Oh I dunno Red. It should be a fun time for all.
I dont see it as hypocracy.
I have muslim and atheist friends who get into the xmas spirit, exchanging pressies, roast dinner, xmas tree and the likes. Even my son's best friend who is Hari Krishna, and my sister's ex-husband who is Buddhist.
For one thing, the kids dont feel left out cuz all their friends are doing it.
Yes, t'is true, most people probably dont go in for the 'true meaning' of Christmas anymore, but its a great time to push the boat out and have some fun with family and friends....and isn't being 'nice' to one another what "He" would want? (if you were inclined to believe "He" exists).

Well I do xmas because I believe we should have a good time and be kind to each other and not be a scrouge. However I dont do it big because I think the good spiritedness should be year-round and not just wheeled out for one day.
I dont think its hypocrasy because I may not believe that Jesus was a deity but I do believe he really existed and believe in the morals and way of life he preached about. A 2000 year old Ghandi or Martin Luther King if you will

i'm pretty much on the same wavelength as ed about Christmas

although if i'm up at my grandpas i celebrate it heartily and he doesn't know i'm an atheist and he's a C of E vicar....

D'ya know what, i think Christmas is one of the most important times on the year. Everyone comes together for celebrations, everyones happy, and from Nov, Dec and Jan it's the best 3 months! Yeah ok so we should be thinking about Jesus and everything else, we do! It's not all about the presents, its just time we all celebrate together. We forget everything that has happened within the year... and lets be honest this hasn't been the most fantastic year for Britain.. and we all just raise our glasses! I think it should be celebrated. Whether you are religious or not, we act like a decent society around this time.

So acting like a decent society consists of rushing out to the shops to buy the latest craze in toys for the kids, over spending on the food budget, drinking too much, fighting in lumps on Christmas day, watching the Queen rammel on about some bullshit she really doesnt care about, and probably has no idea about...and then in Jan/Feb feeling depressed because you have spent too much, drunk too much and put on too much weight.

Christmas sucks.

i actually spend christmas with my family and i don't really drink alot anyway

Like I said previously - I don't see why everyone should be so overly nice for just a short period of the year. I don't buy much for xmas and don't even do cards very much. I do tend to buy the odd surprise present through the year though. This makes me fantastically unpopular at xmas, but thats tough! I'm also not good at doing birthdays. I just think if I want to express some affection/friendship/love in a certain way then I shouldn't be tied to a certain date. Likewise I don't see why I should go mad on these dates just because everyone else is.

Call me an awkward bastard....

The Bible was a novel written by Agatha Christie's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great....... great, great Grand dad. It got misinterpreted somewhere and a bunch of people think it actually happened. However, somehow Them Greek novels that feature that big man zeus are more interesting and yet there isn't a following that believes it's real (as far as I'm aware). I find the new craze amongst Celebs quite funny. That scientology malarky. What kind of idiot would believe that..


Unfortunately some actors I like.

Oh.. another ridiculous religion is that thing they call "Jedi". Friggin nerds.