How does one who is not at all religious celebrate Christmas? … The same way lots of people do. Presents and eating. We have a tree and a nice dinner and spend the day together. We are thankful and use the day to practice traditions that mean something to us. We will eat chinese food or something that makes us happy, we might play video games or watch a movie. But the day will be about us and the people we love even if we cannot be with them. That is what Christmas is really about.
We are not religious, in fact most of the time we are headed to hell in a a hand basket… well if you believe in that at all. We use this day because we have it off work. It is a national holiday so if we were not actually off of work we’d be getting paid time and a half, but in recent years we have the day off. It is convenient. I like that even if you do not believe in the whole jebus thing that a good amount of people all have the day off of work and can spend time with their family and other loved ones. They can eat and pass around stories or presents or sit in front of the tv watching some horrible tv marathon.
I cannot be with the majority of my family today. But I will give them a call when they are all together and tell them I love them. The family I can be with, I will watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” with and be grateful they are right here. We will wake up in the morning like little kids and unwrap the presents that have been flowing in this week and we will be grateful that we are loved from all across the country. We will eat and drink and be happy. We will order (hopefully) chinese food and carry on the Jewish tradition for Xmas.
The point is a non-religious xmas has endless possibilities, but we are thrilled to have the day off of work to spend with eachother and call our families across the country to remind them that we love them.
The Adventures of J 