Why do non-Christians celebrate Christmas?

because we like to share with our families, its great to get extra days off from work and because we can.

Because Christmas is a festive time and non Christians are intrigued. Christmas is very well a Christian holiday and whoever said it is pagan isn't really Christian to begin with. Most Christians attend religious church service leading up to Christmas and Christmas day. Non Christians are the people that is taking away the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ wasn't really born on Christmas day and Christians are aware of that, its purpose of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ. The gift giving part is in the book of Matthew. The wise men gave gifts to Mary when Jesus was born.

There were traditional celebrations of the time when days started getting longer again after the winter solstice all over Europe. Those traditions pre-date Christmas and the vast majority of customs we think of as part of Christmas come from those celebrations.

Non-Christians celebrate the mid-winter holiday. They don't celebrate the birth of Jesus.

To celebrate Saturnalia

The Romans used to celebrate the god Saturn from Dec 17-23 with festivals, feasts, parties, and the gift giving day was the 23rd. Once Christianity became the official religion of the Holy Roman empire, they just took over the celebrated pagan holidays but reworked them to worship one god. Either way, it's the end of the calendar year, the winter solstice symbolizes the coming of spring that represents seeds, life, and eventual harvest. So celebrate, love, peace and happiness.

Everyone likes getting gifts, overstuffing themselves and getting drunk

There is NOTHING Christian about Christmas. It is pagan through and through. You wont find it in the Holy Bible

Why do Christians celebrate it? Perhaps you should actually do a bit of research on the history of that holiday and its pagan origins.

cuz it's great
most of the atheists I know love Christmas

To celebrate Saturnalia

cuz it's great
most of the atheists I know love Christmas

To celebrate Saturnalia

To celebrate Saturnalia

Christmas was originally in europe a ceebration to happy up the sad cold dark winter season, and just aadded jesus to it. It has become a european culture whcih just happend to have some religious connection (everything from past hystory has some religious conection) its just culture.

They really don't. They celebrate a winter holiday that is most commonly called Christmas. No Jesus wasn't born on december 25th, but the celebration of his birth is held then because of some very old history with the new christian church and early Gentile converts. Non-Christians don't celebrate Christmas, they celebrate the season and partake in the Secular aspects of decorations, dinners, time with friends and family, presents, etc.

There were celebrations at the Winter Solstice many thousands of years before the
story of Christ was told.

You have some growing up to do.

cuz it's great
most of the atheists I know love Christmas

I think they enjoy the holiday. What's not to like?

You have to remember, also, that there are two holidays.

The celebration of the Incarnation, Christmas, begins on December 25th. The period of four weeks prior to it is not Christmas; it is Advent. The holiday season of Christmas extends, depending on how liturgically savvy your denomination is, either to New Year's Day, or to January 6th, which is the Feast of Epiphany (think Wise Men). It is marked by prayerful celebration and a refocusing on the entry of god into this world as a human being.

There is this other holiday. Call it Krismis. It begins around Thanksgiving and extends to December the 25th. It is entirely secular. It is chiefly observed by parties and family get-togethers. People exchange gifts, and many people have very important traditions that must be followed, whether they can do them, afford them, want to, etc., or not. Krismis is the holiday that most of us actually celebrate. That is why so many people who do not attend church regularly (if at all) celebrate this holiday.

Once you get it straight that we have two holidays here, not one, it all sort of makes sense.

It's a pagan festival that goes back in time way before any "jesus" existed. It is celebration of the winter solstice.

They dont.

They probably like to party and there's lots of seasonal treats available.

December 25th was the day of the Winter Solstice under the Julian calendar and is still within that same week under our current calendar, like Easter (held the week of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox) its a naturally occurring event that was once a date of celebration across various cultures a belief systems.

It's a celebration that has existed long before Christians stole it.

Christmas is nothing to do with either Christianity or Islam but it does have it's origins in the midwinter festival and many other basically pagan rites but since much of it is a celebration of nature rather than religion everyone should be able to enjoy it and be happy together despite religion!

The ancient European pagans celebrated the midwinter festival and a number of other festivals long before Christianity ever existed!

Babylonians celebrated the feast of the Son of Isis with gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift giving and the goddess of fertility, love, and war.

The Romans held a festival on 25 December called “Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, celebrating their own god Sol Invictas – PAGAN!

The Persian god Mithras, the Syrian sun god Elah Gabal, the German Sol, the Greek Helios and the Mesopotamian Shamash. But also Saturnalia, honouring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The law courts and schools were closed. No public business could be transacted an this is where the holidays originated - ALL PAGAN!

Wax tapers were given by the more humble to their superiors. The origin of the Christmas candle - PAGAN!

In Rome groups of costumed went from house to house entertaining their people. And this was where the carolling Christmas tradition originated PAGAN!

Statues of the Mother and lover or Mother and son were paraded through the streets not only in Italy but also in Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Bulgaria. Thus, the symbolism of the Heavenly Virgin and the infant child paraded on a yearly basis are not of Christian origin. They stem from the Mother-goddess religion, which is very ancient ENTIRELY PAGAN!

Scandinavian countries celebrated Yule honouring Thor – PAGAN!

In Germania (not Germany) they celebrated midwinter night followed by 12 wild nights of eating and drinking. The 12 days of Christmas PAGAN!

The church under Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25 in 350 AD in order to try to hijack the PAGAN festivals but it was largely ignored. Christians did not really celebrate Christmas until 378 but it was then dropped in 381 and not resurrected until 400.

The Christmas tree stems from pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of holly boughs ivy and other foliage as an adaptation of pagan tree worship. Holly and ivy represented male and female. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual - all PAGAN!

Jeremiah 10:2-4 bans Christians from Christmas trees showing clearly it was practiced long before Chrsitianity was even thought of!

Santa Claus came from the Dutch “Sinterklaas” and was a tall figure riding a white horse through the air and usually accompanied by Black Peter, an elf who punished disobedient children. Also the origin of the reindeer, sleigh and the elves ALL PAGAN!

The modern red coated Santa was brought about by coca cola!

AMERICA ACTUALLY BANNED CHRISTMAS several times and is the originator of the expression “Happy Holidays” which came about because of the pagan origins of Christmas to include all religions and traditions!

The Venerable Bede, an early Christian writer pointed out that the Christian church absorbed Pagan practices when it found the population unwilling to give up the festivals. Thus a lot of what Christians now see as Christians practices are in fact pagan!

Christmas is the time of year Christians strive to prove just how pagan they have become

well lets face it you have to go along way to find Christ in Christmas anymore