How to Decorate Your Tree Like a Good Atheist

To the shock and horror of his 1st grade class, my child made the following Christmas angle which we always put up on our Christmas tree!

I don’t actually know if it caused any drama in class but my wife and I like to think it did.  🙂

This picture is from our tree this year set up in our living room.

So why shouldn’t atheists
celebrate Christmas? I put up a Christmas tree and lights because those
are pagan symbols, and I’ve even added a lighted star in the window in
recent years because I like how the Jews, unlike the Greeks and the Romans, weren’t afraid of heavenly portends, thanks to their Babylonian
captivity. I would have gone to a performance of the Messiah if I
hadn’t had to go a funeral, I sometimes attend church on Christmas eve,
because Christmas feels more like Christmas when I’ve heard “And it came
to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus…” etc. A vestige of childhood indoctrination, I know, but
there it is. We don’t always do presents, but we have an all-day dessert
buffet. I identify as an atheist nonetheless. I know some people argue that atheists shouldn’t celebrate Christmas, but I don’t think we should just leave Christmas to the christians as though they’ve bought the franchise or something.  Most of the things we now consider “traditional” at Christmas have little or nothing to do with Christianity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8Y1-VLjGQ&feature=share

You’ll find many of us LOVE Christmas.

This year we just have lights (LED, mind you) on the tree and a fairly traded beaded wire gecko from Kenya on top.

What about getting a Festivous Pole? Simple, and you don’t have to worry about any decorations.

Beavis and Butthead are ringing in xmas at my house: http://picplz.com/user/bgporter/pic/b4jjk/

Or is it Mr Henky the Xmas Poo?

That is the best collection of ornaments to have… when we got married, we bought pretty red and silver ball ornaments for the tree and put on the 3 we got for wedding gifts.  Over the years, we’ve managed to omit almost all of the ball ornaments as we’ve collected ornaments from our travels, made homemade oraments, Lego ornaments the kid made, and pop culture ornaments (Star Trek, Star Wars, Powerpuff Girls, Pokemon, etc.).  For me, that’s the only way to decorate the tree… with our life, not some superstition.  And we have a gaudy light-up star on the top… no other way to go.

Exactly right.  C’mon H, give it a rest. If Santa is part of your family’s Christmas tradition, nothing wrong with continuing that because it is the family tradition.  Our family Christmas tree is topped with “the drunken angel.”  A very old angel tree top ornament that my mother threw away [or tried to] about forty years ago when I was away. Came home and raised hell. Dug it out of the trash, sent it to a craft shoppe for refurbishing.  She’s been tilting a bit to starboard for the last two decades  [hence our Drunken Angel], glitter gone from the sagging wings, but Christmas in our non-believing household without our Drunken Angel at her tree top post is unthinkable.  

That’s beautiful… very festive and not overdone.  We decided this year to formally do Solstice or rather, Quiznox, instead of Christmas.  Last year, we did unwrapped gifts handed to each other… it felt more loving and personal than unwrapping or saying something is from Santa (which I don’t have a problem with but the kid is older now and we don’t need to do that anymore to see the excitement on his face).  So I think we’ll head to Whole Foods and grab one of their little rosemary trees, put it on the mantel with bows and a small strand of lights, our gel candles from Alaska on each side, and we’ll celebrate Quiznox in style.

i haven’t had a yule tree in my home for over a decade

I have a white tree decorated with all candy cane and peppermint ornaments. The topper is a giant peppermint on a stick.

We have a lovely yeti, made from Tibetan wool that we grace our tree with, when we put one up.  We also use ornaments of animals, plants and planets.  We have fun looking for ornaments over the years that match our rather limited selection.

Another good choice would be the Doctor from the TV series Doctor Who?
At least he seems to be a demigod at least but is really an extraterrestrial.

We got this snowman star at Target about 10 years ago.

That is a very good point.

*doesn’t look like the star of david

Exactly! Why does it even have to be figurative? Here’s what my tree looks like: http://72.81.128.84:31416/cgi-bin/photos/phdisp?imageid=20101127-200040

I like this tree. . . 

