Christmas and Other Holiday's

I am an Atheist, my whole family are atheist's, much of my extended family are atheistic, yet every year we still celebrate Christmas. It is also a proper celebration, not some formalized present giving exchange, we get a tree, we put sparkly shit on it, i still even call it Christmas, its still a christian holiday as far as i care to think and yet i still celebrate it.

Now, the issue as to why i do this, doesn't need much explaining, its fun, its nice, its all over the fucking place and hard to shut yourself away from, above all though, why not? Now, this brings me to my next point, why not, as an atheist, don't i do the same for other holidays?

Once again, obvious reason: Its not a tradition in this country, or rather its not really a national tradition. We don't have a set of seasonal holiday films for Ramadan or the Festival or Lights or Chinese new year, so it never occurs to Atheists who have no vested interest in the spiritual undertones of these festivals but might enjoy the whole sharing and giving feel of it to actually go ahead and do it. Still we could, and i say we should, unless you don't like giving and enjoying the company of family or friends, but then if that's the case why are you celebrating Christmas, except for of course if your Christian, at which point i am sure your laughing at me right now safe in the knowledge that i'll be burning in hell for all this sacrilegious devil talk.

But as for Atheists this would be great, another chance to show people you care about them, and if you have a problem with the materialistic edge of Christmas then just bake them cupcakes or some other surgery treat. But my point is that holidays are generally nice, i think most people tend to enjoy them and if we aren't restricted by religion then its good to join in. Also it would be great for wider society, religions that are smaller in this country might feel more accepted if their holiday becomes a bigger part of the year and less inclined to hate Atheists, i mean surely they would be less hateful of us if we show a keen interest and help promote their own presence in the country by just taking their religious holiday as an excuse to get together.

Now of course, we really shouldn't need an excuse to show that you care about people around you, but having something with an exact time does help it easier to organize, I mean i am terrible most of the time organizing well, any aspect of my life really, its amazing i got this far. But holidays are easy, because you see them months in advance.

At any rate, i doubt Atheists hijacking any other holidays other than Christmas are about to happen anytime soon, but i think its a great opportunity, another excuse to get people together, another means of making multiculturalism work, and a great resolution to the Xmas issue, we no longer have to make Christmas our own because we can leech the joy out of all the others too!