Atheists who celebrate Christmas vs. Hanukkah?

Because the Jewish holidays were never really secularized.

Christmas over the years has been made more and more secular. Look at the Christmas Specials we had to see growing up. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Frosty the Snowman, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus...all of these have little to do with Christianity.

And we've been watching them since the late '60s and early '70s. This is the stuff my generation grew up with and combined with the fact that I never grew up with the Church (of any flavor), Christmas was imprinted onto me as a time of peace, joy, harmony, love and a metric @#$% ton of presents.

Same with a lot of the other holidays. Easter had its specials involving the Easter Bunny and I got a basket of candy. St. Patrick's Day was a day for wearing green and looking for the poor sucker who wasn't so you could pinch the @#$% out of them.

I worked for a Jewish boss once. She owned the local computer repair and retail store. The only thing I learned about Jewish Holidays is that I got two paid days off in September for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana and even to this day I'm not sure which is the new year and which is the day of atonement.

So...with no one secularizing those holidays...it's no real surprise that atheists aren't celebrating them.

And even the Jewish folks who go atheistic, they're more likely to do the things that they couldn't do while being Jewish. Eat a Bacon Cheeseburger, Go out on a Saturday Night and enjoy the weekend, Celebrate Christmas.

 

I know a bunch of atheist and agnostic jews who celebrate hanukkah.

My family celebrates Christmas, but as a SECULAR holiday without ANY religious overtones other than the name Saint Nick.
A celebration in the spirit of festival that Christmas was designed to replace saturnalia - ya gotta luv that winter solstice stuff.

 

Then you don't know many Jews.

Because Jews are less than 2% of the population and the marketing appeals to Christmas. But where you're wrong is thinking jews don't celebrate Hanukkah...I'm an atheist and I celebrate both....neither is about religion, they're about celebrations and GIFTS!

 

I have found that Jewish people who aren't particularly religious still love their traditions... which is cool. BTW Happy New Year.

 

Just like the biblical use of 40 days and 40 nights is a literary device so is the use of 6 million. It simply shows a large unspecified number and is not meant to be accurate.

 

And all celebrate ground hogs day..

 

Nothing in my mind can compete with the holiday parties my neo-pagan friends used to throw.

 

It probably depends on which tradition you come from and what your family believes in.

 

the answer is easy: there are yuge sales with reduced prices for Christmas, no such thing for Chanukkah - no wonder why those people don't celebrate it

 

Because stores are crowded, and it is forced gaiety.

 

Not to sound prejudiced against anyone (and bear in mind that my ancestry is Jewish though I was raised Christian), but there are thousands of churches throughout the USA and many thousands more all over the world which open up their doors to everyone on Christmas and give away free dinners and have other celebrations. Sadly, except for Messianic synagogues, I do not know of any non-Messianic synagogues which do the same during Chanukkah. Perhaps if they realized that the door is supposed to be open to everyone on that festive period, many more people would celebrate the holiday as well.

 

Jewish synagogues do..Messianic synagogue’s or an oxymoron

 

I grew up in Brooklyn (the official Jewish Capitol of the world) and don't honestly remember synagogues opening their doors to everyone for the holiday festival.

Having said that, it is a fact that many synagogues do engage in charity work during the year such as providing job training, book drives as fund raising, and financing of tree planting as commemoratives for the recently departed. Messianic synagogues so far as I know have always been more receptive during the holidays. But perhaps that will change.