Christmas & Children
Offline Happy Not-Allowed-to-Buy-Beer-Because-It's-the-Lord's-Day from the great state of Georgia!!
I was wondering how my fellow atheists deal with the holidays with your children? Do you celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday? How do you approach the whole Santa thing? I have a 16 year old son with a religious dad, so he was brought up fairly "traditionally." My fiance and I are both atheists and are planning to have a baby, and with the holidays coming up this is something that has been weighing on my mind (albeit very prematurely as we aren't quite pregnant yet). 
I'm curious how ya'll approach it with your kids?
I appreciate any input you guys have. I've been on this site and a fan of RRS for several years now but I don't think I've posted before. I searched and I didn't see a topic addressing this, so I hope I'm not being redundant.
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There is nothing like telling the truth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSm7YPMQOSo
My wife and her family run a Christmas Charity in their home country every December, I get to play Santa Clause, the catch here is that the family members who bother with religion are Hindus and the orphans & poor children who benefit from the charity are Hindus and Muslims; there might be a few christians involved [out of 150 children last year a dozen or less] they think of christmas as a gift giving holiday NOT a religious one. Besides the christains hijacked the Yuletide festival from pagan cults in the first place. Ignor religion and have fun.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
being told secular christmas - a celebration in which you give gifts to people you love - was evil and the work of satan. My parents were wrong.
It's over commercialised, sure, but just sitting around fighting with your family amid acres of wrapping paper while eating everything that's not nailed down really is an end unto itself.
Tell your kids christmas is about being with people they love. I wish my freak-parents had told that to me.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
My kids are all grown - even my grandson is way too old for Santa. I love to decorate the tree and string some lights even without little ones around the house. Well, the husband usually strings them. Everyone is scattered, and most of us are too strapped for cash to blow on piles of loot. But I like to cook a special meal and light up the tree. If I can, I send the grandson something. (I only have the one grandchild, and it looks like that is all I'm getting.)
When I was young, my mom made a big deal out of christmas - home made candy, cookies, pies, decorations all over the house, TV specials, and piles and piles of presents. We weren't religious, just kind of overboard. And when my kids were little, I tried to do the whole enchilada just like mom. As I got older, I cut back a lot. My kids didn't care if the cookies were store bought or home made. And I burned myself one time too many making divinity - still have the scars.
I find even when it is just my husband and I, if I don't have a tree all decorated, winter depression hits really hard. So we buy a little table top tree and give each other the gift of being together. Every culture that I have ever heard of - even places without "real" winters - have some way of celebrating the seasons of the year. We don't think about it - but there were special occasions for the solstices, equinoxes, and the midpoint between each. Now it is christmas, valentine's day, St. Pat's day, and so on in the US. Many countries have similar days - maybe no longer exactly on the celestial calendar, but close enough. It doesn't mean we are religious, but more that we are acknowledging our ancient heritages. And it is a good excuse to eat too much and snuggle up together.
Which is what I told my children when I stopped going to church, but still did up the holidays. It is a way to mark the passage of the year, to be with and enjoy family and friends, to show our appreciation for each other. If you aren't having fun with your winter holidays, it is time to dis-invite the ones that cause heartburn, stick with the people you love most, and make your own traditions that mean something special to you.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
My family have been celebrating it more of a cultural celebration where we get together, have dinner, give each other presents and generally have a great time, mind you it's only my parents, my sister, my daughter and me and sometimes friends come over, well this year will include my girlfriend and her 2 kids, but we have no religious tone what so ever. It is merely a cultural celebration at my household.
that even for the god annoyers it's the same experience. Jesus does not come down and start scattering shillings in the plum pudding. The christians sit around feeling good because it feels good to sit around eating tim tams and annoying sensitive members of your family. Religion. It's just a parasite in the bowels of actual humanity.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Thanks so much for your thoughts!! Celebrating Christmas as a holiday rather than a "holy" day totally makes sense, and pretty much what I have been doing anyway without thinking much about it. I guess I'm worried my future progeny will be the cynical little bastard that tells the other kids in kindergarten that Santa isn't real. I wonder how to not have your kid believe in stupid crap, but in a way that at least tries to mitigate the feeling of being left out or excessively different from their peers. I hope that sentence makes sense.
Totally unrelated, but what the heck is this emoticon
doing?
I wouldn't worry about Santa - most kids I know have figured it out by kindergarten. Some never seem to believe in him, some are still hanging onto Santa when they are seven. My grandson didn't believe when he was three. "Grandson, Santa is a fun story for some children to believe in. It doesn't hurt them to think he is real, and they will eventually grow out of believing in Santa. You don't need to tell them he isn't real, you will hurt them and their moms will complain to your mom. And your mom will get upset. Best to ignore the one who really believe in Santa and do your own thing."
For the rest, I always tried to get them going on science as soon as they could understand. Kitchen or garage experiments - if the second law of thermodynamics doesn't hold true, we won't get dinner tonight.
What I'm doing - I think it means ROFL. Not sure if the little extension is supposed to represent MAO. But then, I'm kind of behind the times, since I'm an old lady fart.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
My son is 5 and loves every holiday. We don't have a relationship with my extended family (they're Christian, I'm going to hell, etc.) but we do movies and cocoa and presents. I've never told him Jesus or Santa were real OR pretend. For now, he thinks they're both pretend and thinks Santa is more compelling. Honestly, he just likes spending time with his parents, watching Christmas movies in our pajamas all day. (Also, I'm poor so gifts are pretty crap. It's not what they care about most.)
I guess because of my sheltered upbringing and then living in Georgia, I didn't realize these things were not really a big deal to most other people. I think I believed in Santa until I was at least 8ish, when I woke up puking in the middle of the night on easter and walked out to find my grandma putting out our baskets. I guess I was afraid if I stopped believing I wouldn't get any more presents, or my parents would be mad at me or something. Who knows.
I'm totally going to hell too. Checked out a couple of your videos Angie the Anti-Theist - very cool.