I think that for many people, religious or not, such holidays are celebrated mostly because of the tradition and customs, rather than because of religious reasons.
I might personally find it a bit bizarre that somebody who is very anti-religious would choose to add overtly religious themes to their celebration, but then again it's their own business and they might have their reasons...

Not really, as a Christian myself I don't mind seeing atheist or agnostic families enjoying the holiday as well. Also, it would be pretty insensitive, exceedingly rude, and quite difficult to leave millions of people out of an event. :/

Depends on what you mean by 'anti-religion' and why that person is that way (and the holiday). I'm against organized religions - being told when I need to worship and what I need to believe. That could be considered anti-religion. But I still celebrate Christmas and Easter. Mostly because it's a time to gather with my family.

But if a person was against religion in general, not just certain aspects of it, and celebrated Lent (I can't think of a way to practice Lent without the religious aspect) Ash Wednesday, or went to church on Christmas then I'd consider them contradictory.

Several people who aren't religious have family and friends who are. I'm not Jewish or Muslim, but I have spun dreidels at Hanukkah dinners and broken fasts at Iftars with my Jewish and Muslim friends.

As for Christmas, several "anti-religious" people celebrate it in its original Pagan traditions of Yule. link, genius and proud atheist, is a good example of an "anti-religious" person who celebrates Christmas or Yule in this way.

But most non-religious people celebrate holidays for the sake of family, friends, community and culture. In fact, that's why I had the opportunity to go to so many Iftars in Cairo, because it was part of the Egyptian culture. Similarly, some Christian traditions, even if we aren't a Christian nation, are still a large part of American culture and history.

I don't see a point to it. I don't celebrate holidays that have nothing to do with where I come from, such as St. Patrick's Day. Why should I when I don't even know where it derived from and I'm not even Irish?

I'm agnostic and i love carolling, eating christmas dinner, decorating christmas trees and----Oh i can't wait for christmas now! :( XD

(To self- 10 months to go ;) )

I just think people should celebrate the holidays how they want.
In the town where I live we have an Easter market on Eastermonday and all the bars open early on that day. It is tradition here to first go to the market and then go to a bar and have a good time... preferably early, like nine/ten in the morning. It has nothing to do with Easter, but it is fun, so who cares?

And to be honest, for a lot of people the holidays are just extra free days on which they have time to spend with family and friends.

So you would say that celebrating Easter Monday in the Netherlands is as much, if not more, a cultural/typically Dutch tradition as it is a religious one?

Which goes along with what I said, earlier - Our religious traditions have melded with our cultural ones. It doesn't make the religious reasons any less significant for those who are religious, but it does mean that non-religious people can and do celebrate these things as well.

Yes indeed ^^

There is no rule AGAINST this. I know people who are Anti-religious and CELEBRATE both Christmas and Easter. Even though they don't really understand the true meaning of BOTH holidays, it shouldn't stop them from celebrating it. :)

By somebody anti-religious, I mostly meant somebody who isn't just ambivalent towards religion, but dismisses and belittles it as well. You may answer the question however you understand it, though :)

no....everything is secular today. Even my old priest; and he never used to be.

What's wrong is when people try to make such holidays politically correct. Making people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" is just insulting, and this is coming from a non-religious person.

And those holidays in question, Christmas and Easter, were around long before Christianity came along. Obviously my Christmas as an athiest is different from a devout Catholic's Christmas. But I see nothing religious about putting up a pine tree in winter and buying some bunny-shaped chocolate in spring. Not everything has to be about Christianity

Of course it's fine! Why would we hog a holiday all to ourselves?

For me it's family time, food time, candy time, and all around celebration and happy time, it has nothing to do with religion, really.

It's just about the time you spend with people that really matters.