For years, I’ve refused to participate in the Christmas madness.
I gradually came to this decision. One evening, during my freshmen year of college, I overheard a young man proudly state, “I don’t celebrate Christmas. It’s a pagan holiday.”
After learning the definition of pagan, I wrote off this uninformed character as an idiot. Clearly, Christmas is a religious holiday. Therefore, it doesn’t qualify as pagan. Well, that’s what I initially thought.
My opinion of the defiant stranger began to shift during an uneventful workday in December of sophomore year.
As an administrative assistant, my job responsibilities included everything from making collection calls to getting my employer’s Jeep washed to wrapping Christmas gifts. The owner loved to lavish Christmas gifts–lots of them–on her family.
While wrapping what was probably the ninth present for her college aged son, I took a moment to evaluate whether the widely accepted ritual of Christmas gift giving made sense. See, my boss’s son had recently come out as an atheist. And from what I could tell, nothing changed about the way he celebrated the holiday.
For the record, I don’t judge the goodness of a person by their belief or non-belief in Jesus Christ or any other deity. But I gotta tell ya, I found the celebration of Christ’s birthday by a non-Christian perplexing. I never heard of such a thing.
So, I took a second look at the definition of pagan.
According to Merriam Webster a pagan is, “one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods.”
Oooh. I finally got it. That’s Christmas, all right.
If atheists, agnostics, Hindus, and other non-Christians can celebrate Christmas alongside “believers”, then something is amiss about the way we commemorate the birth of Christ.
This year, several major retailers moved Black Friday up one day to Thursday, November 22nd. To Americans, that’s Thanksgiving. People who seemingly have it all now allow frivolous consumption to bleed into the one holiday designated for gratitude.
For many, Christmas represents a time to spend money on stuff they can’t afford to give to people who already own too much crap.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t particularly care how you spend, save, invest, or squander your money. It’s yours, do with it as you please.
As for my money, I refuse to sacrifice it for those who enjoy so much abundance they habitually disregard the resources used to create and purchase their gifts. As an added bonus, I avoid hostile holiday shoppers and keep more of my hard earned cash.
Although I’m obviously disgusted by the commercialization of Christmas, a lot of good comes from retailers’ nonstop, in-your-face appeal to open your wallet between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Who am I kidding? Try Halloween and Christmas).
Yes, corporations capitalize on this time of year for their own financial gain, but their advertisements during the holiday season remind us to give to the less fortunate. And fortunately, we don’t ask or care if our donations go to people with whom we share the same beliefs.
To Christians and non-Christians, how do you celebrate Christmas?
Shawanda Greene is a free thinking, frugal gal whose only vices are boxed wine, lip balm and money grubbing. You can find more of Shawanda's musings at 
While I don’t share the religious view of the holidays that you portray, I do agree with the fact that we are too much “consumers” and not enough “citizens”. It’s cool if shopping is your thing and that’s what your relationship with a certain holiday entails but it should have a broader base than just shopping. I celebrate three kings day and only the children get gifts on this day, usually books or something useful. Christmas day we spend it with family or down at the soup kitchen feeding the homeless, but that’s because we choose to. I don’t think we should bash the other people who don’t share the same opinion or beliefs, after all, that’s what makes this country so great, that we can practice what we wish alongside other worshipers who don’t share our individual beliefs. I do believe that sharing my time and experiences with my family is worth more than anything I could possibly buy, after all, when they are old and I am gone, it’s the memories of what we did together that they will recount, not the money I paid for some toy. Your opinion on your blog is your opinion though and others need to understand that this is a personal rant and it’s how you feel so they shouldn’t be bashing you over an opinion. Thanks for sharing.
Putrid post. I am unsubscribing, too.
I agree Christmas is commercialized and about gifts and money for many. We try to also keep the religious aspect. I think as adults, it’s easy to talk to others about this and your beliefs about what you think Christmas has become. With kids, it’s something else! They are about keeping up with the Jones!
The evolution of festivals and celebrations is a bit more complex than this, I think — it’s not a matter of, “Everyone is celebrating Christmas, but they’re not celebrating Christ’s birth?!” or “It’s actually a pagan holiday, because it aligns time-wise with a pagan festival that had some of the same practices / symbols, so why would the Christians celebrate?!” Rather, you’re dealing with a nation (and a world) made up of people of various cultures, religions, ages, income levels, etc. who tend to cherry pick traditions and concepts they put into play in their own lives or choose to share in for a tremendous variety of different reasons.
I know Christians who’ve moved to the Middle East and who take part in Diwali or Ramadan, Muslims who’ve ended up in the US Midwest, participating in Easter Bunny hunts, Jews who’ve ended up in Japan celebrating Obon, and Buddhists who have taken part in Passover dinners in Israel… the list goes on.
In some cases, they may not know the background of certain practices, while in other cases, they participate with the prevailing/largest culture, simply to be an active part of their community. Sometimes people are curious. Sometimes they like participating in an element of something, and not the rest. Sometimes they’re considering a new belief system, and want to know the “why” behind it. Sometimes they’re traveling, and partake in what they see as a key experience of the place they’re visiting.
I don’t think it makes any of the people who take part in the practices of others faith-ambiguous, and I don’t think it takes the meaning out of things. I think it’s how we function and cope — we tend to process the world around us in the way that makes us most at ease, right then.
Anyway, that’s one point, and the other is this: no one can take something you find sacred away from you unless you choose to let it go. Christmas can’t be bastardized for you unless you let it. Others will do what others will do, but if you choose not to make it about some of the commercial things that have sprung up, you get to focus on the things you find important around the holidays (if there are any.) Sometimes people rail at consumerism ruining their holidays, but they don’t do anything else around the holiday except shop, so I wonder what they feel has been taken away from them. I do come from the Christian faith, so I find the time with people and the meaning of the season and beautiful, storytelling music still hold first priority for me in my celebrating, though I love putting up my tree and buying my kid presents, too.
I guess what I’m saying in total is that life is complicated for all of us, but we get to choose how our priorities are shaped by that complication. If we point to “society” as an excuse for our behavior or perspective, then we’ve said much more about ourselves than society.
Agree with others, this was more along the lines of a rant than a well researched and written article. (I prefer your pre-2011 articles.) For one thing, there is another definition of pagan: it was a pre-Christian religion practiced in Europe which celebrated and worshiped nature and spirits (they were known as devil worshipers in Middle Age Europe). They celebrated the winter solstice in and around the 21st December. Because the precise birth date of Christ is not known or mentioned in the Bible, it is believed that the birth of Christ was celebrated on December 25th to ease the transition to conversion to Christianity. (This is mostly from secular sources if you’re wondering, so take it however you like.). Look up ‘Wicken’ which is a modern version of the pagan religion if you are curious. However, I will agree with the overarching thesis of this article: consumerism around Christmas has gone out of control.
Thanks for the extra info. Although, I’m aware there’s more than one definition of pagan, I just didn’t think anyone would confuse Christianity with the kind of paganism you mentioned. So I didn’t think it was worth sharing. Although some of my articles will be thoroughly researched, when I’m sharing my beliefs, values, or opinions, I don’t need a lot of assistance from experts to tell me how I should feel. However, I do appreciate others sharing their beliefs and whatnot.
May I recommend some actual study of religion before you talk about things you don’t understand and offend swaths of people? Consider me unsubscribed.
“Consider me unsubscribed.”
Done.