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.", so it seems, but that is not the case. These traditions no longer belong to their affiliated roots no different than your neighborhood no longer belongs to any affiliated House or Charter. It is counterintuitive to push the idea that there is such a thing as ownership of traditions when society evolves beyond such simple concepts. Christmas isn't for Christians anymore, it's for everyone, even religiously Jewish people can and do celebrate Christmas (which would be a much, much larger hypocrisy) as just a national/globalized holiday. You could attempt to put exclusivity on every holiday based on it's history but this does not make celebration outside of that historical value hypocritical regardless of one's stances. "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.", it's technically hypocritical for anyone outside of a painstakingly small population to celebrate most days. This push towards segregation sounds unhealthy to be honest; being agnostic, undecided, Hindu, Jain, or even Islamic / Jewish all fail to acknowledge the specific deity of Christmas which has long since become so integrated into the world that it just doesn't matter. We even know that Jesus wasn't born on 12/25 (http://www.ucg.org...) but do the Christians rally for a proper change? No. Why not? Because it's not a matter of the day at all. Historical accuracy has all but eroded around the very concept; the entire proposition is a sham with even Christians hypocritically seeking to just keep the day that works best for them even though 12/25 falls around the time of the winter solstice, Christmas trees are pagan and The Church wasn't a fan (http://www.livescience.com...), and some Christians reject Christmas as a merging of pagan holidays (http://www.creationliberty.com...) and consumerism. The Christmas you're trying to purport exists ideologically simply doesn't and never did. There can be no hypocrisy revolving around it no different than a non-American in America isn't a hypocrite for celebrating July 4th with Americans and the same of any Independence Day around the world. "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.", this is correct, but note something: It has evolved. It is not misconstrued, it is now what it is, and it's historical value is worthless. As far as the world is currently concerned it's weird broth and green beer day and that's it. "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.", so in essence much like Christmas it has hypocritical pagan roots celebrating a man who broke the law repeatedly? While there's a lot more to this story using this blurb it would seem that this day is pretty much one giant Hypocritical mess since St. V. didn't really read the Bible since it specifically says in (ironically) Romans 13:1-5 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." or Luke 20:25 "And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's." both of which specifically refer to obedience and maintaining the law rather than going one's own way. To celebrate someone of such a standard is pretty much raising up an unholy holyman. "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'.", and I am saying that your argument is ridiculous because the concept of cultural exclusivity just doesn't work. We could go through every celebrated event in any given country and find some plothole if you look hard enough but that's painfully frivolous since depending on where you are most traditions have such prevalence that they open up to others. Religiously speaking just as Jesus opened up to the Gentiles I would imagine the value of trying to keep the gates of Christmas, and therefore good will and excellent volunteering opportunities, closed would be no different than playing a member of the Sanhedren trying to protect something that simply isn't there and willing to go to any length to do so even if it means condemning yourself. "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.", which just makes zero sense. Christianity has evolved far beyond "Jesus Day" particularly because not all Christians or even Christianity in major portions, acknowledges it as a legitimate holiday. To declare that it's a done and done deal is to ignore the theological politics still surrounding the tradition; in the modern day and modern history it is nothing more than a culturally accepted holiday celebrated in a number of non-theocratic nations with the sheer purpose of spreading good cheer and increasing the GDP. The sacredness of a day can only be preserved with it's strictness; that's like saying "July 4th is whatever even if historically it could have been March 2nd or something" which is exactly what the paradox of Christmas is; some suggest it was almost 3 months prior to the day and that the day was suggested specifically to gather pagans under the cause which in turn makes it not only sacrilegious but hypocritical for Christians as expressed prior. "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.", the winter solstice isn't a deistic event at all. Nor is the summer solstice. It's called Yalda (http://en.wikipedia.org...) and does not celebrate any god. You need to really brush up on how this works since these two events are actually cosmological referring to alignments of planets far more than any alignment to a deity. Much like buddhism there are philosophical and theological versions of Astrology. "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.", at least you're confident, but to summarize in one sentence: Christmas ain't for Christians anymore.