For the last 25 year or so ,when I’ve been greeted with Merry Christmas, I’ve said the same in return. Over the last two weeks I’ve responded to these greetings with a simple, “I don’t celebrate Christmas”. When they ask why, I tell them that I am an Atheist and that Christmas is a Christian holiday.
Sometimes they respond with, “Everybody celebrates Christmas”.
I ask if the celebrate Chanukah, they typically answer , “No, I’m not Jewish”.
I say something like. “My point exactly”.
This normally leads to a dialog on the meaning of Christmas and the holiday season. I hear a lot of people say that Christmas is really just all about getting together with your family. I smile at this because they are talking about the secular Christmas instead of the religious one. The secular version is by far the most popular conversation topic.
I’ve never been an assertive atheist at work. People feel free to tell me what they believe all the time. I listen, but rarely tell them I am an atheist. I find it’s fun to engage with others on the topic. They are often open and interested in my point of view. The most interesting comment so far came from a devout catholic who was disturbed that my family does not put up Christmas lights. When I mentioned that a sting of lights on the front of my house is in no way even remotely Christ like, and that I would never hang lights. She asked why I was against Christmas lights if they were not a religious symbol. I told her that hanging lights would cut into my blogging.
