Quite honestly, I think if atheists celebrate Christmas and Christians criticise them for it, that's dumb. I mean, it's not like God would be angry about it.
Christmas Day was originally a mid winter celebration that was co-opted into the Christian calendar because of it's wide popularity. So if you drop the Christian aspects of it and just go with the drinking and eating too much you're totally going back to the day's original yule roots.
Christmas was an heathen celebration of the sun and of Saturn. The christians wanted the heathen people to become christian, but one of the things they would not leave behind was this celebration. So, Julius Cesar declared 25. of December as the birthday of Jesus Christ. So christians are actually celebrating something heathen.
But a fun fact: Jesus could NOT have been born in December. The bible tell us that there were sheperds outside with their sheep, at night. But in Israel it's very cold at winter time, and it even snows, so they would not have been outside. They would be inside, at least at night. That means that he most likely was born in the fall, like august or september. As said; Julius Cesar just made it up!
I love you guys for pointing this out. I want to make a bumper sticker of these comments and plaster them on the cars of people who have those " keep christ in christmas" bumper stickers. Stolen holiday.
But a fun fact: Jesus could NOT have been born in December. The bible tell us that there were sheperds outside with their sheep, at night. But in Israel it's very cold at winter time, and it even snows, so they would not have been outside. They would be inside, at least at night. That means that he most likely was born in the fall, like august or september. As said; Julius Cesar just made it up!