Well this is kind of subjective, isn't it? You may have an argument for why it's not, but I can't think what it would be.

I celebrate Christmas because I believe Christ was the Son of God become man (and yes, I know He almost surely wasn't born then, but that hardly matters). You don't, so there is less to counteract your disgust at the noisesome commercial disaster it has become, so I am hardly surprised you don't like it. (Also associated to Christmas, of course, for me as for many, are a large number of closely connected, dear memories).

I like Thanksgiving for similar reasons (subject and season). New Year's is not bad, though not great, and July 4 depends on my mood.

Subjective? Sure. I was just trying to extract people's opinions on the holidays. I liked Christmas as a kid, and I think most holidays are for kids. If I had a child myself I'd probably enjoy it a lot more. New Years usually depresses me as it reminds of how much I haven't accomplished, it's sort of become like a birthday at this point.

It's good to see the in-laws on thanksgiving..to a point. I'd rather not have to spend four days doing so. C'est la vie. West Virginians can become a little grating when it comes to their football team.

Define worthwhile? I'm a pretty resolute atheist, as is my father, and most of my family is reasonably irreligious or only moderately religious, but I still celebrate the basic Christian holidays in a fairly secular way, like Christmas and Easter, and also even Thanksgiving (even though I realize it is historically very problematic). I realize that there's a level of hypocrisy there, but really, it's a good way to keep up a good relationship with my family, friends and other loved ones, who I wouldn't have occasion to see very often otherwise, (I live in a different city than most of my family but travel to visit them for all the big holidays). I call that worthwhile, I'm aware there are other ways to maintain relationships, but this one works for me.

I quite like Obiwannukah...

November 1 - January 18 is basically a giant 2.5-month holiday for me. Or, at least, it sure feels like it. Finally gets cold here, semester wraps up, football gets good, winter break shows up, you've got Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and then my birthday slides in there right before spring semester starts back up.

May 8/May 9 has the potential to be the only major timezone correct holiday. Of course since people cheer for their own club, Aussies will celebrate it on 8th and Putin on 9th. Understandable but wasted potential :)

Nah that's not hypocritical Mafia. I understand the moral pause about these things, but if that's when people are granted time off, then that's when you get time off. And traditions take on lives of their own for everybody. People should spend time with their families. I celebrate that idea. It's just that, well, it almost becomes a time more filled with guilt than anything else, as you're spending time with some side of your family and not others, and the obligatory days to visit family all happen to fall during the time when travel is absolutely horrendous weather-wise, at least for me.

Oh yes lol, sorry, I forgot Easter. Obviously a big one for me as well (but not _that_ obviously, since I forgot it).
And sorry for the misinterpretation then Putin.
At least I imagine WVa is beautiful in November (though I wouldn't know for sure).

Oh yeah, I see what you mean about that. I'm lucky enough in two ways, all my family live in one of two cities only 4-5 hours apart by train (less than an hour if I can afford to travel by air). So that's not a big deal. And I don't have in-laws, so there's none of that drama either. (Not that there's always in law drama, most people I know have very close, and actually quite touching relationships with their in laws.)

It's a nice drive. I've had the impression for a while that Easter was more a Catholic holiday, with Thanksgiving being the Protestant counterpart. Just because of Lent & Ash Wednesday and all of that.

It's true that I don't celebrate the associated holidays, except to a small extent Good Friday, and view them as fairly Catholic (or at least high-church). Easter itself, though, is a fairly big deal. I imagine that it may be a somewhat bigger deal in one sense for Catholics, coming as it does at the end of a whole week of other days (almost a small Easter season, as it were), instead of being just a three-day holiday.

I'm super close with my in-laws. There's no drama. I see them a lot. I lived with my wife's parents for a bit, while she was away at school. My brother-in-law is effectively my best friend. Just 4 days of nothing but WV, WV, WV talk by a couple dozen Mountaineer crazed people can wear on anybody ;).

