Neither. Most of the songs I like don’t reference Christ, but some do. I don’t have a problem with that – I’m aware that Christmas is a Christian holiday, no reason to deny that.

Not at all! ‘Tis the season! Enjoy!

I’m enjoying the thought of longer days.

We never sung.
We just ate, drank, opened our presents and had an orgy.

Neither. Why would we avoid any of it?

No, and we went to church last night.

No one in our neighborhood does caroling and I love those songs! One of my favorites is O Come All Ye Faithful

My house is not a sentient being and cannot avoid music of any kind. If you mean to be asking about my household (aka, my family), then the answer is still no. We don’t play them in the house because we don’t have any occasion to. But we aren’t avoiding them. We hear them everywhere just like everyone else does, and we participate in the the family sing-along if there is one wherever we are visiting.

Neither, save one reference.

My favorite carol is Good King Wenceslas. In the last stanza, when it says “therefore Christian men” I usually say “goodly men”, because everyone should experience the inner warmth of true charity, not just Christians.

Also, I prefer Adeste Fideles in its Latin form.

My favorite Christmas song is the one by The Waitresses.

I’m a Jewish elephant (you can tell by how big my trunk is). I’ve always loved listening to and singing along with Christmas carols but when younger wasn’t comfortable singing the word Christ, or phrases like Christ our Lord. But young I no longer am, and I have long-since given up putting such foolish restrictions upon myself.

Quite the contrary.

Our house is filled with Christmas music. All of the songs you mentioned were sung with extended family last night at our Christmas Eve party.

It was wonderful.

Nope and nope.

I keep a running playlist of Christmas songs I love. Some religious, some not. If I like the song and an artist’s version of it, it goes on the list.

Here’s a taste:
River
by Joni Mitchell

Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
by Mabel Scott

Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin’
by Albert King

Little Drummer Boy
by Ray Charles

Fairytale of New York
by The Pogues

Oh Holy Night
by Glen Campbell

Oh Come All Ye Faithful
by Al Martino

We also watched the Pope’s midnight mass on TV last night.

Who cares really. Christmas is a mashup anyway. Started as a secular winter celebration, coopted by Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth (which was likely in the spring anyway), later became commercialized gift giving holiday…now it’s whatever the heck you want it to be. Mix it all up. Songs and carols too.

PS: I’m an agnostic living with a Catholic and a budding atheist.

Why avoid them? They celebrate the reason for the day!
Merry Christmas all!

We have always enjoyed singing all the carols, even though most of our family are atheists. The music and choral arrangements of many of the carols are truly beautiful, such as O Holy Night, Carol of the Bells and Adeste Fidelis.

Merry Christmas or Festivus for the rest of us!

I’m not religious but enjoy many of the traditional carols and songs. I personally like ” Hark the Herald” what could possibly be wrong with peace on earth and goodwill towards men?
We haven’t been playing Xmas music here but we did hang tons of lights on the bog ranch porch with, what else, lit up Christmas geese standing on the rails. lo

I keep hearing the same Christmas songs in all the stores. My house is a refuge from all of that. Bah humbug! Tonight, mercifully, it will all be over, but the daylight will continue to lengthen.

I like Christmas carols at Christmas and so does my home.

Avoid? No. I like the Christmas music. I don’t play much music in my house, I listen to more in my car. I like the Christmas music in the stores.

Nope! We embrace them, and sang along at Church last night!

The songs i get tired of quickly (as in, tired by November 28) are “Jingle Bells”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, and “The Sleigh Bell Song”, all three of which have nothing to do with Christmas, New Years, or any other holiday, but are about transportation in rural parts of the country where there is snow.

O Holy Night is actually one of my favourite Christmas songs.

I’m an atheist, and I can appreciate a beautiful song with religious themes in the same way that I can appreciate a beautiful painting with religious themes. Half of the art world would be closed to me if this were not so. That doesn’t mean that I have to believe in the religion. It’s possible to find expressions of spirituality moving in a purely artistic sense.

@augustlan Neither. Why would we avoid any of it?
@filmfann Why avoid them?
Seeing the direction the US has taken, and here being a small manifestation of such, I can see logical reason (but not for some in general), I don’t have the literal time to spell it out, not that I just don’t want to make the time.

oh, right, the fictitious “war on christmas”

I tend to shy away from religious songs and stuff like that. It gets to be a little too much!

