Last year at this time, I considered myself Pagan.  A nature-loving person, I always held animals and nature in higher regard than humans, and about ten years ago, I kind of fell into the whole Wiccan thing.  But that soon segued into a more general “pagan” worldview, because I eschewed the idea of someone having “made up” the religion I followed.  That included Christianity, of course.  I scoffed at the idea that God may have actually spoken to people, or didn’t want to listen to what the Bible had so say, so I rejected it.

Last summer, I had an epiphany, and soon my investigative logic led me to believe in the truth of Jesus, God, creation, and everything that goes with it.  Disagree with me if you will – that’s not my concern.  My actual point here is the discussion of Christmas, what it means, and how I mean to celebrate it.

Growing up in my non-religious family, Christmas was purely about family and gifts.  There wasn’t any mention of Christ – no church services, no little manger scenes on the mantle, no images of Christ.  Having said that, I understand that Christmas is about religion for a lot of people – it just isn’t, for me.

In years past, I recognized holidays on the “pagan” wheel of the year: Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltaine, Midsummer, Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain.  I didn’t follow these holidays because I actually believed in the circle of life the god supposedly takes (birth, death, rebirth), but because I followed the seasons and how they were represented with each holiday.  But still, something felt empty about these days – there was something missing from my life.

Now that I’ve rediscovered my religious beliefs, I find it amusing that I’m back to celebrating Christmas, considering how commercial it is.  As I mentioned above, I really don’t see anything religious about Christmas whatsoever.  I don’t plan on making Christmas about Jesus’ birth for my daughter.  I figure I have the whole year to do that.  Of course, if you consider charitable acts, giving, and spending time with family and friends to be Christ-like, then so be it.  I’ll accept that.  But it won’t be overtly about religion.  I get that Christmas is about Christ for a lot of people, and I respect that.  On the other hand, Christmas is about Santa for a lot of folks, and I don’t do that, either.  I don’t hold with the whole lying-to-my-child bit.  See my “Why I Don’t Go Along With The Santa Myth” article for more info on that issue.

A previous post I wrote mentioned my tradition of giving my daughter a special Christmas tree ornament or two.  I do hope to give them to her on Yule, so that she can hang them on the tree and enjoy them for a week or so before the tree has to be taken down.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.  Perhaps I’ll even set aside a gift to give to my husband on Yule, so he doesn’t feel left out.  ;)

My husband has a hard time grasping my sudden about-face from paganism to Christianity.  I admit, even I have a hard time accepting it some days.  So I don’t want to make it too difficult or radical for him, not right away.  Really, the only thing that will change is that the gift giving will shift from December 21 (Yule) to December 25th.  I still plan on celebrating Yule (the longest night of the year) with some form of ceremony (keeping the lights on all night, a stay-awake-over, etc) but the emphasis will definitely be placed on Christmas this year.  Or maybe we’ll open half on Yule, and half on Christmas!  All I know is, my husband has Christmas off, and we plan to spend it together, as a family of three, plus our pets.  Perfect!