Catholics certainly do make a bigger rigamarole of it, but isn't easter supposed to be the single most important holiday in Christendom, what with the death and resurrection being the actual way to salvation through Christ and all that?
Also Thanksgiving is ostensibly a secular holiday, which is why it takes place at totally different times depending on what country you live in; Canadian Thanksgiving is in early October.

That's good to hear about your in laws, and I see what you mean, though I don't actually know much about West Virginia or anything so that bit is lost on me.

Thanksgiving is the only time I'm forced to (pretend to) "pray" before dinner because Evangelical relatives host it. I don't know. The original decree by Washington seemed pretty religious to me. I mean who is this thanks being given to?

All the holidays are secularized though, which doesn't bother me. Just saying that certain groups tend to emphasize one over the other.

The sky, naturally.

Never read Washington's decree. Not relevant to my thanksgiving holiday. Also I'm skeptical about it's secular nature, which is why I said "ostensibly".

Then again, according to Wikipedia (which will do for our purposes)
"On Thursday, January 31, 1957, the Canadian Parliament proclaimed:
“A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.” "
So perhaps not so much secular as just "non-denominational" which is what passed for secular back in the 1950's.

The idea of you of all people having Evangelical relatives is slightly amusing to me. Happy Thanksgiving = S.

Same to you.

Oh I don't know how I survived as an atheist considering my batshit relatives. I got lucky in that my immediate family grew disillusioned with their respective faiths. Ditto my communist wife's :)

Christmas is the most important holiday by far in terms of child development and the teaching of life skills.

Consider Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus, St Nick etc). In early years children believe he exists as much as they believe in rainy Mondays, school, and boring trips to the supermarket. Then comes the realisation at some stage that it's all a pack of lies, and not only do adults tell lies (despite claiming that lies are bad), but even those closest to you will lie to you.

Then comes the really important bit. It occurs to the child that, despite Father Christmas being a complete load of tosh, for the sake of getting presents they'd better pretend that this tosh is in fact as real as they always used to think it was. The child quickly learns not only that they get lied to, but that telling lies themselves is vital for the promotion of their self interest and the general happyness of the household.

In short, Christmas teaches the art of Diplomacy.

November to mid Jan? Is that all you get Eden? Terrible, I get mid November to end of Feb/start of March.

I get mid-December to mid-January. But once November rolls around everything starts to feel like a giant holiday.

I like Valentine's Day and the certainty it brings. I don't know if the kids will find all the eggs on Easter. I don't know how many trick or treaters we'll have on Halloween. I don't know which Christmas my kids will figure it out. But I know with certainty that I will get laid on Valentine's Day. It's held true every year since I graduated high school. It's a more accurate predictor than my birthday, Father's Day, or any other celebration.

How odd.

lol THM.

I like Thanksgiving more than any other holiday.. The food and the family make a good time had by all. Valentine's Day, 4th of July, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas are all too commercialized. And I get yelled at by my liberal friends for thinking Columbus Day should be a holiday. So that pretty much leaves Thanksgiving. A second might be St. Patties day and Memorial Day......I like parades.

don't forget FUHTBAWL

I like thanksgiving and the fourth, Jewish holidays I've always liked Sukkot.

Thanksgiving is awesome. I'm definitely looking forward to eating too much turkey that I will be sick of it until next year.

I have a large family that I'm very close with. My cousins were some of my closest friends growing up. Now, however, we live all across the country and some don't even live in the US. The Holidays are a nice way to get together and see each other again.

Christmas is the biggest one for us (although not many of us are religious), followed by Thanksgiving, then 4th of July. Those of us who still live near each other usually get together for Easter.

Some of my cousins are very young and now my older cousins are getting married and having kids, so children are still very much involved in the events. But, even if we had no more kids, I'm sure we'd still be getting together to see each other.

My friends and I have started our own Holiday, PreThanksGiving, which we just celebrated for the 4th year this weekend. It started with my roommates and I wanting to learn how to cook a turkey and has now turned into a full mini Thanksgiving.