For those families who don't celebrate Christmas....

[Mittsy]

What do you do? Neither DH nor I are Christians, so we have never celebrated any Christian holidays for religious reasons, usually we participate in some of the fun aspects of the holiday for the kid's but that's it. We both think of Christmas as a really materialistic holiday and are contemplating not celebrating it at all, we have talked to the kid's about this and they're ok with the idea since they usually get whatever they need as budget allows throughout the year anyway. So, I guess what I'm asking is there anyone else who doesn't celebrate Christmas at all?

TIA!

[waiting2bemommy]

yep! we don't celebrate at all. we don't celebrate any of the typical religious or secular holidays. nak but if you want me toelaborate lety me know

[Mittsy]

Waiting2bemommy: Yes, please do!

[mumm]

We've been slowly moving away from christmas over the past 10 years.  I doubt we will ever get away completely coming from two Christian families. 

What we've done is to make the focus elsewhere.  That we aren't "not doing christmas" we are "doing xyz," kwim?

It has been much harder than I anticipated.  Just this weekend MIL gave each of the kids an advent calender.  Ugh... Just what I don't want-  a daily countdown to the day I want to ignore!  Plus, like in many areas, you either celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas.  No other options I guess.

I am in charge of a "winter holiday" party for a bunch of 7 year olds and explained to the other adults that I wasn't just doing Christmas and Hanukkah but was thinking of ackowledging Solstice, Kwanzaa, Bodhi Day, Yule/Modranect, Diwali, Eid ul-Adha, Sadeh, Yalda, etc.  I don't know much about different holidays but these ladies thought Kwanzaa and Solistice were the same holiday.

I'm curious to see how other families cope with kids feeling like they are missing out on things.

[KLM99]

I'll be watching this post as this is an annual consideration for us.  We're not religious at all, but both of our families celebrate Christmas more for the presents, tree, and gatherings stuff.  My husband wants to treat it like any other day, I would like to do some of the fun stuff just because it's fun (like getting together for a meal with family, having a tree or other decorations).  We are both adamentely opposed to the materialistic side of it and have asked our families not to give presents (though this has been ignored).  It really is a very difficult thing - I have great Christmas memories of childhood, but mostly because I got a bunch of stuff.  I'd like to redefine that for my children, but I'm not sure how. 

[meemee]

well ... in a sense we DO celebrate christmas ... and in a way we dont.

dd spends christmas eve with her dad and he does the whole santa thing with her and presents. he is very good at it, so i am happy that dd gets to enjoy that part with him. it has nothing to do with religion but more about the mystery of santa. 

i pick up dd after the morning. 

and this has been our tradition every single year.

we LOOOOOOOOVE it.

the streets are EMPTY.

so dd and i go get a pumpkin drink and we walk down the empty streets in the downtown area. esp. the streets that are usually always busy. we chat. we laugh. we walk in teh middle of teh road if that's safe enough. 

we chat with the homeless folk (who sometimes have extra dinners and have offered to share it with us). the air is brisk and leaves everywhere. 

somedays we go for a hike. for the last two years dd has been refusing any invitation to christmas gatherings. we dont have family here but sometimes we do go over to a friends for dinner. 

i dont do presents. in fact i dont really do presents ever. she hasnt got anything from me this year. either bday or anything else. wait no. i take that back. i did do the easter bunny and for once easter bunny got her a bunch of presents that she loved. i think this will be her last year of believing if they are real.

however we love this time. we love the hustle and bustle of christmas. we go hang out at the mall nursing a hot chocolate looking at xmas window decorations. we go to any free xmas events. we both are v. social and enjoy people and crowds so we go there. we volunteer at the local shelter. dd is still not old enough to be allowed to serve food at the shelter, but the day we can we will be doing that. 

some years on xmas we have gone on a hike. some year for a movie. but mostly we just hang. we enjoy the quiet all around. usually xmas turns out to be a non rainy day. 

[philomom]

We don't do xmas at all.

We do have a Soup and Solstice party for the friends and neighbors on the 21st. No gifts. A tiny tree with sun ornaments and silly songs about the sun or sunshine.

This seems to fill the kids need for ritual and tradition without me feeling false to myself. The solstice was celebrated by many peoples all around the world long before xtians tried to steal the glory for themselves.

[Attached2Elijah]

We celebrate The Solstice.... but looking in, you would believe we celebrate Christmas because we follow many of the same rituals.... why? Because Christianity took pretty much every ritual involved with Christmas straight from Paganism.