“Holiday Traditions for Atheists?”
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@SpaceySteph – we too had the “Santa conspiracy” – we knew he didn’t exist, but we were sworn to secrecy.
@lucia – the Hannukah Chicken that brings chocolate is absolutely hysterical and if I had kids of my own, would be incorporated into every holiday. The Rosh Hashannah Chicken, the Purim Chicken. Just a hen house stacked with bringers of chocolate.As a kid we definitely wrote lists for Santa and we’d get Santa presents. When I was around 5 my brothers told me he was gored to death by his own reindeer so while I don’t remember being traumatised (I always knew when they were bullshitting) it definitely put an end to the Santa myth. One silly thing my dad did every year was he’d stand outside my window in the dark on Christmas eve and pretend to be Santa and we’d have a whole dumb conversation. We all knew it was him and it was just a silly thing we kept up for the jokes. Like one year he was holding our cat and said it was a mini reindeer but then it scratched him and he put it on the naughty list, stuff like that.
Seeing as Christmas is summer here we may do things a little differently otherwise. We do it on the beach when possible, have prawns and champagne, go swimming etc. My extended family gets together on Boxing Day instead of Christmas day because when the kids were little they would all be cranky and tired from being up at 4am and the parents weren’t much better. Having it the day after was a bit better for everyone. We’d watch the Boxing Day test and usually go in on a few horse racing bets down at the pub. So yeah, all things that might be difficult in the snow.
@ange, I’m southern hemisphere too, so the whole hot chocolate and lights thing isnt quite as helpful. We tend to have seafood meals and lie on the lawn and drink rose….. but not very ‘festive’ for a kid!
I’m also not sure about Santa, its not the ‘lying’ thing that worries me as i think kids know abut pretend and whatnot but because he is so not seasonal it seems a bit silly. Like heres a guy in a snow suit in December when I’m sweating, what colonial bullshit are we clinging to here…. but I’m probably just a grinch.
I love the sort of accidental, family traditions that pop up, like the book on the bed, we always got gold coins (chocolate) etc.We try to do Saturday night Christmas lights car rides around Christmas with cookies and hot chocolate. And between my sisters and cousins we try to plan a weekend evening every week from thanksgiving until Christmas at each other’s houses and do things with the kids and husbands like make cookies, build gingerbread houses, make ornaments with the year on them, etc. we Also do a big donation of things that we have too much of when we were kids my mom used to make us donate a garbage bag of toys before Christmas or she said Santa wouldthink we were greedy. So now we all get our stuff together and if it’s still in good shape we donate it to someone we know, the church knows or a Facebook group along with some cash to someone struggling and the rest to goodwill or the dump depending on how bad it is.
I love this thread! We’re also atheists but Christmas is a favorite in our family. My 15 year old has already started in with the Christmas music. Ack!!
When my kids got to the age of questioning if Santa was real, I never confirmed or denied. I just said that if you don’t believe he doesn’t bring you presents anymore, so even my 23 year old still believes. 😉
Our local newspaper lists all of the best light displays so we usually drive around one night to see the great ones. On Christmas Eve we eat prime rib, watch Elf, play board games and do the PJ thing. At Thanksgiving we draw names for the adults so we each only buy one adult a modest gift and the kids get Santa presents to open on Christmas morning. The kids also get an ornament each year so when they grow up and move out, they have a good start on their own tree.
One thing I don’t think anyone has mentioned is a cookie exchange. A couple weeks before Christmas, a bunch of my friends get together and everyone brings two dozen homemade cookies. We all swap and leave with a plate full of all kinds of delicious treats.
I’m a huge fan of Christmas! My favorite tradition growing up was driving around and just looking at the Christmas lights! If a neighborhood had enough houses decorated, we’d get out and walk around admiring the lights and drinking hot chocolate (even though we live in Florida).
I also enjoy decorating the tree with my family! My mom still has ornaments that my brother & I made her in elementary school so looking at them with our school pictures on them is always a fun time reminiscing.
We don’t have any kids in the family currently under 18 so we do a white elephant gift exchange every year with a different theme and gifts are to be under $20. Some past thees (As Seen on TV, Regift, Gift that starts with the first letter of your first name, etc). This has been hilarious since we started four or five years go, as seen on tv was my favorite one!
Usually we go out to eat Asian food on Christmas Eve, and then I torture my husband by putting the Delilah Christmas music show on the radio and making him drive around and look at Christmas lights.
