Instead of saying, "Merry Christmas," Jim Hudlow prefers, "Happy holidays," or "Happy winter solstice."

The big "A" on his holiday sweater is decorated like a Christmas tree, but the message is, "Secular greetings."

And although the "A" stands for atheist, Hudlow said he and other atheists and agnostics still enjoy celebrating the Christmas season without prescribing to the religious aspect.

"I can't celebrate it as a religious holiday because I know that Dec. 25 was made up," Hudlow said Monday.

Hudlow serves as the president and treasurer of the Inland Northwest Freethought Society, a local chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Members held a solstice party on Sunday where they dined, exchanged gag gifts and enjoyed each others' company, much like a traditional Christmas party.

"We will have Christmas trees, we give presents, we enjoy all the wonder the children can see in this even without religion involved. We enjoy Santa and the flying reindeer," Hudlow said. "We don't discourage that fun sort of storytelling, we just don't believe in the religious aspect."

Hudlow said he really looked forward to Christmas when he was a kid, but going to church was not part of his family's tradition. They celebrated the holiday on a strictly secular basis.

Some of his cousins are religious, he said, but that has never been a problem because it just comes down to respecting what others believe.

"I have no issue with that whatsoever," Hudlow said. "I respect their beliefs and traditions. There are things that can happen in religion where people can get hurt, such as faith healing — I am a very vocal antitheist in those regards — but for Christmas I am happy to share whatever my cousins want to do.

"We don't try to take things away from people who believe," he continued. "We just don't want their beliefs."

Hudlow discussed the pagan winter tradition of Saturnalia, which was celebrated around the time Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

"I believe it was in (about) 325 of the common era that rulers then, Romans, said 'Dec. 25, that's what we're going to go with.' Most Christians don't know that," he said. "The Christmas tree is a pagan symbol. They used to bring them into their cabins and decorate them. Many of the things you see that seem to be Christian symbols were taken from a time prior to Christianity."

Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science executive director Dr. R. Elisabeth Cornwell tackled the subject of atheists and Christmas in an article titled, "A Very Atheist Christmas." Cornwell points out the assumption that atheists don't "do Christmas" and how many people are surprised to find how much she, an atheist, loves it.

"While we might make noise when religion attempts to break through the wall of the separation of church and state, we are not in the habit of kicking Santa in the shins, tearing down creches, or, like the Grinch, stealing the Christmas stockings from the mantle," she wrote. "I admit I have known atheists who grow quite surly and Scrooge-like at any suggestion of Christmas merriment. But historically most of that sort of opposition to Christmas and its symbols has come not from atheists at all, but from rival religions. Most of the atheists I know revel in the season as a way of celebrating family and friends, which really is the modern meaning of Christmas."

The article, which can be found at www.richarddawkins.net/2012/12/a-very-atheist-christmas, discusses the long history of using a tree to celebrate the season, dating all the way back to the ancient Egyptians and druids. Cornwell said music and feasts "have been a part of human culture since long before we worshipped a monotheistic god."

"Eating together, breaking bread whilst telling stories about ancestors, about hunting, battles, and travels, were part of everyday life for successful tribes throughout human history," she wrote. "Celebration is not owned by any one culture and especially not by any one religion. It is part of our humanity."