Pagans, How do you cope with Christmas?

Like you I have many friends who celebrate Christmas. I usually have holly, mistletoe and ivy to decorate the house but I also have a small Yule tree with some lights. My partner and I always celebrate the Winter Solstice but then we also usually hold an *open house* to family and friends over the rest of the holiday for our non-pagan family.

Actually Christmas - the 25th is not the day Jesus was born. Far from it actually. It's just the day the Church chose to celebrate it when they were taking over pagans and converting them. It was a pagan holiday and they felt as if they might as well do it that day when the pagans would normally celebrate anyway. I can't remember which deity's birth that was celebrated - I want to say Brigid but I'm uncertain. I'm sure someone else on here knows. Yes I celebrate Christmas. For several reasons - it's fun, it brings families together, I connect with Jesus quiet closely, and I love reasons to buy gift for people LOL.

It's not a matter of coping for me. I love all of the sloppy and mushy movies; I can't get enough of them. Since there are no children left in my home and I barely have the energy to clean, I won't be putting up any decorations (or maybe just my mantle). I had to give up a tree 2 years ago when my Mr.Man Cat Charlie informed me that he WAS NOT going to tolerate it standing upright; and it is way to hard to argue with him. I also love to be with friends/family and go out and look at others' decorations. Perhaps I'm a wannabe? Since no one in my family has yet "remembered" their roots and their path (although my 17 year old granddaughter is beginning to show some signs), and I choose not to push anyone into something until they are ready, I don't celebrate any of the Pagan holidays either, other than in spirit. That's pretty much the life of a solitary kitchen witch though I think. ~Donna

My hubby is of Viking ancestry so we do a quiet Yule. One of the best things about Yule is making and eating chocolate sponge cake! We put up the Pagan Bush (that's what we call it) and of course the mistletoe over the door. We also put lights up on the house and all over the palm tree in the front yard (we're in Florida) to light the darkest night. The lights are a reminder that the god will return in spring. I make either ham or turkey and pies. No one has hearths or fireplaces here, so we use a virtual Yule log: http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u136/rosies57/?action=view¤t=e2542d75.flv Who says Pagans can't be techno-savvy? LOL I was thrilled that the person running a contest ( for points) on another site I frequent allowed me to enter using my Yule family traditions. It was heartening that Pagan ways were/are accepted; that the person is Christian but is open-minded enough to allw the Yule entry. Perhaps the fact she lives in Norway and it is her heritage, as well, had something to do with it? (wink)

What is the definition of a pagan and what does being pagan mean? A pagan is someone who worships more than one god usually, right? And they use icons to represent those gods. They have rituals that they perform on their holidays such as the winter solstice, correct? They use herbs like incense and incantations and chants. Pagans can practice alone or in a group, correct? Are you starting to see a parallel? The trinity is three gods; father, son, and holy spirit. Churches are full of icons which are prayed to, touched, kissed, worn, blessed ect. Herbs such as incense are used. Water is blessed and takes on healing properties. Incantations and chants called prayers are spoken and take on power to heal and remove "sin". These things can be practiced alone or in groups. Now who did you say was Pagan? And what were you concerned about again? If you were wondering about Montheistic religions of the world today, the two that come to mind are Muslin and Hebrew. They are slightly subdivided but I believe they are the only two.

Well, christmas is PAGAN , so you should feel right at home celebrating with them. because that is where christmans comes from , the pagan celebration was slightly changed to fit in with the believer of christ at the time of constantine. so the history of christmas is PAGAN. So really when you celebrate that time of year you are a pagan (they just dont know about it) hahaah Not that im a pagan (im not) And i Dont celebrate christmas either .

i would like to set this question right and ask all Christians, how do you justify stealing a pagan festival? Isnt there a thow shall not.... about nicking stuff off others? just a thought

Since my household is multifaith, we just celebrate all the holidays. My husband is Christian, I am Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan, and my little boy is undecided (seeing as he's not even 2 yet). I'll gladly go to other people's parties, whatever they call them. I helped do the decorations at work. It's all garlands and lights and little village houses, nothing religious, so it didn't bother me. I do get annoyed after a while if too much of the religious Christmas music is played at work, but when I'm getting sick of it I tell the manager and he switches it out for more secular stuff. They've been really nice to me at the bank where I work actually. There are some days when we're expected to wear "Christmas sweaters" and stuff like that, but in those cases I usually opt for something with snowmen on it. :) I do buy gifts for a very short list of people. The big argument I've had was people who get upset when I say "Happy Holidays" to them, and spit "Merry Christmas" back in my face or make a scene over it. At which point I simply say that I have no way of knowing what holidays anyone celebrates since there are so many winter holidays, and that since I want everyone to have a happy holiday of their choice that is what I say. If there is further rudeness, I simply ignore the person. And if it's at work, I wave my manager over to deal with them.

