The Holidays are Fast Approaching!

It's September already. Talk of Thanksgiving and xmas is already starting to fill the air. I'm sure by now the aisles of every Walmart in this country are being switched over to the xmas junk. I've seen xmas stuff out as early as August in previous years. So it's just a matter of time.

I've been a full on, black belt atheist for about 8 years now. Every year I hate the holidays a bit more. But until just recently I've kept my godlessness to myself.

When my sister in law insisted last year that people say merry christmas instead of happy holidays, I just rolled my eyes and kept saying what I was comfortable with, even though it made her mad that I was not keeping christ in christmas.

When we sat around at xmas eve dinner and my aunt's mother spouted off that this is a christian country, founded on christian principles, I asked my husband not to verbally rip her to shreds, even though she's a school teacher and we were mortified that a teacher could be such a misinformed idiot.

But I'm in the process of coming out of the religion closet. And the holidays have been a sore spot for years. I find them personally offensive, disgustingly commercial and patently ridiculous.

I don't want to celebrate them anymore. I don't want to even pretend just to make the jesus freaks happy, like i have in the past. I'm boycotting the holidays. Not just xmas either, because if you're going to do it, you might as well wipe the slate clean. So if it's religious in nature, I'm not having anything to do with it.

I have no idea how to make this work. Helpful suggestions are welcomed. For instance, my husband's sisters plan to stay here for xmas. Yes, the same sister in law that likes Hitler. (I'm still like, WTF over that). The same sisters that take 4 hours to get ready to go anywhere every single day.

Anyway, their parents will stay elsewhere, but are expecting to come to my house for xmas dinner. They did it last year and it was torture. I can't stand it again. They actually prayed and everything.

So if you have any ideas about how to get out of this gracefully, please help!

The other parts, well, they won't be easy either. Like gift exchange. Sure it's nice, but it's got to go. Vapid commercialism is disgusting.

So, when I get invited to my Aunt and Uncle's for xmas eve dinner, how do I handle that too?

I have some ideas. Like, we'll go to xmas eve dinner, not exchange gifts, and enjoy family and friends and good food. And that's that. But xmas dinner at my house, no. I have to get out of that. That just can't happen here. Not gonna happen. I'll go ballistic if it does. I'm tired of being bullied by christians by this stuff.

Opinions, suggestions and ideas are most welcome! :)