This holiday season, just like every holiday season, atheists, agnostics, humanists, and the nonreligious will celebrate the holidays with family and friends. Some of us take part in most or all of our family’s traditions; some will put clever secular twists on old ideas and still others make the holidays their own.
That’s why the Secular Coalition for America and our 20 member organizations have partnered together to launch #MySecularHoliday, a seasonal project highlighting the wide variety of ways that nontheists celebrate the holidays.
All month long, we’ll be collecting and sharing stories about how secular people observe the holidays and what this time of year means to them. Our goal is to spread the word about the fun, festive, and creative ways that secular people come together to spend time with loved ones.
We believe that the holidays are an occasion for people to come together, not be divided along religious lines. Instead of falling for the religious right’s contrived “War on Christmas,” let’s use this opportunity to shine a light on our community and spread some holiday cheer.
Spread the Cheer!
Give the gift of visibility to the secular community by sharing your story on social media using #MySecularHoliday. Share this cheerful holiday message with your friends and family and encourage them to submit their stories, too.
#MySecularHoliday
"My secular family celebrates Christmas by decorating our house & tree with lights, ornaments, Santa's and snowmen. It looks wonderful, and feels nice and cozy during the cold winter months. You don't have to be religious to celebrate the holidays, and you most certainly don't have to be religious to be a good person."
"We celebrate Christmas with a tree, gifts, dinner and we added a Hanukkah meal this year. We work in some of my Eastern/Northern European heritage with food and our version of Santa. And regular Canadian Santa too! I bake a lot of cookies and it’s a big family night decorating them. We have fun with all of it. My husband is far from his family so we keep some traditions alive so he can feel closer to them."
"We absolutely do not have anything religious around, no angels or nativities. For me it’s all about the TREE! Well, trees. We have two (so far) because I love ornaments. Yes, there is a star atop one of them, however it’s the North Star."
"I celebrate the solstice, although the summer solstice is my big one. My husband does like the decorations associated with Christmas, so we do have a tree and decor all around. We usually have a good friend over for dinner on the eve, and the one tradition I have kept is the Polish tradition of Opłatki. My Babci kept it going, in which a wafer is broken off in small pieces by those gathered for the eve meal as a symbol of thanks and good fortune for the year ahead."
"I teach my weekly class for children living at our Interfaith Shelter, making simple crafts from recycled or beautiful materials, feeding them cheese sticks and mandarin oranges, playing games, and making puppets from paper bags. Then I work on organizing for our neighborhood organization, fuss over a sick cat, and send checks to needy causes and family members."
"My family and I celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s with food, presents and fun. These are things that everyone can incorporate, and being liberated from religious beliefs allows us to emphasize the awareness and happiness of the season. May everyone strive to be as joyous as we are during this time of the year!"
"I was raised as a nonreligious Jew. While I was an ER nurse I used to volunteer to be on call on Christmas so that my Christian co-worker could celebrate undisturbed with their family."
"It is not yet a "holiday," but a date that I often celebrate is July 20 — that day in 1969 when humanity succeeded in placing the first humans on the Moon, culminating millennia of wonder and speculation about travel to our nearest celestial neighbor."
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