Do Muslims Really Hate Christmas?

Every year, without a fail, there's some content online that triggers the comments that Muslims hate Christmas, want to cancel it, and "you can't even say 'Merry Christmas' anymore because someone will get offended".

Can I let you in on a secret?

Of course, I can't speak for all the Muslims here, but... We really don't hate Christmas and don't want it cancelled.

Here's what it looks like from my perspective as a Muslim convert:

I grew up in a Catholic family, so obviously celebrated Christmas every year until I converted to Islam. While I avoided going home for Christmas over the years, mainly to avoid potential awkward confrontations due to my family mostly not knowing about my choice, I naturally missed the festivities - it was always a family celebration, making food together, big gathering on Christmas Eve, tree and gifts, the full shebang. I did miss out on going home for Christmas before that, but that first one after converting did hit hard.

It hit hard because I felt like I could never celebrate with my family like I used to, because apart from my parents and sister I never really told anyone about converting to Islam. Over the years they all eventually figured it out, but it did take 11 years for anyone to even bring it up in a conversation ;) But it felt easier to avoid it altogether, especially at first.

Saying that, it's not like I completely cut everything Christmas from my life. I don't travel to celebrate with my family, but we still get on a call when everyone gets together and wish each other well. Before Brexit complicated things, I used to send my parents a small parcel with gifts, because they'd send us a large box of stuff for the kids. 

When it comes to kids, we don't shelter them from Christmas either. They both go to regular mainstream schools, with children of various faiths. Christmas is a significant part of school life - they took part in the Nativity plays in Early Years, then in other Christmas celebrations later on. They were involved in decorating the classroom tree, decorating cards, and they used to get excited when one of the teachers would dress up as Santa and give out books in Reception. That's all because we believe in balance and the importance of learning about different cultures, religions and traditions, especially as they have all the family on my side being Christian. We believe that it's our job as Muslim parents to teach our children that at home we don't celebrate Christmas, but we live in a place where it's a big part of the culture so we embrace the non-religious aspect of it.

While we don't celebrate Christmas as such, we do enjoy the festive season. Everything is closed on Christmas Day and we don't really have anywhere to be, so we use that opportunity to have a big fancy dinner, enjoy all the festive treats that are only in shops at this time of the year, and even enjoy some Christmas movies and TV, because why not. It's kind of a slow family day for us, just without the decorations or gifts. 

I know some people think that not having a tree and gifts means that our kids miss out, but they don't realise that we can make up for it at Eid - and this is exactly what my kids are taught. Sure, they both expressed at some point that they wished we had Christmas decorations like they see everywhere around them - it's all pretty, sparkling, and I also sometimes wish we were decorating for Christmas with all the cute stuff I could buy. But they understand that as Muslims we don't celebrate now, and they get two Eids instead - we make up for no Christmas by decorating the house for Ramadan, then something extra for Eid ul-Fitr, including gifts, and then of course a few months later there's also Eid al-Adha to celebrate.

To sum this up - I know that there are some people who are stricter and will stay away from absolutely everything Christmas-related, but here we believe in healthy balance and understanding that we live in a place where Christmas is a massive part of the culture. We might not celebrate Christmas in our house, but won't get offended if someone wishes us "Merry Christmas" in a shop. And we certainly wouldn't want it cancelled - come on, it's literally the best time of the year for fancy food, not to mention that it's also a great time for getting good deals on gifts we can put away for Eid ;)