"You're an atheist? Oh, you must be lonely and miserable during the holidays."

"No, not at all. I celebrate too."

"What? What do you celebrate?"

You know how it goes. People who have never gotten far enough outside Christianity to look back in and realize that Santa Claus isn't Jesus and eggnog wouldn't have kept well in Israel just can't wrap their heads around the idea of secular holidays. They can't quite figure out how we manage to make festive without the bible, even though theirs doesn't make an appearance when everyone is sitting around the Christmas tree.

So we're going to help them out. The only catch is that to do that, we're going to need some help.

On Sunday, December 23, at 9 a.m. Central time, we're going to do a special holiday edition of Atheists Talk. It's going to be all about what we do, as atheists, as everyone else is celebrating Christmas or Ramadan or Yule or making a big deal out of Hannukah for the sake of the children or going out for Chinese food and a movie.

In order to do that, we need to hear from people about what they do. More specifically, we need to hear from you.

What do you do over these dark days? Do you keep the old traditions minus the churchy bits? Do you still go to church for some reason? Does Santa visit? Do you do a big family meal? Do the people you spend the holidays with know you're atheist? Do you decorate? If you do, what kinds of symbols do you include? What new traditions have you carved for yourself? What movies define this time of year for you? How do you really feel about Christmas music? What's the most unholy holiday you've ever had?

Everybody does this time of year differently. We want to know what you do.

On that Sunday, you can call us in the studio at 952-946-6205 or you can send us your story ahead of time. Drop a comment here or email it to radio@mnatheists.org.

We sometimes call this the season of lights. Let's shed a little this year, shall we?

Image: "Ornamental Snow" by James Jordan. Some rights reserved.