"Bah Humbug" no more

Sophomore Hailey Lin is a devout Christian – she goes to church twice a week, and she has been reading the Bible since the age of six.

However, Lin is one of many Blazers who doesn't celebrate the traditional winter holidays – Christmas, Kwanzaa and Chanukah. Some Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, Seventh Day Adventists, Muslims, Mennonites, Quakers and atheists also don't commemorate the holidays because they either don't belong to the celebrating religion, or they have differing beliefs.

Different beliefs

As a non-denominational Christian, Lin follows a specific belief that adheres to everything the Bible says. She, as well as the members of her church, believes that Christianity has changed from its true meaning over the years, so she seeks a "recovery of truth." In other words, Christmas is one of the holidays that she believes has been taken out of the Bible's context. "They mention Jesus' birth, but nowhere do the disciples or apostles ever celebrate it," she says.

On the other hand, sophomore Colin Forhan doesn't celebrate any winter holidays for a different reason: he's atheist. Without a specific religion to follow, he doesn't celebrate the religious holidays – or holidays in general. "I don't truly like the idea of celebrating any holidays because, as far as I'm concerned, they're just ordinary days," he says.

Forhan doesn't even believe in a New Year's Day. "Who's to say when one year begins and another ends?" he questions, citing that time zones cause discrepancies about when a new year begins. Moreover, he says, different religions follow different calendars and have different new years; all dates are relative.

Some people, such as senior Mariam Khan, celebrate their own holidays. Khan is Muslim and observes a month of fasting called Ramadan. Ramadan occurs during the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, which is about 11 days short of the Gregorian calendar. Every couple decades, Ramadan falls during the other winter holidays.

Joining peers

Khan, despite not believing in Saint Nicholas, participates in Secret Santa. "[I don't participate] necessarily for holiday spirit but for social reasons," she says, adding that she takes part in the activity to have fun with friends.

Unlike Khan, Lin doesn't actively participate in Christmas activities, but she still remains receptive to the holiday cheer. "I'm not going to go out and yell at people to stop celebrating Christmas," she says with a grimace. "That would be like suicide."

At first, Forhan felt excluded from the holiday festivities and cheer that his friends were enjoying. While many friends wanted him to join in on parties and activities, he excluded himself. Later, he finally decided to partake in Secret Santa to please his friends and share their happiness. "I try to be happy for them because they're able to find joy in a certain point in time," he says.