Do we have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas?

TalkingPoint · Post by **TalkingPoint** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:37 pm

Do we have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas?

Christmas is a Christian festival that is celebrated all over the world. Is it OK for people to celebrate Christmas if they are not Christian?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Aug 28, 2003 10:05 am

hi friends :D
i think goodness is known for everybody so all people can celebrate for goodness and for birth of one of nice humans that has lived in the world all of us can celebrate. By this we would remember that FAIR IS FAIR.
sorry i'm not good at english and maybe i couldn't say what i mean in a nice way.
bye and make it a great day.

Marisol · Post by **Marisol** » Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:11 pm

Yes. I think Cristmas involve a cultural aspect more than a religious one. Children are educated and brought up in traditions and cultural events even if they aren´t taught religious questions. I like my children playing drums and singing carrols but I don´t like them to be crying because Jesus was killed by "bad people".

Mystical Enlightenment · Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:20 am

Certainly! I may not be a Christian myself, but I certainly feel sad when I did not join my brother's neighbourhood in Australia singing Christmas carols :( ...My mother forbid me, saying that we Buddhist, cannot follow do what they are doing. Well, I DENY that!!! It certainly is wrong, Christmas is the time to get along together! It is the time when we all remembered Jesus love that he has given to us! And it certainly was no fun when we did not get to exchange presents!!! So, whether you are a Christian or not a Christian, be merry and be happy! :D

tuyet anh · Post by **tuyet anh** » Fri Sep 26, 2003 4:05 am

Christmas is certainly the festival for people all over the world. I myself am not a Christtian, but i like celebating it among my friends. We both enjoy eating Christmas pudding and expecting to get the lucky coin.
Zeus is a saint whose love is equal to everybody aroung the world irrespective of his races, his religion andso on.
It's sad to think that Christmas is only for christians :x. Its not fair

dinusha · Post by **dinusha** » Sat Oct 04, 2003 2:25 pm

Mystical Enlightenment wrote:Certainly! I may not be a Christian myself, but I certainly feel sad when I did not join my brother's neighbourhood in Australia singing Christmas carols :( ...My mother forbid me, saying that we Buddhist, cannot follow do what they are doing. Well, I DENY that!!! It certainly is wrong, Christmas is the time to get along together! It is the time when we all remembered Jesus love that he has given to us! And it certainly was no fun when we did not get to exchange presents!!! So, whether you are a Christian or not a Christian, be merry and be happy! :D

Cutegirl · Post by **Cutegirl** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 4:28 am

:D Hi iam Kathiah and iam actually not christian but i do celebrate Christmas , iam actually Muslim but iam not religous, i just LOVE Christmas and specialy the decorating thing and the gifts ...thats the most things that i like about Christmas , i have 2 big Christmas trees and a lot of cool ornamets i just love all the decorations of it and everything about Christmas .

Muslims believe in Jesus as a prophet and i believe in him , but i dont celebrate Christmas because of Jesus (sorry about that ) but iam not Christian so thats why :)

Me and my family LOVE christmas and we enjoy that day everyyear and we just like it .

i think EVERYONE should enjoy this wonderful day and celebrate it for just to have fun and gather with the family and enjoy decorating and have so much fun with the gifts too :) ........i think non -christians ppl can celebrate christmas the way that they want coz it is sooooooo cool and wonderful holiday :)

So hope you enjoy it and Merry christmas to alll here :) and hope u have a good one this year ;)

selokela · Post by **selokela** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 4:20 am

I am not happy about most of the replies send about wether one should celebrate christmas if he is not a christian. remember that God loves us and he send His only beloved son Jesus christ to come and save us from our sins. everybody shoud celebrate christmas wether christian or not. It is by his blood that we are all still alive. When he Jesus died he carried all our curses with him. Please let us all cebrate christmas.

