What are your plans this Christmas :3

[Stonmann]

You don't have to be specific of course!! I'm just curious what the good people of Melonland are up to this festive season I personally just got back today from Mauritius with my family. We're picking up my sister at the airport in from the Netherlands and driving to my grandparents beach house for Christmas. Afterwards we're off to a different holiday town for New Year.

Let me know what ur up to this Christmas if ur comfortable!

Christmas is very special to me. It's not just about the gifts in my opinion. This is horribly cliche but it's good time to spend with your family! Enjoy it!! Don't let the Christmas spirit be sucked out of you like lots of people do with age.

[Misanthropic Monster™]

 I am actually excited about xmas this year - normally it's a depressing and grey time of year for me, but despite losing my job this month (was made redundant) I am in good spirits. I plan to spend xmas day with my two very good friends (they invited me over for xmas dinner) and we're gonna just chill all day, then I will come back home to my three lovely cats and watch Krampus :)

[JINSBEK]

I love Christmas non-religiously, but I don’t have anyone to spend it with. My family was never close, and my fiancée is working those days (and on another continent, haha). We’re going to watch the 1966 How the Grinch Stole Christmas together over stream since she’s never seen it before. The remainder of Christmas, I’ll probably spend journalling, and maybe even painting. If the snow is settled enough I’ll go outside and try to make a small snowman, haha.

[PurpleHello98]

Tonight I'll be visiting my dad's family! There's been an engagement so hopefully that will be interesting enough for everyone to not ask me when I'm going to bring a girl home... Yeah, the only girl I'll be bringing home is myself. 

Then tomorrow I'll be visiting my mum's family! I'm a lot closer with them--I'm really not close at all with my dad's family--and I just hope my little cousins will take the "peace on Earth and mercy mild" thing to heart at least for a bit, because if not I'll probably have to sleep all day on the 26th. I love my cousins, but they're so energetic they can be very tiring to be around! 

[Eunice]

Same as I do every year. With husband and our daughter, at home. Usually we go for a walk on the beach in the morning, if it's not too cold and wet. Presents and a big breakfast before that. We have turkey etc, with a nut roast for daughter, around 3pm. Watch Doctor Who and whatever else looks good. Wallace & Gromit probably. Husband is agnostic, daughter is atheist, and I'm a Pagan, so it's not really a religious time for us.

[Commodorn]

I'm hoping to just relax at home and appreciate being too far away (and busy getting settled into a new state) to go to the usual family gathering at my aunt and uncle's. Most of the things that really made it worth it are gone now, so the last few times were just.. distressing, you know. Those gatherings are usually a bit chaotic.

I just watched Die Hard with my mother since it's Christmas Eve. I've got a few more Christmas movies on DVD and VHS (Muppet Christmas Carol, Nightmare Before Christmas), so I might watch another with my cat if I can't sleep tonight. Or just roam around in Mario64, Idanno.

AFTER Christmas... my family and I are going to a town we haven't been to yet to go to the theater and then explore for a little bit. I'll be seeing the Nosferatu movie that's coming out, hopefully :O)

[Stonmann]

I'm a Pagan

Pagan? That's interesting. What exactly does that mean? I didn't really think that was a thing anymore.

[JINSBEK]

Pagan? That's interesting. What exactly does that mean? I didn't really think that was a thing anymore.

I can’t speak for Eunice, but “pagan” these days tends to be a catch-all term for polytheistic, often natural process-centred (e.g. lunar cycles, seasonal rhythms, etc.) religions that aren’t practiced by a people whose original traditions have been nearly obliterated by the proselytisation of Christianity or Islam (Jews don’t proselytise as it’s considered abhorrent to force one’s beliefs and responsibilities onto others, and also a little silly to forcibly adopt someone into a tribe). E.g., you won’t find Native Americans or Shintouists who describe their living indigenous belief systems as “pagan”.

There are Reconstructionist pagan movements that are of extremely high scholarly content and seriousness, such as the Reconstructionist Mesopotamians. A focus on rigorous Reconstructionism is more common where the archaeological record allows for it, e.g. the extensive clay tablet writings of the Mesopotamians; this is unfortunately not possible with pre-literate traditions such as with Celtic religion. Pagans are not necessarily limited to one pantheon, the “exclusivity” of religion chiefly being an Abrahamic eccentricity; e.g. Hellenistic pagans not infrequently include Egyptian/Kemetic gods in their practice (this was how religious practice amongst peoples functioned in many pre-Christian societies), and many other modern pagans often “experiment” with devotions and relations to different gods and traditions before “settling” on a practice/various practices that are resonant and meaningful to them. For some this might not even include focused pantheon worship; a generalised animist reverence is not odd for the pagan who finds themself lucky to be surrounded by nature.

The “organisation” of a given pagan group may vary. Some pagans practice in isolation, often due to the lack of nearby laity. Others, like the Ásatrú Fellowship of Iceland, a Norse pagan group, have a formal legal entity and are currently constructing a modern temple in Reykjavík. The Internet has made it possible for pagans to practice together live over Zoom or Discord. Not all pagans have, or even see the need for a formal organisation in order to practice or maintain their practices (though almost all welcome some kind of informal community).

It’s probably most helpful to conceptualise any kind of “paganism” as a folk religion unbothered by modern Abrahamic prescriptions on divinity. There is often a pride in reclaiming something that had been repressed, or lost, and in finding wisdom, artistic, and spiritual value in something that our forebears upheld and understood, alongside genuine appreciation for the deity/deities one decides to honour, and how “the mundane” (e.g. the natural world and natural processes) is really not so “trifling”, insignificant, or something to be scoffed at and disregarded at all. The world is here and now and all connected and living and it is good to be alive, spirituality is not something abstracted away to merely “sins” and “Heaven” and “right belief systems”/correct exegesis or what have you, and it is refreshing to have a meaningful tie to the earthly world and its processes, rather than disdain it as inconsequential to human existence or moral and spiritual conduct.

Although all pagans are different, even amongst the same tradition, I would say that one commonality they all share is that they’re happy to have found and chosen a values system that is meaningful to them and that they desire to commit to, after doing a good deal of research. (Like you said, many people don’t know “it’s a thing anymore.” You really have to put in some work to decide on who you are and what you’re going to do.)