So the other day, a friend asked me a question that boiled down to this: Does Christmas have to be a religious holiday? My immediate response -- as a person of faith who follows Jesus and as an Episcopal priest -- was, âWell, yeah â¦â I mean, what else would it be? And then immediately I thought of all those people who are not believers who celebrate Christmas because society does, and do so without too many worries because, well ... society celebrates it. We have sales. We have singalongs. We have trees. We have presents to give and to receive. We have parties.