Margarida · Post by **Margarida** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 8:00 am

I think Christmas is really a Christian festival, but wich became year by year, a family celebration well beyond the religions. A festival where people are happy to find themselves around a marvellous feast, laughing, discuss together, receive and exchange gifts and feelings. Christmas is the share's day. I think Christmas is the day wich amplifies hapiness :D for ones and sadness for those who are alone. :(

Circe · Post by **Circe** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 9:24 pm

In my opinion everyone should celebrate Christmas. Christmas is no longer just a religious celebration, it is a season of the year!!!!
More and more people seem to be forgetting baby Jesus and replacing Him by Santa. They say Christmas is only about consumism nowadays, I agree, but everything becomes so full of light and the world is lacking it so much all the year round... so,let's just pretend the "Saviour has come" and enjoy everybody! :D :D :D !!!!

lizhi · Post by **lizhi** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 5:45 am

Anonymous wrote:hi friends :D
i think goodness is known for everybody so all people can celebrate for goodness and for birth of one of nice humans that has lived in the world all of us can celebrate. By this we would remember that FAIR IS FAIR.
sorry i'm not good at english and maybe i couldn't say what i mean in a nice way.
bye and make it a great day.

I think so

members · Post by **members** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:36 am

Hi there !

I am a Christian and I am very disappointed if a Christmas season didn't have anyone who love the Christmas to join it. Who make a merry CHRISTMAS is the People themselves. It is the time when people around the world show their love to each other, not only just the Jesus.

8)
Bye bye, I have a nice day.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 11:06 am

I am from Russia and we celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January. The most celebrated holiday is New Year.
But i think it's not right. Christmas is the best holiday. Everybody must be happy this day.

Seyda · Post by **Seyda** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 8:44 am

ın my opinion everybody must celebrate their own festival about their religion.

lienthu · Post by **lienthu** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:24 pm

I'm not a Christian but i love Christmas. It 's very sad if we don't receive any greeting card ' merry Christmas and happy newyear 'in this occations.

caZ · Post by **caZ** » Sat Dec 06, 2003 3:55 pm

i dont think that you have to be a christian to celebrate christmas because christmas is a time of loving and caring and whats the piont in that if only christians are celebrating it. we all need to get together and enjoy it as one big family. xxx caZ

GhostGirl · Post by **GhostGirl** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 7:39 am

I am a christian, of course, I believe in what bible says. However in our religion we didn't celebrate the Christmas Day. Because we are not believe that Jesus Christ was borne in the month of December.

You will know this if u check and read the bible with understanding with the help of right preacher of god.

LUCY · Post by **LUCY** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 11:54 am

I THINK CHRISTMAS CAN BE CELEBRATED BY ALL PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORD NOT BECAUSE OF A RELIGION CELEBRATION BUT BECAUSE OF A BEAUTIFUL HISTORY FOR THE CHILDREN. I THINK IT IS MORE A CULTURAL REASON TO CELEBRATE IT THAN RELIGIOUS REASON. IT IS AN OCCASION TO SPEND TIME WITH ALL THE FAMILY IN FRONT OF A GOOD DINNER ANDMAKE THE CHILD ENJOY WITH THEIR TOYS. IT ALSO AN OCCASION TO DECORATE THE HOUSE AND THE STREET AT THE BIGINNING OF THE WINTER AND TO FORGET THAT THE WEATHER WILL WILL BE BAD FOR 4 MONTHS...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 8:12 am

:P I love this holiday!!!

Hope, everyone will have a nice one!!!! :P :D :D :D

sanhong3 · Post by **sanhong3** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 4:36 am

Certainly not .I think all of us can cellerbrate it

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:33 pm

My family is Buddhist, but we DO celebrate Christmas. We don't do it like Christian people do it, though. We don't go to church. We don't do prayer. We only have a big family dinner and then hanging around, talking to each other, playing cards, singing karaoke, watching movies to wait for midnight. At midnight, we open our presents, taking pictures, hugging each other, and that's the end of a Christmas night. It doesn't sound like fun when I say it like this, but it's really fun in real life. Christmas is always my best winter holidays of the year since I have one month for winter break. :)

pob · Post by **pob** » Sun May 29, 2005 11:32 am

I think the most people like party and doing something different, I don't think much people celebrate Christmas as what it "should" be, but they celebrate a pair of weeks (if your job allows you ;O) ) when you stay with family or do other things...

