This is a serious question, please don't judge. Thank you.How will I celebrate Christmas? I'm an atheist while my spouse is a Catholic?
Just celebrate being together and in love...How will I celebrate Christmas? I'm an atheist while my spouse is a Catholic?
Give gifts for the sake of giving. Spend time with your spouse and the rest of your family. Just take joy in life all around. Nothing says you have to be religious to celebrate good health, family and all the other good things in life.
There's something infectious about the holiday spirit even if you aren't religious. So I say, if you want to celebrate the holidays even though you're Atheist, go right ahead. You have your own personal reasons and that's plenty good enough. :)
Celebrate the holidays by being with the ones you love.
If you wish, decorate a tree; it originally wasn't a Christian tradition anyway, but was included to help transition some of the pagans of the British isles into Christianity.
If you don't feel that going to mass with your spouse will violate your own freedoms, then by all means go along with him/her. You don't do yourself any harm by exposing yourself to new experiences, even if you don't believe in their foundations.
But the key is to simply love and be loved.
The two of you are married, so I'm sure that your spouse knows you are atheist. With that being said, if your spouse wants to go to Christmas mass, ask him/her if it's okay if you don't go. If he/she really wants you there, you should go to show how much you love your spouse.
Other than that, participate in the festivities as much as you feel comfortable and explain to your spouse why you aren't doing certain things. Otherwise kick back and enjoy the time spent with family and friends.
Well, if you are atheist, it's not really going against your religion to celebrate Christmas, is it?
Technically, Christmas is mostly pagan anyway, christianized by the Church.
I know of plenty of atheists who celebrate it and all the other holidays as well.
Just go with your own conscience. Is it worth disrupting your marriage to refuse to celebrate it?
Honest answer: Christmas is a commercial holiday with little religious significance to most of the people who celebrate it. Therefore, treat it like Thanksgiving, a secular holiday and put a little gift under the tree for her. It doesn't mean you worship Christ but are following a long pagan tradition that keeps those cash registers jingling.
seriously, you better be shopping for a Christmas tree if you want a nice x mas.
If you have no religion then you could celebrate with your better half.
I am not religious but I do celebrate with my family because it is important to them.
Now I consider it more tradition then religion any way.
You can certainly keep the non-religious traditions of Christmas. Also, if you respect your wife, you can go to church with her on Christmas Eve. Just sit quietly in the pew, or if traditional Christmas songs are being sung, you can join in or not. You will be showing her that you love her, not that you're being converted to her religion. There are other ways you can celebrate without it turning into a religious celebration. Go down to a homeless shelter, and help serve dinner to the homeless there. Visit a veteran's hospital or a children's hospital. You can spread cheer to people who need a word of encouragement. You don't have to say ';God bless you';, but you can say ';I hope you're having the best day today that you can have';. If you're just totally not into anything that even hints of ';Christmas';, do like my husband does. In honor of the Jerry Seinfeld Show episode about non-Christmas, he puts up an aluminum pole with a sign on it that says:';Christmas for some, Hanukkah for others. But there's Festivus for the rest of us!'; (You have to have been a Sinfeld fan to understand this). We laugh about it. I put up my Nativity Scene, and he puts up his Festivus pole. Nobody gets mad.
Hello,
Just enjoy the festive part, eat drink and be merry. For the religious festivities, just go and keep quiet and instead of praying, plan in your head for the upcoming tax season, next summer's vacations, home renovations etc. Don't be sullen or sulky and let your wife go off alone to things because that's how relationships start falling apart.
Cheers,
Michael Kelly
just enjoy the time of year and the fact for a short while everyones in a good mood...you dnt have to be religious to celebrate christmas...at the end of the day it isn't even the correct date for christs birth...similar to most religious holidays the day was selected by the catholic church to coinside with a pagan festival that celebrates the birth of the sun...
My wife is catholic and I'm an atheist.
On Christmas, we visit family and go to church...same thing everyone else does. I may not believe in a god, but I do believe in traditions and family. If your family celebrates Christmas, celebrate with them. Don't be ';that guy'; and use it as a time to preach about how you don't believe in God and how Christmas has it's origin in pagan beliefs and what not. Just sit back and enjoy it. Christmas is fun.
