Celebrating Christmas as an Athiest?

A careful reading of the New Testament will tell you that we (Christians) celebrate the birth of Christ at completely the wrong time anyway. It was Pope Julius 1 who came up with the date of December 25th around 350 years after Jesus' birth. It's thought he chose this date quite deliberately, to coincide with the timing of the Winter Solstice.

If you are not a believer, you can still observe some of the fundamentals of Christmas - peace, goodwill, time with family, gifting of presents.

 

Back when a fancypants school where they taught Greek and Latin was the only educational option around (and in even more ancient times when you didn't need a fancypants school, because the form of Greek NT is written in was what you were speaking all your life anyway... ) Χ or Χρ were common abbreviations of Χριστός... So, no sinister conspiracies, clever symbolism or any "newfangleness" here. These (and some other) abbreviations are as old as Christianity itself, and make perfect sense in the original Greek.

 

The X is actually from the Greek word Χριστός, or 'Christos,' which is the base for the English word Christ. Shortening Christmas to Xmas doesn't actually x anything out, it's just shorthand. *shrugs*

In response to the OP: Dude, feel utterly free to celebrate Christmas with your family, your future children. If you want to do so as a religious celebration, my suggestion is find a gay-friendly church. If you want to celebrate it as a secular thing, well, most people do that anyway, so go for it! Make it about family, being together, and don't bother with the Christian aspect of it.