Opinion of incorporating the cross into Christmas celebrations?

[Keystone Phil]

In general, it's in bad taste to inject religion into holiday celebrations.  If you're with your family and friends, it's just awkward to bring up religion.  The point of holidays is to eat and drink and be merry, right?

Do you know why they call it a holiday? 

If there is a cross it should be discrete, nearly subliminal, as a hint of things to come.

Do you actually want to talk about religion with your family or have awkward praying in your house?  That seems like a perfect way to ruin a Christmas party.

Ignoring your painful ignorance for just a second...

This wasn't really about doing overtly religious acts like talking about the intricacies of religion or even praying. My original response to you was because you seemed to suggest there was no religious link to Christmas to begin with so we shouldn't go "mixing" it in because it's best to keep those "awkward" things away. Again, you might just be trolling but your comment seemedgenuinely moronic. 

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...maybe recognizing that the holiday has a religious origin? Spare me the "Winter Solistice celebration" nonsense. December 25th is observed in modern times (and by that I mean the last several hundred years, at least) because it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. If overtly religious actions don't enter your celebrations, that's nice for you but if you can't even acknowledge the religious basis of the day/season, you're generally hopeless.

Who would claim that Christmas isn't a Christian holiday?  Of course it is.  Christmas, as most people celebrate it, is part of the American culture, shaped by the fact that this is a Christian country.  But, the origin isn't the same thing as the practice.  The tradition of Christmas are for the most part secular and celebrating any holiday is always more about spending time with people you love more than any specific tradition. 

Again, I just think it's in bad taste to make a holiday party into a religious meeting and certainly decorating a cross or whatever is strange.

That's your and whoever else's choice to practice it in a totally secular way but your original comment about the holiday being "injected" with religion, as if the religiousness of the celebration was artificial, was what prompted a response.

Yeah, I personally would like to emphasize the celebratory tradition over the mythological tradition. But that's probably why this is all best left to the individual. When I think of Christmas, I think of hearth, home, tearing open presents as a kid, etc. Now it's a time to watch football and drink a lot of wine and see people I don't routinely see. So if it has mythological importance to you, fine, but it does not to me. I think secularists would probably just like for that to be respected.

Christmas songs are not religious?

Santa Baby, Jingle Bell Rock, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, Up on the Rooftop, et. al. hundreds and hundreds routinely played on the radio right now are not, no.

Please. I really don't think secularists are struggling to be respected when an overwhelming majority of the holiday's celebrations are secular these days. And then there's the irony that you're calling for respect of your beliefs while labeling the religious aspect of Christmas as "mythological."

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Christmas songs are not religious?

Santa Baby, Jingle Bell Rock, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, Up on the Rooftop, et. al. hundreds and hundreds routinely played on the radio right now are not, no.

Many of those songs are wintertime songs rather than having any inherent connection to Christmas per se (they wouldn't make sense in the context of a Christmas celebration in Australia or Honduras), and most tend to be generally inane, overplayed and boring.  A few are fun, but if anyone insists that Christmas should be devoid of all transcendent or transformative meaning rather than be spoiled by anything referencing the person or event which is the inspiration for Christmas, then I have to sympathize with those who can only reply "bah humbug."