Fortunately, you and your wife are considered one by the Church.
Now you can call yourself an atheist and believe whatever you want as Catholics teach that we all have free will. In asking how you will celebrate Christmas, you ought to be respectful of your wife's religion out of respect for her. You do love your wife, right? So pretend you are Catholic too during that time. You both will enjoy the holidays so much more.
Who knows? Perhaps you'll see the light. You know we aren't crazy or brainwashed or whatever. There is a reason we are Catholics.
My husband is an atheist (for the most part). He's never specifically said so, but he has no interest in God, or faith, or Church.
But we celebrate Christmas. He does not attend Mass with me, but I don't mind. I actually prefer he not, since it's a long one at Christmas and I know he'd bored and just doing it for me. I love Mass, and the time for worship, so being by myself is not an issue.
But we exchange gifts, have a special day of good food, family and friends. He accepts my position on God, and that for me it is a religious day, and respects my beliefs. That is really all I expect.
Of course I pray for him several times a day...all year long. :)
Make it about the family. Sort of like a second Thanksgiving but with more shopping, a tree and presents.
It's not like there is anything Christian per say about Christmas. It's a plaguerised pagan festivity to the sun God. You can celebrate the sun if you wish. The sun is something you CAN believe in from actual fact and knowing. Many atheists celebrate Christmas as the Winter Solstice.
So, go outdoors and enjoy the sunlight.
ask your wife to show you in the bible where it tells you how to celebrate ?
i can't find it myself in any bible versions i possess even in my new jerusalem version but maybe she has a version that i don't know about ?
Christ-mas.
The reason the world has Christmas is because of Christ. It is the celebration of HIS birth, so that one day HE would die on the cross to re-open the gates of heaven to us all.
So... celebrate by going to Mass, and then having a nice dinner with your family.
GOD BLESS...
The fact that you even consider celebrating christmas is a good sign. I mean its not like you're saying ';my spouse is Catholic, but as an athiest I dont want to celebrate... we have a problem here';. The rest of the people here had spoken. Follow all their advice. enjoy!
I have christmas everyday, so to speak, why limit the 'spirit' of giving and joy to one day a year?
This isn't a judgment, and religion isn't needed or even necessary. Our only limits are those we place on ourselves.
And by the way, the christians stole their beliefs from the pagans. ie; christmas.
http://jdstone.org/cr/files/mithraschris鈥?/a>
i'm an agnostic atheist my hubby's an atheist, my dad's a pagan, my mom's a non practicing christian, and we'll celebrate it with a tree presents and food, just like every year.
do what makes you and yours happy.
Christmas is not just for religious folks. I'm a Buddhist and i still celebrate Christmas, there is nothing wrong with that. Its more for spending time with family and friends than me believing some miracle happened on Christmas.
Celebrate with family and friends, enjoy each others company and the extra time of work. Drink a little too much, eat way too much then fall asleep on the couch. Xmas has little to do with jebus anymore, happy holidays.
You can participate in the Catholic traditions to see what they are like around Christmas time. After that, you can do whatever you wish. Perhaps, you can talk with your spouse about your own traditions if you have any.
Go along with it to make the other feel better... That's what I do :) Even with prayer with family at the dinner table I just go along for the ride, say amen, and enjoy the dinner and the fam...! p.s. I'm also an atheist :)
Let her decorate half the Christmas tree, sing have the carols, buy half a turkey buy half of the presents and celebrate half the day. That should solve the problem or half the problem.
Well, I attends my wife's church with her during Christmas, that is the minimum respect I can give her as a husband.
Oh, I am an atheist and my wife is a christian.
Eat lots of food, decorate, and give presents. Christmas is just piggy-backed onto an old Roman holiday anyway (Dies Natalis Sol Invictus).
Any excuse for a party is a good excuse.
Christ was born, even if you don`t believe in God. I suggest you read the beginnings of Matthew and Luke`s gospel for yourself, and see what you can agree on with your spouse.
Christmas was a pagan holiday to begin with that has turned into a largely secular one. Celebrate however you and your spouse want.
Respect his/her beliefs.
The same as the majority of people - non-religiously
You'll celebrate it the same as your Catholic spouse.
