Originally Posted by
ro-monster
The biggest change has been that I stopped celebrating Christmas several years ago. I'd always felt rather hypocritical as a non-Christian celebrating a Christian holiday anyway. (Never mind the fact that most of the things we think of as Christmas traditions are pagan in origin.) These days I have a nice meal and take a few moments to honor the passage of the winter solstice, and that's about it. No gifts, no holiday parties, no pressure to spend more money than one can afford. I enjoy the season so much more now!
Being raised Unitarian, I never had such a problem. As you observe, Christmas Trees, Reindeer and Santa aren't Christian observances. So unless you are going to church and doing the Christ's birth and wiseman type thing, I don't think there is a problem there.
My big holiday currently is Buddha's Enlightenment Day (Dec 8), followed by Winter Solstice. I have no problem with gift giving, but it really has to have meaning, not just giving gifts because it is the season.
I coordinate the entry of our local bicycle advocacy group in the local holiday parade. One cool thing I did this year, was to invite some kids who got bicycles this year from the local Recycle Bikes for Kids program to come ride with us in the parade. It was fun, and I hope that the kids watching them along the parade route were jealous and fired up with the desire to ride their own bikes.