How to Be an Atheist, Agnostic, or a Non-Christian on Christmas?

Even in the advanced democratic and less subjective to the religious right, society of the 21^st century, the influence of Christianity in the western world is still a dominant force. Of all the influences that Christianity has upon the people, nothing is slightly comparable to what Christmas is. Ironically it is not the spiritual meaning of a forged fake holyday that would be a religious experience to the followers of Christian dogma but the commercialization of it that has such a strong effect on the people. If I tell a child why Christmas shouldn't be celebrated he would not worry about my claims as a blasphemy or insult to the Nativity but that if his parents did not celebrate Christmas he will not get the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or the Nintendo Wii he's been waiting for.

Atheist/agnostic or non-Christian parents have it the worst, because if they want to raise their kids objectively while remaining detached from the nuances of religious influence, there seems to be no right option. If they abide to social influence and give presents to their kids during the Christmas epoch then they will be subjecting themselves to the control of Christianity, if on the other hand they prefer to remain idealistic and explain why they can't hand out presents to their children during this epoch, their kids will grow to resent atheism as an oppressive regime rather than the intellectual scientific approach it should stand for.

For non-Christian adults it is very easy to deal with Christmas, we consciously ignore this epoch is happening and we have no trouble with avoiding gift exchange of all kinds. We know we live in a dominant Christian society and a capitalistic one that exploits the winter season until it becomes an extravaganza of consumerism, so the way that we fight it is not by trying to change society, but ignoring and refraining from contributing to it.

Back to the children, how should atheist/agnostic parents deal with their kids? Well, as skeptics and scientists that we are let us understand the origins of Christmas. During the fall of Rome when Christians took over the former pagan empire, they tried to get rid of many of the pagan holydays by Christianizing them, including what is known now as Eastern and of course Christmas. Originally the festivities that the Romans celebrated dealt with the winter solstice, December 22, their festivities were to the god Saturn which usually lasted a week (Dec. 17 to Dec. 23) and consisted of banquets and gift-exchanges. So one alternative that atheist/agnostic parents have to deal with their kids greed is to give them gifts on December 22 commemorating the winter solstice as an astronomic event, hence substituting Christmas. Also to substitute the Catholic's Three Wise Men day (January 6) they can give gifts on New Year symbolizing the change of one year. So if we forge a fake family custom, it doesn't really matter because Christmas is not a real holyday anyhow. Even the Christians know and accept that Christmas is a symbolical festivity to the birth of their Messiah but they know that Jesus couldn't have been born in winter in Bethlehem because of the excessive cold. So there is no reason why we can't make our own fake holyday and celebrate winter, after all it was never a real Christian holyday, so it does not belong to them. In fact about all cultures celebrate some sort of festivity during the winter to commemorate the New Year.