My family and I celebrate a secular christmas-y sort of holiday. That is to say that we gather, we usually have a tree, we share gifts and a big feast. It's a time when we make an extra effort to be all together, even though we live 500 miles apart. Why christmas time for that gathering? Why not? It's all wrapped up with the giddy child-like joy of waiting for the presents to be put under the tree, seeing aunts and uncles and cousins, yummy turkey dinners, and lots of festive decorations.
In my holiday cards I don't use the word christmas, but I'm not offended if someone else does. I'm a little squeamish of the uber-religious cards I get from some of my super-lutheran relatives, but I try not to fuss about it.
Would I be just as happy to call it yule, or solstice, or flibbergast? Sure. I don't care what its called, but its fun, there's a sort of built up energy knowing that most people around me are doing the same thing, and so we do it.
I haven't figured out how to answer the poll because I'm not sure the difference between "yes" and just with family. And do you mean religious (keep the christ in christmas) celebration, or the santa claus type of secular christmas? And maybe my answer is "sort of", because I'll just as happily say happy yule, or whatever. My typical greeting is "I hope you have a great holiday!" or something of that ilk. I guess that boils down to it being a great excuse for a family party. I'm lucky, in that my family really does care about each other, so no faking required.
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