, instead of just enjoying the spirit of the season.

All that below! Happy Yule!

I love a party, be it Saturnalia, Solstice, Christmas, Winter. keep up the 5000 year traditions, just change the names, no belief is necessary.

The christians copied these pagan celebrations, so why not celebrate just don't do the stupid religious part.

After 30 years of learning about the harm and violence from religion + being married to an Iranian wonmen, who from her childhood thought religion (in her case Muslem) was silly and being on sites like this and tons of reading I've become an anti-theist. I can't even stand to hear all the religious nonsense. Luckily, I have a public classical station - yourclassical- which has a lot of different genres (so far with no religious themes) so I can tune into this source to keep my senses during this time of year.

I ignore the proselytizing aspect and enjoy the good intentions most people have. It helps that I avoid celebrations with people who might go too far with the Mr Jesus stuff.

I do nothing for the holidays here because I live alone. Bring children into this picture and you might change this to include them. If not you may regret it later. Even so, I make sure that nobody remains indoctrinated into false beliefs about a Jesus birthday. You have gifts and exchange gifts. Fine. Let people be happy.

I love a ton of well-wrapped presents under my tree (including many for the dog!), the lights inside and out at a Very Grey time of year, and my family has a few stocking suffers to exchange but give to charities substantially as our main "gifts"...mine are Heifer International and Smile Train, my brother and his wife choose St Jude, and so on.
So doing good and feeling festive, why should extraneous "religious" stuff have anything at all to do with it?
Only if you let it......

To celebrate the lengthening of the days, in the Northern Hemisphere is natural, a tradition found in most cultures far older than Christianity, and well worthwhile. The rest is tat which is best just ignored.