Who else isn't celebrating Christmas?  Are you sick of the Christmas-centered schlock already, like I am, LOL?  Do you celebrate anything?  Do you have any traditions you uphold?

We get a tree and decorate it, burn a Yule log, sing songs (even Christmas ones), have a feast and light our Chalice.  We do some activities on Yule and some on Christmas Eve.  We don't exchange gifts.

ETA:  Ran across this piece...

http://www.sundaypaper.com/More/Archives/tabid/98/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1077/Christmas-through-nonChristian-eyes.aspx

I couldn't have said it better!

For my family, Christmas has always just been a day for family. No mention of baby Jesus. We do exchange gifts, however. OT: Easter is much the same for my family. We have a big dinner, laugh, tell stories. No religious connection.

As my family moved further and further away from practicing Catholicism, I think they kept the traditions (the meals, the gatherings etc.) but discarded the religious aspect of the holidays. If you asked most people in my family if they celebrated Christmas, they would say yes. But in actuality, they are just having a party and visiting with family.  If that makes any sense  :)

I always liked Christmas because I got to see family members I had not seen in a while. But, I don't enjoy the other things that come along with it : the decorations, the cards, the music etc. etc. etc. 

I wouldn't say that I "celebrate" Christmas.  To me, it's just a family day and Christmas eve is a big party. 

Religion aside, I'd love to experience a non-materialistic Christmas one of these years.  But our family is beholden to spending it with certain relatives who refuse to celebrate it any other way.   Sigh.

I want to add to what I said before:

My family has no attachment to the date.  We could decide to move what we do on the 24th and 25th to the middle of June and it would be ok; most of us would not miss the December gathering.  In fact, this year we aren't having our dinner / party etc until January.  On Christmas Day my mother, step-father, grandmother, and my mom's best friend will be at a casino.  My boyfriend and I will be in CA (with his family, who genuinely celebrates Christmas- baby Jesus and all).   They didn't want to have a big party etc. without us.

Ok... this is where I feel a little guilty.  I'm an agnostic, but I love Christmas services.  My mom sings in her church choir's "bells and carols" service every year, and I love going to that and to midnight mass.  I find it a lot of fun.  It sort of like watching scary movies on Halloween, its just fun to watch.  The services are really pretty, I love the music, even if I don't believe in virgin birth or any of the other malarky. 

We never have a big party or anything.  The house gets all decorated and we exchange gifts, but we don't travel to see extended family.  We all just chill and enjoy each other's company, play games & stuff.  Its very low key and that's how I like it.  If I had my druthers, Christmas wouldn't be celebrated just on one day.  Its way too much stress and emotion to cram into one day.  I think people in the Renaissance had the right idea when they let the Christmas season go on for 12 days.  If the Christmas shopping bonanza could be postponed until at least December 1, and then the holiday itself was a much quieter affair spread over more time, instead of one day of insane merriment, I think we'd all be a lot saner before, during and after Christmas.  There wouldn't be so much pressure to make that one day absolutely perfect.

Gaaah!  I hate Christmas!  Well, I don't actually hate it, but hate what it has become and the frenzy that people seem to go into starting the day after Halloween.   My husband and I are both non-believers but we exchange gifts and have dinner and sometimes put up a tree.  But I refuse to follow along on the commercial mess that goes with the holiday season.  My husband, who is an atheist, doesn't understand why people say Happy Holidays because he says the day is called "Christmas" so just call it what it is!  The idea of "Black Friday" is so repulsive.  I feel so sorry for retail workers who have to get up in the middle of the night so they can be at the store when it opens at 5:00 a.m. just so people can buy a lot of crap that they can't afford and don't need!  But then, that's me.  

Bev wrote: The idea of "Black Friday" is so repulsive.  I feel so sorry for retail workers who have to get up in the middle of the night so they can be at the store when it opens at 5:00 a.m. just so people can buy a lot of crap that they can't afford and don't need!

No kidding!!  Nothing like going into debt so your kids can have more plastic crap, LOL...My sister is the worst offender.

