I'm amazed at how many times I've heard people say in the last month that they don't really celebrate Christmas because they're "not very religious." I'm not religious, either, yet I celebrate Christmas with fervor.
I used to be very religious. Even when my mother wasn't prodding me to go to Sunday School, I made the weekly Sunday trek in my blue Toyota Carolla to Pilgrim Congregational Church to pay my penance. In retrospect, I think my attachment to religion then was a clear case of guilt. the feelings I had about other boys weren't OK - and the way I made them all better was to go to church. That didn't work so well.
Christmas, to me, isn't a religious holiday. It's a celebration of family - and you can celebrate that whether you attend church or not. Separate from Jesus being born (or not) is the celebration of family and hope and the new year. I'll celebrate Christmas forever - with or without a manger scene.
I'm wondering if this "I don't celebrate religious holidays" is a backlash to the last year in politics. You have many liberals declaring that the United States is now "Jesusland", and whining about how religion has usurped the sanity of the nation. There's a line of thinking that says you are most controlled by that which you most try to avoid. I think this new "I hate anything religious because religion controls America" is a great example of that.
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