Let me fill in some personal background as quickly as possible:  When it comes to faith, you could define me pretty close to agnostic. My wife of 25+ years is a lapsed Catholic. There's no real conflict here, but our respective cultural backgrounds give us a different attitude towards religion in general.   Christmas is a secular affair for us; when the kids lived with us, it was all Santa and presents.  Since we joined the empty nest club, Christmas is an excuse to goof off and relax for me, actually I smirkingly pretend to celebrate Christmas while inwardly considering it "Yule," since Western society has seen fit to rip off the Pagan holiday and rebrand it as Jesus's birthday with the serial numbers filed off.  For Mrs. Penguin, it's pretty much the same, but she adds in the ritual of staying up til midnight to watch the Vatican's Midnight Mass. I watch along with her, but for me, it's something to marvel and gawk at.  Occasionally I'll look up from my eggnog and laptop gaming session to…