Shazzam · Post by **Shazzam** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:58 am

I can't see why anyone who is not Christian would want to celebrate Christmas. I mean after all christians are celebrating the birth of Christ. If you aren't christian why would you want to celebrate his birth. If you still want to have a party on this day it shouldn't be in celebration of christ. It doesn't make any sense! :? :o

pob · Post by **pob** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:59 am

shazzam1452 wrote:I mean after all christians are celebrating the birth of Christ. :

;O) December 25 is not the day of Christ's birth, is the day of an ancient tradition Christians "absorved" in the Christianism in order to make those people stop believing in ancient traditions and believe in Christianism ;O)

The world didn't started with Adan and Eva... etc

There was a lot of traditions, religions, wisdom... before Jesus ;)

Shazzam · Post by **Shazzam** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:12 am

pob wrote:
shazzam1452 wrote:I mean after all christians are celebrating the birth of Christ. :
;O) December 25 is not the day of Christ's birth, is the day of an ancient tradition Christians "absorved" in the Christianism in order to make those people stop believing in ancient traditions and believe in Christianism ;O)

The world didn't started with Adan and Eva... etc

There was a lot of traditions, religions, wisdom... before Jesus ;)

Your point is?? My comments wasn't about history it was that christians celebrate Christs birth on that day!

Shazzam · Post by **Shazzam** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 10:33 am

NOUBARA wrote:
Seyda wrote:ın my opinion everybody must celebrate their own festival about their religion.
Christmas is a festval celebrated longtime ago by christian to commemorate their link to Jesus. I think that muslims and other religious also believe in Jesus as the first Prophet before Mohamed. So they could celebrate this festival in order to express this fath. They are free to celebrate it

I think everyone has the right to celebrate this day if the chose too. I really liked your comments it is good to see that there are still people in this world that have an open heart. 8)

MissLT · Post by **MissLT** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 6:01 am

shazzam1452 wrote: I think everyone has the right to celebrate this day if the chose too. I really liked your comments it is good to see that there are still people in this world that have an open heart. 8)

Christians celebrate it by going to church and dinner; non-Christians celebrate it by having dinner and not going to church. As for my case, I and some of my relative celebrate it in a non-Christian's way while some other relatives celebrate in a Christian's way. I'll explain you all why it happens like this. Well, my extended family is a Catholic born since the time of my great great-grandpa; however, my grandma and her children, except one, are Buddhists. Well, my grandma was a Catholic born, but she converted to Buddhism because of two reasons. One, my grandpa hated religions; therefore, he forbidded my grandma to practice it during their marriage. Two, she found Buddhism in hard times and found herself related to it, so she practiced it even my grandpa hated it. She chose Buddhism over her marriage, and my grandpa had to live with her new interest. Since my extended family has a mix of both religion, we think it's best for us non-Catholics to celebrate it with them except we don't need to go to church. All we do is having dinner, exchanging presents, playing games, and having fun with them all together. It's nice to spend time together, and it's nice to have presents. We only have two presents per year for birthday and Vietnamese New Year, so this day is an excuse for us non-Christians to have some presents. We love presents; therefore, we don't care what day it's supposed to be .

Shazzam · Post by **Shazzam** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:31 am

I think Christmas Day is about love, peace and togetherness. I doesn't matter why you celebrate this day, the fact that you celebrate it with your family and people that you love is exactly what this time of year is about. 8)

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:39 am

i guess this question take us to other question, who celebrate the birth of jesus in christmas? i know it's sad but i guess some of the kids in portugal not even know what we are celebrating, they just wanna the presents because christmas has become in to market party where the marketing offices have a lot of work trying to seel everything that you could ever imagine, so it's a faze of the year when everybody buy everything for the kids, friends and relatives.... so the concept of jesus in my opinion it's very far away of that, i'm not putting myself out of this society, i live and i make the things like the others do, and I can be wrong but it’s what I feel.

