In today's world we have become known as a secular society, meaning that religion is not at the forefront of our concerns and/or our daily schedules. It has been said that we have taken "the Christ out of Christmas", which to me is both an accurate and ridiculous statement. Religion might not be the number one priority when it comes to holidays and everyday life anymore but that's not necessarily a bad thing. People who are not religious do get asked why they even celebrate Christmas if they aren't religious at all. While I cannot speak for all non-religious people, I can help explain why people celebrate Christmas and what it means to them when there is no religion involved.

First, let's have a little history lesson. While many say that Christmas is a Christian holiday, this is not entirely true. The origins of Christmas go back to Pagan traditions, not Christian. Christians adopted the time of celebration of Christmas on December 25th because it coincided with already existing Pagan celebrations.The Roman Pagans celebrated the holiday of Saturnalia, which was a week long celebration and period of lawlessness from December 17th to December 25th. Before this, Christians actually didn't celebrate Christmas at all. This is because they could not agree on what day Jesus had actually been born since there is no mention of December 25th in the Bible at all. Many people have researched to figure out when Jesus was actually born. It has been found out that Jesus was most likely born in the fall rather than the winter. The Pagan roots eventually died off and Christmas was then celebrated with large parties. This displeased the Puritan settlers and they abolished the celebration of Christmas within their own people. Anyone caught celebrating was fined 5 shillings, which was a significant amount of money in those days. Knowing all of this, Christmas really didn't take off until the 1800's.

Fast forward to today's time and Christmas has become the biggest commercial holiday in the world. Being a consumer in society today, it can seem like presents and gift-giving is the only thing we care about anymore. But we should not be so quick to judge as gift-giving on Christmas was started by Christians as a reminder of when the wise men gave gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh baby Jesus Christ. It has since been passed down as a Christmas tradition, only instead of wise men giving gifts to the baby Jesus, Santa Clause gives gifts to children all over the world. Non-religious people do not participate in the "war on Christmas" that tends to happen every year for an insignificant to no reason at all. There is no war or hatred towards Christmas in a coffee cup and it is ridiculous to think so. Also, as someone who isn't religious myself, I don't care if someone says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Say it how you want to say it because it means the same thing in the end.

While Christ is not the biggest part of Christmas anymore and in some peoples lives, not at all, we have learned that there are things that are just as important, if not, more important during the holiday season. Being with friends and family is the biggest one and getting closer as people when we are all together for the holidays. Surrounded by the people we love can have such a positive impact on our spirit during Christmas time. That is what Christmas means to most non-religious people. Getting to spend time with the people we love and catching up with old friends and reminiscing on old times. Christmas brings people together whether it be for a religious reason or not. This is the time of giving and receiving, even if it's with love and happiness rather than presents.

Gifts are not always a bad thing; seeing the face of the person you gave the perfect gift to light up with joy as they open their present is a wonderful feeling on it's own. Just knowing that you're making someone happy should be the best gift. That is another reason that people who aren't religious celebrate Christmas; bringing joy to others in a stressful time. Christmas is a busy time for everyone and people often forget to be kind to one another, so bringing a little happiness to someone who needs it is amazing.

You don't have to be a religious person to celebrate Christmas. This holiday has become something more than just the birth of Jesus Christ. It's become a time of sharing love with one another, being with loved ones and just bringing overall joy into the lives of others. We are not taking the "Christ out of Christmas", we're just adding to it with something that everyone can enjoy and partake in. I just want to end this in saying, have a safe and wonderful Christmas to everyone who read this (if you even read this far)!!