No God? Be good for goodness sake

Having spent the holiday at my parents for the annual Christmas meal, I was dismayed to return home and find that throughout December there has been an unceasing attack by religious voices on atheists.
What was the sin? It varied depending on where you lived. 

In some parts of the USA, atheist groups had dared to reach out to like minded people by putting up billboard and other advertisments.  Some were more controvertial than others, some simply said things like “Be good, for goodness sake”. 

In our own country I read of a teacher who wanted to force 6th form students (16/17 years old) to attend a church service, despite affirming that they were non-religious.  We also had the 9 lessons for Godless people, which was apparently even more popular than ever.

Once again the whole thing about atheism at Christmas has been blown out of all proportion.   I don’t celebrate the Christian festival of Christmas, and I couldn’t care less about it. 

What I don’t understand is how people can be so hystical about the fact that someone else does not celebrate their religious festival.  Do Muslims have a fit when atheists don’t celebrate their festival?  Do the Jews get angry when we don’t celebrate theirs?  No, of course they don’t. 
To those who are offended by atheism at Christmas let me remind you that I’m not offended because you choose to celebrate.  As long as you don’t ram it down my throat you’re free to do as you please.

I also understand those non-religious folks who want to get into the spirit of the season, and do a non-religious holiday.  Why not?  Atheism is a rejection of religion and superstition, why not keep the frivolity and fun and leave aside the God and Jesus bit?  After all the celebration of the winter solstice goes back to pre-Christian time.  Perhaps if I wanted to be the devils advocate I could argue that the Christian tradition at this time of year is simply a corruption of the original celebration of the pagan solstice feast.

So, get over yourselves, nobody is out to ruin your fun, or ban you holiday.  You’re just being paranoid and uncharitable and a time of year when people should come together in celebration.