How an Atheist Spends Christmas

Every December 25th, Christians in America celebrate the biggest religious holiday of the year, Christmas. And much of non-Christian America celebrates along with them, albeit a little guiltily.

Coming from an atheist family, I am one of the many non-Christians who celebrates Christmas every December. We don’t believe in Jesus. We don’t believe in the Bible. We don’t believe in God. But we believe in Christmas. We run the holiday gauntlet of buying presents, preparing dinners, mailing cards and sometimes even going to church. Yes, church! My parents thought it was a good idea to expose us to the pageantry, the music and goodwill of the religious celebration of Christmas.

In the absence of religious traditions, we improvise with our own ad hoc traditions. On Christmas Eve my family goes for a drive around some of the more beautiful neighborhoods in the area to admire the Christmas decorations. People line the streets with Christmas luminaries, supposedly to help guide Santa’s sleigh. My dad puts together a new Christmas mix to play in the car every year. This year’s eclectic mix of Christmas songs began with “I Want an Alien for Christmas” followed by the more traditional “O Holy Night.” No need to exclude good music just because it’s religious.

We’ve been having our annual Christmas Eve drive for about ten years now. It’s our own little tradition. I can firmly say that year after year there are fewer and fewer religious decorations like nativity scenes and lit-up crosses. This year, after driving across five different towns for an hour and seeing thousands of houses, I spotted only two nativity scenes and one sign that read, “We’re putting the Christ back in Christmas.” We’re doing our best to keep Christ in the background, if not out of consciousness.

The non-religious trend comes as no surprise. A survey conducted in 2007 by the Pew Research Center estimated the percentage of atheists or agnostics in the United States at 16.1%, with all Christian denominations lumped together comprising 78.5% of Americans. Two years later the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College saw that number drop slightly to 75%. In 1990, that same figure was 86%. There’s been a clear and steady decline in the number of religious Americans.

Interestingly, the most recent Pew Report reveals that Americans are having more mystical experiences, but not necessarily experiences related to their churches’ teachings. Like my dad’s musical Christmas mixes, Americans are creating a grand hodgepodge, blending personal experiences with various supernatural beliefs. Religion in America is becoming a freewheeling pantheism, even for those who go to church on Sunday.

I’ve taken to calling Christmas “Giftmas,” but not to be cynical. It’s the most cherished holiday of the year in my household. It brings our family together and makes us all happy. In the decade gone by, there haven’t been so many opportunities for happiness. We’ve experienced the 9/11 attacks, two ongoing wars, financial scandals, a worldwide economic depression and calamitous natural disasters around the Indian Ocean and in New Orleans. These are generation-defining disasters. But Christmas lifts the cloud of negativity, even if it does not include Nativity.

We are more inclined to donate to charity, or to volunteer. We lose a little of our unfortunate selfishness. It’s not that Christmas makes us forget about the harsh realities of today’s world; it makes us want to change things for the better. The holiday truly brings out the best in all of us. And if family, togetherness and goodwill weren’t enough, Western civilization feeds its materialistic appetite by exchanging presents, which bolsters the economy and generates job growth. It’s a Christmas even an atheist can believe in.

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