Hi Sharon and all,

Sorry this is so long.

In response:

"How do you look at the holiday season? You've explained your religious views today on the "Where is God?" thread,"

I am a Pagan Unitarian Universalist (not to imply that Paganism is more important than UUism) I've never been Christian and grew up in an Athiest household. We celebrated Christmas everyyear, but with the exception of some of the Christmas songs we listended to, the birth of Christ was not part of our holiday.

I enjoyed Christmas, because I had a loving family who gave me cool toys. When I grew up, I asked my dad why we celebrated Christmas. His response was threefold - first, the general sentiments of peace and hope and family are good, secondly, it was part nostalgia on his and especially my Mom's part - he also grew up as an Atheist, but my Mom's family were "casual Christians." The third reason was that they didn't want their son to feel bad or get picked on by the other kids because they didn't celebrate Christmas. (Welcome to the reality of non-Christians living in a Christian society)

"yet you've joined the Mudcat Secret Santa program"

I join the SS program, because it looked like fun and to me the name Secret Santa can be considered a convention. I don't get many presents or have a change to give many and I figure that this group here at Mudcat will probably be a great place to do so - thoughfulness and all that stuff.

"(and Santa is derived from the story of St. Nicholas... "Christian oriented, obviously"!) But you don't want to hear songs about Santa."

I happen to love many songs about Santa - I just don't believe in his history or expect presents from him. I realize that my above statements could lead you to think that I dislike Christmas music, but I like it a lot - actually, I did say the following above: " On the other hand, I do love many of the songs, including the Jesus birth songs because I love music and many of them are good music. The only thing I object to is that so many people in my culture cannot understand that I am not Christian and do not look at the holiday season the way they do." By the way, my parents never expected me to believe in Santa.

"And Solstice songs are right out."

Well, being Pagan, Solstice songs are right down my alley - bring 'em on, in fact, over the years I shared the concept at Mudcat that several of people's favorite Christmas songs are either Solstice songs or derrived from ancient Solstice rituals (for instance the tree in your front room - Luther didn't come up with it, it a couple thousand years older than that.)

"So aside from getting the day off from work"

I plan to work on Christmas - Yule is my "official day off - and the day after, because I follow the tradition of staying up to make sure the Sun rises the next morning). I won't put in a lot of hours, and true, I work out of my home primarily, but I'll be working.

"and playing Celtic music with friends, and listening to winter songs, is there anything else about the holiday season that interests you?"

I love potato latkas! - I spend the day before my church's Hannukah celebration pre-cooking them from scratch with close friends - a mixed Jewish/Christian Uintarian Universalist family.

I love eggnog and baking cookies and cakes - in fact - I have a tradition that what few presents I buy each year, I pay for by selling my cookies and cakes to friends for their holiday celebrations.

I sing songs (all kinds, I am still working on the Gaelic version of Jingle Bells, though).

I celebrate Yule at my church with a wonderful service, in which I lead the spiral dance (this will be my eighth year) and a nice bonfire to keep the chill of a Florida winter night off.

I tend to do little on Christmas day, for it holds no religious significace for me, though year round I celebrate the fine words that Jesus supposedly spoke - I especially like the mustard seed reference and the whole thing of the camel through the eye of the needle.

I will spend the afternoon and evening with friends, though many years this has been an issue for me. My dad has passed on, I don't know where my mom is, my sister has radically different views than me and I choose not to spend time with her if I can help it, and I have no other family. I do not have a wife, girlfriend or anything else (and rarely do), so basically I don't have a family. I have lots of good friends, but so often spending the day with one of them and their family leaves me feeling worse that being alone. I know they care for me, but it's not my family and somehow it doesn't feel right. The friends I will be with this years are a couple that I am very close to and probably one of their adult sons s s whoooo I am friends with as well. My best friend and her daughter will be their this year as well, as the daughter is afraid to fly post Sept. 11 and they won't be going "home" to Chicago. We all love the same type of music, care deeply for each other and the such. Hopefully I won't feel "hollow" at the end of the evening.

When I wrote my original post above, I just wanted people to hear that non-Christians are expected to listen to Christmas music for over a month each year - TV & radio commercials, stores, office Muzak and parties. Realize that any song that contains anything about Christmas is not a secular song. Christmas is a Christian holiday that many non-Christians observe each year because it is just easier to do so and "fit in." Any many more non-Christians do not celebrate it. My World Almanac (1995) states the following:

50,000 Baha'i, 590,000 Buddhists, 340,000 Hindu, 3,332,000 Muslim, and 4,300,000 Jews live in the U.S. - that's over Ten million Americans who practice a faith other than Christianity and that's not counting American Indians who are not Christian, Hawaiians who are not Christian as well as all the Pagans, Taoists, Jains etc. and roughly 20 million who are "non-religious." That comes to about 30 million people or over 10 percent of the U.S. population who are not Christian. For the most part, these people stand quietly during the "under God" part of the Pledge of Alliegance, use money that says "In God we trust," bow their heads during benedictions that beseech the "almighty Lord" and Jesus to guide their way in public and private meetings and listen to debates whether, like in the last presidential election, it is an issue that a vice-presidential candidate is Jewish.

1 in 10 people - 1 in 10. Am I angry, nope - not at all, I really am not. I just wish that the other 9 people I pass today would understand that I might not need to be wished a merry Christmas.

As for the importance of Christmas - peace, love and family - maybe more people in this world should try and practice what they preach. And as I usually sign off here at Mudcat: pax yall