It’s nearing that time of year—the time when you can’t walk into a single store without being bombarded by glittering decorations and snappy holiday tunes. With houses lit up on every street and Santas ringing bells out front of every store, it’s fairly obvious that Christmas is the dominant celebration in America this time of year.

And we eat it up. We love the gift-giving and the tree-decorating and even the thrill of holiday shopping. So much so, that we often forget there are people who celebrate differently or not at all.

Meriem Memady, international business senior, is Muslim and therefore does not celebrate Christmas. Memady said though Jesus is a prophet in her religion, the only birth celebrated is that of Muhammad in June.

Memady said there are three major celebrations in the Islam religion, one of those being Ramadan.

“We fast for a month, and on that last day, we celebrate. That’s where we’ll give gifts and have fun you know, just like Christmas,” Memady said.

This year’s Ramadan was from the end of June through the end of July.

“It’s like it’s freaking 95 degrees, and you’re eating ice cream and I’m looking at you while you’re eating it, but I get benefit from that,” she said.

There are limitations to the fast, Memady said.People who are ill or women who are pregnant, for example, are not allowed to participate right away.

“You’re supposed to pay those days back,” she said. You have eleven months left to pay the days off, so you can like fast in July or fast one day in August until you pay those off.”

Though Memady does not celebrate Christmas in faith, she said she quite enjoys the decorations, and has even exchanged gifts among friends.

“The only thing I hate about Christmas are the Christmas songs,” Memady said.

Cody Oxley, business management and marketing senior, is an atheist who celebrates Christmas every year. Atheists, by definition, do not believe in a god of any sort.

“I don’t really see it as celebrating the birth of Jesus. To me, it’s not anything special. It’s more just a time of getting the family together,” Oxley said.

However, Oxley said he was raised Roman Catholic.

“We went to church every Sunday. I’ve been baptized. I didn’t make my first communion, partly because the priest called our house and said he expected a higher donation each year,” Oxley said.

He said the transition from Roman Catholic to atheist happened over a gradual period of time.

“It just kind of grew on me that I didn’t believe it, and that I was just doing what everyone else was doing,” he said.

But as far as celebrating Christmas, Oxley said it’s been a family tradition his entire life. Oxley said if he were to start a family of his own, he would likely still bring the Christmas celebrations into his household.

“But I wouldn’t so much base it around the birth of Jesus. I would say that this is the time when everyone gets closer together and becomes a family.”

Darby Logan, undecided freshman, said as a Christian, celebrates Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Logan, however, said she also values the family time that Christmas brings.

“A big thing that we do is have a family dinner on Christmas. And a lot of times we’ll have a game night,” Logan said.

Logan said she enjoys the holidays because it allows time for her family to see one another, which can sometimes prove to be difficult.

“My family is always really busy with like sports and other activities. So I like being able to spend that time together,” Logan said.

While her family does exchange gifts, Logan said they try not to make that the focus of their celebration.

“I think a lot of times people get wrapped up in the idea of gifts and stuff rather than the idea of the holiday itself. I think it should be more about being with your family instead of trying to get each other presents,” she said.

So while the bright lights and jolly music are a nice touch to your shopping experience, it barely scrapes the surface on what the holidays mean to each person—if anything at all. And while we are all too quick to shout “Merry Christmas!” to everyone we see for the sake of the holiday spirit, it does some good to remember that there are so many varied practices out there.