FEELINGFREE - your feelings are only natural - you've exited from a group which dictates how you're expected to behave, and come into "normal" society which does the same!
From very young childhood onwards, pressure is applied in most cultures to conform and follow the crowd - to do otherwise makes a person stand out as "different", and nobody wants to be different - especially kids!
Christmas is almost certainly the world's #1 religious festival which makes people feel compelled to participate in - in one way or another, because not to do so may make the person a target for ridicule by their peers.
Atheists and many non-Christians happily share in this festival - but not for any reasons connected with the alleged birthdate of Jesus Christ. For the vast majority, it is simply a time to make more money, spend more money, and to party. Others say that it's a good time for families to get together. Many businesses need Christmas to survive. If it didn't exist, they'd create it!
To be even-handed and show that it's not just the WTBTS who pull the wool over their adherent's eyes, here are a few scriptures to demonstrate how Christendom's religions "alter" the Bible's account for their own benefit:
Matthew chapter 2 (New Living Translation)
1 "Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men [royal astrologers/Magi] from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem..."
2 "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him."
(Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but "God" led these detestable men (Deut. 18:10) by means of a "star" to a different city - Jerusalem - to an evil king who wanted to kill Jesus His son? The wise men should have used a sat-nav instead)
3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
(All Jerusalem was troubled - because these men were detestable to God!)
7 "Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared."
(Why did Herod call for a "private" meeting with these astrologers? Because the Jews would have rioted at their king's consulting such detestable men)
9 "After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was."
11 "They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him."
(Finally, the "star" heads to Bethlehem, but the Magi don't see a baby in a manger - they see a young child in a house!)
12 "When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod."
(So God led them to Herod, but now changed His mind about giving him Jesus' location?)
16 "Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance."
(Herod knew that Jesus must have been born during the previous 12-24 months)
Maybe Westerners will take up Ramadan & Yom Kippur.