‘Seeing the direction the US has taken’ And there it is ladies and gentleman. It was the set up we thought, and there is the punchline.

The fact that I am an atheist and don’t avoid Christmas songs… does that make me a ‘bad’ atheist? Am I not putting enough effort into my atheism, you think? The way Christianity is going on the USA, perhaps some will suggest keeping a register of all non believers and forbidding them from having any Christmas celebrations. I liked the zombie Nativity scene. I thought it was brilliant and it was on HIS property. Talk about persecution.

I don’t care if there are religious Christmas songs on the radio. To everyone their own and there are traditions that are completely innocuous. BFD.

I think maybe some Christians have a hard time sorting out what is ok according to atheists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists…because there are people, organizations, and movements that fought to get Christmas either out of the public school and Public square. Some schools got rid of singing religious Christmas songs, or Christmas songs at all, in school. Some Christians must think we want rid of Christmas altogether. They are paranoid, and the people around them reinforce the feeling.

@cazzie ‘Seeing the direction the US has taken’ And there it is ladies and gentleman. It was the set up we thought, and there is the punchline.
No, that is a setup you are trying to manufacture, based off some Fantasy Island misinformation @ragingloli seems to believe in. This nation is always headed in a direction, sometimes many, which direction depends on the observer. I said no destination of the direction, but you in your mind certainly think you know the direction any clues notwithstanding, my do we love assumptions here. Let’s go with your assumption, you’d have to be Stevie Wonder not to see Christ and God being removed from just about everything outside a personal home or sanctuary. The question was not about being a good atheist or not, if people are good atheist all I can do is pray for them, upon their last breath the real truth will be known, (or hopefully unknown to their good). With schools redacting Linus’ explanation to Charlie Brown in school plays of the Peanuts classic….you can ignore what you want and manufacture what your heart’s desire.

@JLeslie They are paranoid, and the people around them reinforce the feeling.
Nope, seems like the paranoia is from the other camp, who think having prayer time in school, a nativity scene at Christmas or singing a song that proclaims Christ as Lord will somehow indoctrinate those poor gullible kids in believing there is a God and exposing Santa.

my kid doesn’t believe in god or Santa.

I have pointed this out before but it bears repeating. Religion in industrialized nations is dying out. There are some European nations that are majority atheist. In the U.S., 23% have no religious affiliation and this holds for 35% of millennials. You can rant all you want about how Christianity is being neglected, but you are swimming against the tide of history.

Religion will continue in poorer nations, because religion flourishes among the poor and uneducated.

@Hypocrisy_Central Are you saying all Christians are just fine with taking prayer, Christmas songs, and Christmas decorations out of schools? It doesn’t worry them at all that some people seem to want to secularize things, or insist on equal time of decorations and songs for all groups? I’m not asking you what atheists do and think, I’m asking you about Christians.

‘Misinformation’? I am quoting what you are writing. Are you dishing out misinformation?

@Seek: Same with my kid.

@JLeslie Are you saying all Christians are just fine with taking prayer, Christmas songs, and Christmas decorations out of schools?
Some will not mind, they figure it was foretold that wickedness would increase in the last days, and that the ruler of this earth is Satan so it is expected, etc. so let them do what they wish just hands of the sanctuary. Some are C&E Christians, others are undercover Christians, some only want the “fire insurance”. The Believers who read their Bible and know what it says and the authority God gives to those who follow him (in the spiritual realm) are not cool with it because bad company corrupts good morals.

@cazzie I am quoting what you are writing. Are you dishing out misinformation?
I am not, your misinterpretations are, I never said anyone was attacking Christmas, but since you and some others brought it up, you must feel it need to be defended because maybe it is a reality more than yo9u care to believe.

@Hypocrisy_Central LOL. I guess you proved my point.

I gave this a little more thought recently, when there was some Christmas country music thing on the television. I realized that it is just music. Some people may make it a lot more than that, and that is fine for them. For me (a non-Christian), I still appreciate good music for what it is; simply good music.

My favorite Christmas carol is I Wonder as I Wander, the old Percy Faith version. I find it incredibly lovely and moving, evocative of the present season and of seasons long past.