The Holiday Season

So we have arrived in Christmas Month. Oh, I’m sorry, I meant December. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas! It’s just that it bothers me when we as though including Hanukkah and Kwanzaa makes the holiday season somehow equal when it really doesn’t. Take a look around—Christmas reigns supreme. Christmas is a Christian holiday. It is often marketed as a secular holiday, but it can’t be entirely divorced from its longtime religious roots. I myself like the Christmas season. I may be an atheist, but I find that the season is secular enough as to not bother me. But then, my background is Christian. I don’t have the experience of approaching Christmas from a minority religious background. I sometimes wonder what that must be like.

This Christmas season I find my attention drawn away from the holidays and toward Ferguson, and Cleveland, and New York City. Unfundamentalist Christian’s recent post, Actual War on Black People Distracting from Fictional War on Christmas, comes to mind. Holiday cheer seems dimmed, somehow, by the din of injustice.

But enough of my musings! This chatter thread is for thoughts on the holidays and holiday traditions you observe. Do you celebrate Christmas? How do you celebrate it? Are there other holidays you celebrate this time of year? Do you have favorite childhood memories? Are there things about the holiday season that bother you? What do you like about the holidays? Discuss!