P.S.- Sorry about my english, it's difficult to talk about a serious situations when you don't have grammar and vocabulary skills

Shazzam · Post by **Shazzam** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:56 am

Rui wrote:i guess this question take us to other question, who celebrate the birth of jesus in christmas? i know it's sad but i guess some of the kids in portugal not even know what we are celebrating, they just wanna the presents because christmas has become in to market party where the marketing offices have a lot of work trying to seel everything that you could ever imagine, so it's a faze of the year when everybody buy everything for the kids, friends and relatives.... so the concept of jesus in my opinion it's very far away of that, i'm not putting myself out of this society, i live and i make the things like the others do, and I can be wrong but it’s what I feel.

P.S.- Sorry about my english, it's difficult to talk about a serious situations when you don't have grammar and vocabulary skills

I think you have put your opinion across very well. I do agree with you about the concept of Christmas. I feel that alot of what a child embraces comes from their upbringing. For example: church, school, family. If a child is brought up in a christian household (and school) they have a very good background on Jesus. Therefore their understanding is better. Of course, for children it is still about presents; but when you think about it so was Jesus's birth. Hence the three wise men bring him gifts.

Commercialism has definately impacted on the meaning of Christmas for children.

My family goes to church on christmas eve with the entire family (don't get me wrong we aren't overly religious) but it just touches your heart at that time of year; it reinforces the meaning of Christmas. 8)

MissLT · Post by **MissLT** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:44 am

Rui wrote:i guess this question take us to other question, who celebrate the birth of jesus in christmas? i know it's sad but i guess some of the kids in portugal not even know what we are celebrating, they just wanna the presents because christmas has become in to market party where the marketing offices have a lot of work trying to seel everything that you could ever imagine, so it's a faze of the year when everybody buy everything for the kids, friends and relatives.... so the concept of jesus in my opinion it's very far away of that, i'm not putting myself out of this society, i live and i make the things like the others do, and I can be wrong but it’s what I feel.

P.S.- Sorry about my english, it's difficult to talk about a serious situations when you don't have grammar and vocabulary skills

But don't you think Christmas is not all about remembering that Jesus was born and that's it. In Christianity, his birth means bring new concepts or joys to others, doesn't it? Therefore, even if the kids don't do it religiously, they're doing it gratefully-- they bring happiness within themselves and others by spending time together during a holiday. Isn't Xmas now mostly more about bringing happiness than remembering who Jesus is? Well, maybe I'm wrong since I think bringing happiness to others is more important.

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:20 am

no, you're not wrong in my point of view, i just said that because the question was "if only the christians should celebrate the christmas?" and my answer is that of course everybody should celebrate the christmas, because even some Christians don’t really celebrate the birth of jesus, but yes a opportunity to be with friends and family, I’m not saying this is bad, that’s what i do and I think it's right, but why the members of different religion’s shouldn’t do it, in fact… one of the things that I think it’s completely wrong it’s that sometimes we(christinas) don’t respect so much the others religions as we should do, we have holidays to celebrate our religions days and the others religions have to work in their religions days because they are seeing in the society as normal days.

MissLT · Post by **MissLT** » Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:45 pm

Rui wrote:in fact… one of the things that I think it’s completely wrong it’s that sometimes we(christinas) don’t respect so much the others religions as we should do, we have holidays to celebrate our religions days and the others religions have to work in their religions days because they are seeing in the society as normal days.

Is that how it is in Portugal? :?

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:41 am

yes, in portugal we just have holidays in catholic days, if you would live in portugal and you are from a different religion, you have to spend one day of your normal days to go in vacations if you wanna stay in home to celebrate, what i mean is that in the catholic days we have national holidays where almost every company’s stop, the days of other religions are completely normal, every company is laboring at full power.

And some good news are coming…. next week we gonna have a holiday, again something about with the catholic religion, but please don’t ask me what we are celebrating, I just know that I’m gonna stay at home
8)

MissLT · Post by **MissLT** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 5:37 am

Rui wrote:yes, in portugal we just have holidays in catholic days, if you would live in portugal and you are from a different religion, you have to spend one day of your normal days to go in vacations if you wanna stay in home to celebrate, what i mean is that in the catholic days we have national holidays where almost every company’s stop, the days of other religions are completely normal, every company is laboring at full power.