My family doesn't celebrate the religious holiday, but we do celebrate the secular, materialistic holiday. I actually hate it. I only. like a few of the traditional carols. I hate shopping. We always put up a tree. Decorating it used to be a big family event, but now it's mostly mom and I putting up all the ornaments. It just doesn't have the same feeling. What I enjoy most about the holiday is getting together with the family. But, even that doesn't happen anymore. We'll probably only see a few people on Christmas day, but we'll have several other days in Dec. and Jan when we'll get together. This will be my last year celebrating Christmas in a materialistic way. Next year I won't be giving any presents, and I'm going to instruct everybody that I don't want to receive presents. When I have my own place, I know I will still get a Christmas tree, but I envision it as a hike out into the national forest with the dog to pick out and cut my own tree and drag it home. Then I'll probably put it out on the porch (hopefully I'll have a porch) and cover it with small red bows. I was able to do that one year and it looked so pretty after it snowed. I might use white lights or not. Using lights is such a waste of electricity. I will probably always send out holiday cards, because I enjoy making them so much. They usually have more of a happy winter sentiment then a happy holiday sentiment. The one oddity of my holiday celebrations is my frequent church attendence. This is the only time when you will find me, a staunch atheist, willingly entering a church and suffering through a religious service. I absolutely love listening to the bells concerts, and I can't hear them without hearing the service.

I have a complex realtionship with the celebration known as Christmas.

When I was little we did celebrate it. Then around age 9 or so my dad decide that Christmas had to many pagan roots and we would no longer be celebrating.

I really think he did that so he would'nt have to buy us anything! ;)

In my early 20's I was converting to Judiasm so we celebrated Hanukkah. After years of Temple and classes I could'nt make the final step ( I'm afraid of commitment!).

So now what? I have decided that I do love Christmas. It is a rebirth. Of the Sun or of a Messiah or of the Temple or all.

I like to decorate the tree ( we buy a living one in a pot so we can plant it when spring time comes ). I love to bake and make presents for people. To me this celebration makes sense this time of year. Its too cold to go outside. My presents give me someting to do around the house. Baking keeps the house warm. To me Christmas is a season. A strech of time, not a day to cram everything into then get back to our hetic lives. Its time to slow down and come together.

So in that way I guess I do celebrate Christmas.

We like to celebrate Christmas as the  pagan Yule holiday, complete with all the pagan trimmings.  However, since I was raised Catholic, I still do it on Christmas Day and not on the solstice.  We sometimes have a small Yule celebration with candles and wishes but mostly we have our big celebration on Dec. 25th.

We cook foods from a different country every year and choose different style decorations, except of course for the traditional tree, candles, wreaths, and pinecones.  I love all that stuff. 

We exchange gifts and we also contribute money to everyone's favorite charities, and make a point to send special cards to sick children as well.  At Yule, we try to spread love and peace to people of all religions.

We don't celebrate Christmas at all. It's just another day at our house.

We don't celebrate Christmas.  This year, instead of giving gifts to each other, we all donated to a charity that my mother is involved with that works with under-priviliged children.  The only regret I have is that I usually got gift cards to book stores.  I do like free book money...

There's a ga-o-rific Hallmark commercial this year where some lady is trying to get her baby to say "Merry Christmas" into a card.  Then it shows the Grandparents opening the card and the most fake baby voice says an approximation of  "Merry Christmas".

Puke worthy, seriously.

We go all out for Yule, then visit the Christians in our family for their special day. We hang wreaths, make a Yule log, and decorate a tree. We also stay up on the night of Yule and sing "Bring Back the Light" from Gypsy's Enchantress CD.

Aileen, that CD sonds interesting - I will have to look for it. :)

One more day and it's all over - YAY!!

Hooray!  People just lose their minds this time of year.  And it's only for ONE DAY.  Even though shopping is down this year, there are still too many people out spending money they don't have on crap that they don't need.   We're having a peaceful Christmas, just the two of us, cooking dinner and going to a movie.