I decorated my tree like a Christmas tree.  Are atheists not allowed to have stars and Santas and so on?  The tree is a pagan symbol anyway, but even if it weren’t I don’t accept that we can’t revel in the metaphorical meaning of Christmas and the Advent themes of hope, joy, love and peace.  My children, who are both outspoken atheists, are traditionalists when it comes to Christmas.  I don’t believe in a god but I also am not going to live my life as a reaction to others’ belief in supernatural beings.

Picture please!

I haven’t yet thought of an FSM topper! I will conspire–er–plan to make one for next year. So far, I still have a crocheted angel my mom made, along with all the icicles and snowflakes she made over the years. After her death 4 years ago, I’ve put the angel on top for sentimental reasons, though that may change. I do at least put Hot Wheels and toy airplanes on the tree like a good boy of 30 years.

Love that the Power-Up Star made this list. It’s what will be gracing the top of our tree this year, though that’s more a statement of geekhood than of our atheism. Our tree also features a leg lamp ornament and lots of penguins. What? I like penguins.

I’ve had a simple silver sparkly star for the last five years or so but it wasn’t until the last two that I started crashing my Star Wars X-wing fighter into it. And now, that’s where it’ll always go. 

Two words: Dead babies.

I have a steampunk Christmas tree this year. It’s awesome.

a miniature bottle of Jim Beam

My mother pioneered the areligious Christmas in my family, and I’ve mostly followed her lead, I guess. Growing up, we always had a star on the top of the tree; I guess my mom viewed it as nonspecific enough to pass muster. She wouldn’t allow an angel. My daughter brought home a great little sparkly star made of tongue-depressors in kindergarten, so that’s at the top of our tree now. Who doesn’t like stars? We do have a fair number of angel ornaments—I don’t buy ornaments, so the ones we have are either gifts, homemade, or crafts the kids made at school. Angels are my husband’s favourite mythological creatures (I’m a dragon person, myself), so they don’t really bother me. Although dragons on the tree would be very cool.

This past summer, we found some Ganesh statuettes in the creek, so one of those is tucked in the tree, too. I’m thinking it would be fun to collect ornaments/symbols from a bunch of different religions that celebrate the things “Christmas” mean to us—family, generosity, sharing, love.

Despite my mom’s anti-angel stance, she did have a nativity scene (I assume it was a present from her parents or someone else she didn’t want to overtly piss off). I remember playing with the little figurines—mom, dad, baby, guys in dresses, guys with sheep—and asking who they were. She would dutifully tell me a bunch of names, but “Baby Jesus” wasn’t a character I was familiar with, so I never really got it.

I’m currently a continent away from my tree so pictures will have to wait. 

Just put the cat up there, it’s going to get up there anyway.

Best tree I ever saw:  I walked into a Chinese restaurant that had just opened, and they had a tree that was decorated with little wooden German style Easter ornaments.  My heart leapt with joy, for I knew the owners were so culturally unaware that they had not yet  ruined their dishes to meet American tastes.

We have an FSM topper (hand knit by me!), and are working on a Pirate Creche.  We shop in the grocery store for those mini Baby Bels and edams,  and they go under the tree (or in the creche when done) — our own Little Baby Cheeses.

Our tree is decorated “normal”, with the star and everything.  The nativity story, as preposterous as it is, doesn’t really contain any objectionable elements.  I suppose if one wanted, one could read a negative message about marital fidelity and honesty, but since in the time period it would have been just as likely that a hypothetical historical Mary was raped and needed to conceal it lest she be punished herself, we’ll give her a pass on that one.

So for us it’s a fantasy, no worse than Santa.

I did Google for “FSM tree topper” a couple weeks ago though 🙂  A little pricey for me!  I like Aggie smith says they made their own.  Cool!

My wife made this last year.

I put up a little tree with fiber-optic lights on the branches and top.  Any ornament, topper or not, would become a Cat Toy in the middle of the night.  But for years, before we were acquired by such unruly cats, we used a lighted star.  Growing up, my mother always insisted on an angel as a tree topper, and I hated it; it exuded cuteness and I’ve always hated cute. (Except in kittens and puppies.)

Mine looks like any regular christmas tree I suppose, with spheres, lights and on top a *huge* bow… just like a giant present, because getting together with the family and exchanging gifts is what christmas is about, no?