And some good news are coming…. next week we gonna have a holiday, again something about with the catholic religion, but please don’t ask me what we are celebrating, I just know that I’m gonna stay at home
8)

Awww.... this is not fair. In the U.S. you can ask for a day off for religious belief. Like my manager she will be off on this coming up Friday because of the fasting. It will end on November 3rd, according to her. As a result, I'll have to work on that day so she could be able to stay home to celebrate it with her family. I'm so not happy whenever I think about it. That Friday will be my heaviest day since I have to work two jobs in one day plus study group .

natsu0713 · Post by **natsu0713** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:36 am

I do not think that it is necessary to be a Christian in order to celebrate Christmas.

Isn't it is a great thing if people all over the would can celebrate Christmas together, no matter for their religions?

Eon · Post by **Eon** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:42 am

I think everybody can celebrate Christmas! It's not only a religious day. It's a worldwide festival! I am a christian but my boy friend is a Buddhist. But we celebrate Christmas together!

willzheng · Post by **willzheng** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:22 am

selokela wrote:I am not happy about most of the replies send about wether one should celebrate christmas if he is not a christian. remember that God loves us and he send His only beloved son Jesus christ to come and save us from our sins. everybody shoud celebrate christmas wether christian or not. It is by his blood that we are all still alive. When he Jesus died he carried all our curses with him. Please let us all cebrate christmas.

I am not a Christian.But I still celebrate the christmas.
till now,Christmas is not only the Christans,it belongs to every one in the word.So take it easy,enjoy yourself is ok!
Wish you having a lovely day on Christmas!

kathymimi · Post by **kathymimi** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:36 am

everyone can celebrate christmas if he likes. the festival is not just a religious one nowadays, maybe it's already a world festival to celebrate family coming together in that right day.

so take it easy. i wish you a nice day.

Laxuan · Post by **Laxuan** » Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:30 pm

In my opinion, christmas is the time for you to express your emotion to your father, mother and maybe you lover by sending cards, gifts, etc. Therefore, It's a special day for everyone all over the world.

jamesheal · Post by **jamesheal** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:38 pm

No because today we celebrate to be together with our loved ones.

jamesheal · Post by **jamesheal** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:59 am

I think that your religion has to know something about Jesus because Christmas is the birth of Jesus so you need to hane some information about him

catlim · Post by **catlim** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:17 pm

Everyone can celebrate Christmas...as long as you don't make trouble

amor · Post by **amor** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:10 am

TalkingPoint wrote:Do we have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas?

No.

irenapol · Post by **irenapol** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:17 am

Nowadays Christmas has become so commercialised, that, unfortunately, it's rather about giving and receiving presents, cooking and eating the tasty food, not about believing. In such a case, everyone can celebrate it, just to have a good time. However, for someone who is a true believer, there should be (and I trust there is) much more in it, and in this situation this is a holiday for christians, for those for whom the birth of Jesus is really important.

lesoli · Post by **lesoli** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 7:17 pm

I tkink that everybody can celebrate Christmas. Some people celebrate Christmas to entertine themselves and give or get presents. But for some people who really belive that it's birthday of Jesus it's the most important holiday of the whole year. These people don't think about delicious food or presents which they get, they think about birth of Jesus.

alexandra · Post by **alexandra** » Sun Dec 29, 2013 4:02 pm

In my point of view, you must be Christian, If you want to celebrate Christmas. The "key" in this holidays is birth of Jesus. Unless you believe about it, yours Christmas is pointless. Increasingly, for a lot of people more importantly are Santa Claus, gifts, cards, dishes and cakes. I think Christmas without Jesus isn't "real".

kassliw · Post by **kassliw** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:29 pm

I am Catholic, and the significance of Christmas is not gift giving, bright lights, or Santa Claus, it is the Birth of Jesus Christ. I feel the same way Muslims would feel if non-Muslims were celebrating Ramadan, or how Jewish people would feel if non-Jewish people celebrated Hanukkah. Christmas is a Christian holiday, and I believe it should stay that way.

szuder · Post by **szuder** » Wed Jan 01, 2014 6:13 pm

I think that we don't need to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. These holy first of all rely on a family meeting in a relaxed atmosphere, where you can hear about yours nearests. This is I think only one chance to meet all family in a year.

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