I was expecting a funnier book. It was boring, so I left it at the middle.
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Esperaba un libro mas divertido. Me aburrió mucho y lo deje a la mitad. ( )

An interesting review of how many atheists feel about religious celebrations of Christmas. I have lived overseas in Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu societies, and know what it feels like to have all the people around you celebrating something you don't understand and don't agree with.
What is amazing is how these short articles are spaced out. The divisions of the book are: Stories' Science; How To; Philosophy; Arts and finally, Events.
Even more interesting is dividing these articles and their authors into different groups. Some are more anti-Christian than atheist. Some are anti-Christmas celebrations, parties, traditions. Some are non-conformists and anti-peer pressure people. Some are simply argumentative.
However, there is a great deal of circular reasoning from these authors. Many recount experiences in the past with run-ins with difficult pastors, priests, nuns and other authority figures who did not respond well, to what, essentially, is intellectual bullying by the kids, adolescents and adults, which caused a reaction of intellectual bullying in return. Arguing over dogma is never a beneficial experience, especially if you do not agree with the premises of their arguments.

Many of these atheists, and hate the crass commercialization of Christmas, which, of course, is non-Christian. They should be delighted that the Christmas story is being hidden behind rank money-making which they can understand. They are appalled that the Christmas season gets longer and starts earlier each year, which of course means greater profits for companies and capitalists.
Many of these articles are written by people who hate the love, cheer and happiness shown in Christmas movies, songs and party themes. Grouches and sneering people may feel sophisticated and knowledgeable, but this was handled by Charles Dickens many years ago. While atheists have gotten rid of sin, they forget they have gotten rid of virtue as well.

An interesting book, and I recommend it for atheists, who will find here support and reasoning for their many and varied ways of thought and culture.

I also recommend this for cultural outsiders, such as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and others, who are immersed in Christmas cheer for at least six weeks out of the year. One of my Muslim friends, living in London, went outside his apartment, and everything was closed, so he thought there had been an atom bomb strike rather than it being December 25th.

I also recommend this to Christians. It is always good to see another side of Christianity, and to challenge your presumptions and beliefs. I became a better Christian, for example, by having people stop and ask why it is wrong to be a hypocrite. Among Christians, this is a sin. Among others, hypocrite means different things in other religions. Hypocrisy means nothing at all to atheists, who commit neither sin when hypocrites, no win virtue when they are not hypocrites. Thus, they can decorate for Christmas, sing the songs, drink the eggnog and everything else, as a form of camouflage or for custom, without experiencing the joy and happiness of Christmas itself. It is hard for others to understand this, and to be honest, it is harder for atheists to come to grips with the loss or non-existence of virtue as well. The profits from the book go to charity, which is a neat advertising trick, but means nothing. There is no virtue in giving to charity for atheists, as there is no sin for not doing so. It is a conundrum. ( )

Very smoothly written essays on the topic of Christmas and what it means to atheists or more accurately termed agnostics. These are humorous and satirical rather than critical of Christmas as annually celebrated by traditional Christians. Not a new book but still worth reading now. It's hard for a group of contributors to lambaste a god they don't believe exists or doubt can be proven so the essayists all stick to describing their own personal experiences. I like reading about atheism but it was a chapter by Simon Le Bon singer of Duran Duran that interested me enough to read the whole book. I know Andy McCluskey of OMD is an atheist and mostly likely so are John Lydon and Siouxsie Sioux. This book is a lighthearted and irreverent take on a seasonal holiday and therefore entertaining in a way critiques of religion are not. ( )

Ok, I am an atheist who kinda likes some of the aspects of Christmas. This book gave me some reasons to feel fewer qualms about celebrating the holiday - or, it would have, if I'd had any qualms. But mostly it just bored me. I dunno, I'm guessing it would work better for people who are 1. curious about atheists or 2. doing some soul-searching. ( )

As with any collection of essays, the quality is mixed, but the good ones are very good (Derren Brown and Ed Byrne for instance) while the ones I didn't care for I skimmed. ( )