Is an atheist celebrating Christmas hypocritical

You have seemed in your first statement to have accepted that it is hypocritical to celebrate religious holiday's as an atheist but that it is an acceptable hypocrisy, as if the populace are celebrating, this is in itself a reason to also celebrate as an individual. The difference of course being if you label yourself as an atheist, rather than agnostic, undecided or even of a minority faith within the populace, you are actively of the belief in the REJECTION of a God/deity and therefore of any religion which concludes the existence of a God/deity. The act of rejection is to dismiss or refuse, so surely anything other than dismissal or refusal to participate within religious celebration is in itself hypocrisy. In relation to the other mentioned religiously based 'holidays' it is also hypocritical for an atheist to participate within their celebrations. St. Patricks day is misconstrued as a day to celebrate being 'irish' it is in fact a celebration of the catholic patron saint of Ireland st. Patrick, who is being celebrated for bringing Christianity/Catholicism to the people of Ireland. Irish people who celebrate this day are not just celebrating the fact that they are irish, but the fact that they are irish Catholics. This holiday was brought to and popularised in America due to the number of Irish Catholic immigrants who have settled there. As someone who is from Ireland and was born in Belfast, I can categorically tell you that in Ireland only irish Catholics actively participate in the celebration of st. Patricks day, irish Protestants for instance refrain from celebration as they reject the ideology. St. Valentines day is slightly more ambiguous but still nether the less is a solely religiously based idea, st. Valentine was a Christian priest or bishop in the 3rd century who (although not absolute historical fact) was executed by roman Claudius II, for conducting marriages which had been outlawed, it is claimed that on the day of st. Valentines execution on February 14th that he sent a love letter to a lady signed 'from your valentine'. Valentines day is also related to an earlier pre Christian holiday Lupercalia, a celebration of a roman God. Halloween, known by Catholics as all saints eve/night, is a catholic religiously observed holiday it's roots are heavily based in celtic mythology and paganism and is a holiday which has again been bought to and popularised in America by its irish/Scottish immigrants, it is totally religiously based. In America however the lines have been blurred for many religious holidays, as America is a capitalist nation, it Capitalises on such holidays for financial gain, rather than there true meaning of religious holiday, corporations, company's and media outlets promote aspects of religious holiday to 'all' within society as means of making money from them. This however does not change or alter the fact that they are religious holidays which celebrate the belief in a religion which promotes a God/deity theory, which atheists actively reject. As I made clear in my first argument, I am not suggesting that to prove ones atheistic beliefs they should deliberately offend the populace, but that to participate within or to benefit from the celebration itself is hypocritical to the beliefs and ideologies of atheism. Atheism ironically is classified as a religion, and to classify yourself as an atheist is making a 'statement'. I would assume that as you have taken up the con position to this debate that you are an atheist, therefore are making a statement that you are in rejection to the belief of the populace, so in claiming that you can still continue to participate with celebration of the populace's religious holidays, which are inevitably a celebration of religious scripture, doctrine and of the idea that God does infact exist, is undoubtedly hypocritical. So onto ownership of the holiday of Christmas, it can almost certainly in modern history be seen to be owned by Christianity, irrespective of wether or not it was the actual birth date of Jesus, it is what is being celebrated. Denial of this is nonsensical, to deny that you are celebrating the birth of Jesus because historically Jesus may actually have been born on a different date is simply silly, wether Jesus was born on December 25th or not, Christmas is still ultimately the celebration of his birth, so ultimately a celebration of Christmas is the celebration of Jesus/Christianity. Another argument atheists may have, is that prior to Christianity's influx into Europe an extremely similar holiday took place around the same time the 'winter solstice' and that Christianity adapted this holiday to fit in with the changing of beliefs of the new converts. This is true, it is extremely likely that Christianity took the winter solstice and changed the ideology into representing Christian values rather than pagan values. But this argument in itself makes no difference if you are indeed an atheist, because the winter solstice itself was a religious festival/holiday which was celebrating the belief in a God/deity by pagans, and would be contradictory to the belief in atheism. As I have previously stated there can be no rebuttal to the question, 'is an atheist celebrating Christmas hypocritical' it is fundamentally hypocritical, it is however a hypocrisy that is accepted amongst atheists, an argument of if you can't beat them join them ect does not make you any less hypocritical for doing so.