The first version of this post was written in 2015. It has been updated every year since then to include additional content.
I have written quite a bit on the subject of Christmas (and the war on Christmas) over the years. I suppose one of the effects of writing a blog for over 10 years is that one is bound to write quite a bit on almost any topic one covers. But why so much on these particular topics? I think there are two primary reasons.
First, I live in a culture where Christmas is almost inescapable. It is not just the music or the decorations; it is that virtually everybody I encounter seems to want to talk about it. And that means I am bound to end up thinking about it at least some of the time. If I really wanted to prevent myself from being exposed to Christmas themes this time of year, the only way to do so would be to not leave my home and cut myself off from TV and the Internet. At most, I could probably manage to do that for a week. So one of the reasons I write about Christmas is that it is hard to avoid each December.
Second, Christmas and all it entails is frequently connected to the separation of church and state, a topic in which I am greatly interested. The conservatives on Fox "News" seem to start howling about the so-called war on Christmas earlier each year. Christian extremist groups come out with their lists of which retailers should be boycotted for daring to wish their customers "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Jesus Day!" Nativity scenes spring up on government property. You get the idea.
I thought it would be fun to pull together most of what I have written about Christmas over the years. I was wrong. It wasn't particularly fun because there ended up being far more of it than I realized. It turned into work. In any case, here's the Atheist Revolution Christmas collection:
- "Happy Holidays" - Deal With It (2006)
- Rethinking the War on Christmas (2008)
- The Psychology of Christmas Wars (2008)
- Offended by "Merry Christmas?" (2008)
- How Christians Have Secularized Christmas (2008)
- What I Like Most About Christmas (2009)
- The Evolution of Christmas (2009)
- Should Atheists Celebrate Christmas? (2009)
- Determined to Have a War on Christmas (2010)
- Santa vs. Jesus (2010)
- Christmas is Still a Religious Holiday for Majority in U.S. (2010)
- I am Not a Pagan Either (2010)
- Maybe Christmas Should be Time to Reconsider Consumer Culture (2011)
- Leave the Nativity Scenes Alone: Objections From Atheists (2011)
- Atheists Do Not Need to Be Defensive About Christmas (2011)
- 'War on Christmas' Generates Money for Conservative Organizations (2011)
- Atheist Divide Over Christmas is Trivial (2012)
- Real Christians Do Not Have Christmas Trees (2012)
- Secular Alternatives to Christmas (2012)
- The Christmas Eve Church Service (2012)
- The Politics of the War on Christmas (2013)
- Who Ruined Christmas? (2013)
- Rethinking 'Happy Holidays' (2013)
- Some Atheists Do Not Celebrate Christmas (2013)
- Coping Tips for Atheists at Christmas (2014)
- Happy Festivus! (2014)
- Atheists Mocking Christmas (2014)
- Starbucks: Laughing All the Way to the Bank (2015)
- A Christmas Sweatshirt I Might Wear (2016)
- Enjoying the Silence Before the Christmas Music Begins (2016)
- The Truth About Santa...and Jesus (2016)
- Only 4% of Americans Do Not Celebrate December Holidays (2016)
- Looking the Other Way on Church-State Violations at Christmas (2016)
- No, This Atheist Does Not Hate Christmas (2017)
- More Coping Tips for Atheists at Christmas (2017)
- The Other War on Christmas (2018)
- The Atheist Grinch (2018)
- If Christmas Has Nothing to Do With Jesus... (2018)
- Things This Atheist Likes About the Holiday Season (2018)
- War on Christmas 2.0: The War on Christians (2019)
- What If Someone Else Told Your Child the Truth About Santa? (2019)
- COVID-19 and Political Divisions Make for an Incredibly Demoralizing Christmas (2020)
- Sick of the Christmas Retail Push? Push Back with Creepmas (2021)
- We Are Free to Opt Out of Oppressive Christmas Traditions (2021)
- I've Been Ready for Christmas to Be Over Since November Began (2022)
Whew! I told you there was a lot of it.
Enjoy whichever holidays you are celebrating this year. And if you aren't celebrating any, enjoy that too!
