Romans celebrated “the birthday of the unconquered sun” the night the Sun starts to make a come back from its southern retreat. It’s a celebration of light, and how resolute life is despite the harshness and death of winter. This is why evergreens were used as decorations in Germanic-pagan celebrations – trees that make it through the winter unscathed – which have been adopted by Christians in their celebration of the nativity. Bright lights and stars are also common partly because of this tradition.

It’s from the Scandinavian pagan winter celebrations where we get the name “Yule” which is also a term adopted by modern Christmas celebrations.

Santa Claus himself is a multi-cultural amalgamation with parallel sources and no easily traceable origin. While there are connections to the Christian Saint Nicholas – he is also believed to be derived from the Germanic god, Odin. He was related to the holiday Yule and was believed to lead a great hunting party through the sky. In some cultures, it was believed he rode and eight legged horse. You can see how those may have evolved into the sleigh and 8 reindeer we see today. We can also thank Coca-Cola for most modern-American representations of Santa.

Then there are of course the debates about whether or not early Christians adopted the pagan holiday and whether or not it was used as a tool of conversion. I wont bother going into it too much because it’ll open another can of worms and I’m really uninterested. What is certain is that for the first few hundred years after Jesus’ life – there are no recordings of celebrations of his birth. Nor are there any firm dates of his birthday in the Bible. Contemporary Jewish traditions – which were in all likeliness shared by early Christians – dictated that births were not celebrated, because this was seen as pagan and somewhat deifying the person being celebrated, which is (was?) sinful. Most of the earliest writings about his birth – which can easily be Googled or found in Wikipedia – are by people actively choosing to celebrate it around the winter solstice for varying symbolic purposes.

In the end, I don’t personally believe the origins are what matter. What has passed has passed – but that’s just my opinion. What matters is how it is celebrated today. Christmas is widely celebrated by non-Christians (including myself) and currently has modern, secular and pre-christian themes.

(An alien viewing our planet may see it as a celebration of the successes of capitalism and trade – because of the excessive consumption and how widely celebrated the day is.)

I know Jews who celebrate Christmas. I celebrate it and – while I couldn’t easily label my world view – it is non-Christian and I also celebrate it with my family and friends. There are a number of Muslim refugees in my community and many of the younger ones now celebrate it with their friends. And just because it is called “Christmas” does not mean it is wholly owned by Christians. Language is Open and owned by everyone and no one. At the very least semantics are debatable. (side note: I find a similar parallel with the word “American” and how US citizens treat it compared to other inhabitants of north and south America, but anyways…)

You said Christmas is “ultimately” the celebration of Jesus’ birth. For many people it is – and as I said before that’s fine. But when trying to build a peaceful world, it’s important to highlight similarities between people to foster empathy and recognize strangers as human beings. Which I’d like to add is a very Christian thing to do. I would say the season’s celebrations are “ultimately” the common denominators or rather what people mutually celebrate across most cultures this time of year: peace, joy, generosity, family, community, life and of course candy. ;-D

* I would like to apologize for the length of this post.

The documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” is worth watching, as a much different take on Christmas and civil disobedience.

The religious slant of what Reverend Billy does spoils it all for me, but I still appreciate some of the messaging and tactics. Some people obviously are a lot more receptive what Billy and his entourage do.