Christmas means many things to many people - religious festival, midwinter celebration, family gathering, time out of time, day off work...
Even more so than Samhain/Hallowe'en, Christmas is a victim of its own success in that many of the trappings surrounding it have overtaken and masked its original meaning. To add to the confusion, customs from other midwinter festivals have become mixed in over the centuries, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.
As a Pagan, I don't celebrate Christmas as a religious event but I do celebrate it as a secular midwinter festival which is a huge part of the over-culture I live in (just as I enjoy Hallowe'en as a secular autumn festival, celebrating Samhain as a religious event).
All around me friends and family decorate their homes and get together to eat, drink, exchange gifts, make merry. We eat special seasonal foods, listen to seasonal songs, tell traditional tales and watch Christmas films. We pull crackers and roast chestnuts, kiss under the mistletoe and hope for snow. For some of these people Christmas has religious significance, for others it doesn't. Yet we are all united by the celebration itself. And this is what I - a Pagan - love about Christmas. Religious or secular, it brings people, communities, families, friends together in celebration.
Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 55
Christmas
Whatever the day means to you, and however you are spending it, I wish you a Merry Christmas - religious or secular.
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