I was raised Catholic. We weren’t devout Catholics by any means, but we went to church and received our sacraments and said grace before dinner. My parents were mostly CAPE Catholics - they only went to church on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter. Then they stopped going at all. Then I went through an atheist phase which ended at the point where I realized I’m agnostic, but that’s another long winded story.

Even after I abandoned religion for the most part, I still celebrated all the appropriate religious holidays families. Granted, mostly it was for the food. But Christmas, that was something different.

Christmas was never about Jesus’s birthday to me. It’s about so many other things. Sure, I’m not celebrating the “true meaning” of the holiday but then again, no other holiday really gets its true meaning celebrated. Easter has become about bunnies and colored eggs. Halloween is about scary witches and ghosts and candy. Even holidays meant to celebrate births of great figures in American history are nothing more than days off from work and school. Americans love a holiday, that’s for sure.

You know what? You can still celebrate the Christmas season if you’re not religious. I know, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. But hasn’t it become so much more than that? Forget the crass commercialism and admonitions that if you don’t buy a Lexus or diamond ring for your loved one, you have failed as a human being. There is so much more to love about the holidays. 

This is why I love Christmas: I love way the neighborhood is lit up in color and light at night. I love the excitement in the air, the way people give so freely of themselves in the spirit of the season, the way the kids bounce when they walk through the mall, thrilled at the thought of picking out presents for those they love. I love the spirit.

You may think Christmas has become nothing more than a celebration of consumerism. If that’s what you see, then that’s all you want to see. Me, I see pretty lights and smiling kids and relatives all gathered in one place for a change instead of scurrying to appointments and ball games and work.

If the War on Christmas actually exists, I’ve been sitting it out. Please, feel free to wish me a Merry Christmas even though I’m not religious. I don’t expect you to replace it with a generic Happy Holidays. I don’t care if there’s a nativity in front of your store.  I don’t mind if children sing Silent Night. I know there are anti-Christmas grinches around. Just because I’m not a participant in your religion doesn’t mean I expect you to stop celebrating it in front of me. I want to embrace your joy and your season. 

To quote Bill Murray in Scrooged:

“It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be.”