I am certainly faced with the same feelings. It has been noted that the birth of Jesus was probably in the summer and if you really research Christmas you will see the traditions of Christmas are not Christian at all but Pagan. I just go with the flow and like you, have a small fiber optics tree that I erect basically as a night light in my dining room and to appease my family. My husband and I agreed to NOT teach our children the fables of Christmas but the truth of it's origins. We didn't teach the Santa Claus or Easter Bunny hype, and we told them that the winter solstice was adopted by Christians as a holiday to celebrate Jesus. I personally think it was an if you can't beat 'em, join 'em kind of holiday to mix it altogether and make it ok to celebrate both without feeling guilty. Ironically a co-worker years ago told my husband that we were child abusers for not teaching our children about Santa and denying them the fantasy. How crazy was that? I love how some churches have "Breakfast with Santa" makes me actually laugh..now THAT'S funny! Oh yes..they also charge for it..LOL

like large numbers of the UK population, I celebrate Christmas as a secular festival. I celebrate the TRUE meaning of Christmas. being with the ones you love, and appreciating what you have together.

My partner & I were both raised Catholic- I am pagan, he's more agnostic in his beliefs. Since we have children and Catholic families, we celebrate put up a tree & have "Christmas" with our children. Every year as the holiday stress builds, I throw a mini temper tantrum about the hypocrisy of having Christmas stress in a non-Christian home. Christmas shouldn't be stressful for Christians either, but clearly it shouldn't be stressful for Pagans! But my children do enjoy it, and my temper tantrums I guess are part of our holiday traditions too :p

serious ultra religious pagans can get the tree and get drunk only absolutely no decorating and no presents either

I am Pagan and I have two children. We celebrate Yule/Winter Solstice. As for Christmas, the only way we really celebrate it is that 'Santa' comes to our house Christmas Eve and leaves the kids gifts for them to open on Christmas Day. It's hard because there is an emphasis on the Christian holidays at public schools and I don't want my kids feeling left out. So we celebrate the Pagan and the Christian holidays. The difference is that with the Christian holidays, it's strictly a gift receiving day and nothing more than that. So far this works for us, everybody is happy with the arrangement. I'm sure once the kids are older the Christian holidays will get phased out but I'm sure I'll never be able to phase out Christmas entirely!

I do celebrate Yule, then continue to celebrate through Christmas.. most of my friends and family are not heavily reigious, so parties and such are not centered around the birth of the Christ.. rather they are gatherings of loved ones that celebrate our love for one another... our family Christmas is often then one day of the year when a can be there, as we live a bit away and many work odd hours aand most holidays.. I put up a tree, which is a symbol of everlasting life, which I know we have.. we play carols, though our favorites are the funny ones and the less religious ones... I often wish a Blessed Yule in response to the Merry Christmas greeting.. I do take a moment to wish the Christ a happy birthday on the day, and no, most scholars agree it's not 12/25, but I recognize that the Christ did live and so wish a blessing as I would to anyone on their birthday.. I follow a goddess entity who is not so petty as to see this as wrong, I can acknowledge and celebrate another diety, that does not mean that I 'worship' him/her.. I attend ony secular festivities, not the heaviy religous ones.. as the only pagan in my family I celebrate the 21st in private..

Oh, very simple. I have the Holiday Season. I start it at Samhain and end at the end of Winter-een-mas. Any of the Holiday that are in there that catch my fancy to celebrate, I celebrate them, mostly with my own twist though. Yule and Christmas are actually similar enough to start that at Yule and keep on going....

I don't celebrate Christmas. My family, well, the rest of the family is Catholic and I am not. I celebrate the winter solstice, but I don't go on with the celebration of Christmas. To some is the time to get drunk and give gifts, but to me is about the birth of Christ and I don't believe in him, to me he was not a god. So no point to celebrate something I don't believe in.