It was barely a Christian holiday to begin with.

For starters, the "historic" Jesus was supposedly born around June, not December. The progenitor of the Christmas tree is thought to be part of several ancient candinavian and !olish !agan festivals centered around the winter solstice. "dditionally, the tradition of burning a log on Christmas derives from another !agan holiday, #ule. $issing under the mistletoe is actually a %orse !agan tradition to honor the god &aldr. 'omans hung holly during aturnalia (honoring the god aturn) and it was also the progenitor of the gift*giving tradition used during Christmas. The 'omans are also responsible for the wreath*hanging tradition, a custom shared by the ancient +ree,s. The reason Christmas was celebrated in winter was because -!ope Julius I. wanted to compete with aturnalia while using many of their traditions to try and persuade infidels to the side of Christianity. This wor,ed so well that they did the same much later by assimilating the aforementioned %orthern /uropean !agan traditions. %ow, to say that Christmas is less Christian because of anta seems a bit erroneous too as he was an actually documented, 0 th century, +ree, bishop1 -%i,olaos of 2yra.. &ecause -The Feast of t. %icolas. is on December 3 th, the celebration became part of modern Christmas tradition (as well as December 43th5s -Feast of t. tephen.). Though much of the mythology surrounding him (li,e much of Judeo*Christian mythology as a whole) grew and changed over the years by ma,ing additions, alterations and omissions to - anta5s Canon., if you will. Due, though, to the fact that he was Christian and upheld much of the -Christian ideal., to say his inclusion in the celebration is to ma,e Christmas -barely a christian holiday anymore. asserts that either there is something -non*Christian. about him, that the celebration had much to do with Christ in the first place and6or that this hasn5t already been happening already for centuries. It seems a bit ridiculous, does5t it7 %ow, due to its cultural ubi8uity, Christmas is in transition to becoming more of a secular holiday, celebrated practically world wide and much of it5s religious denotation able to be striped from it by those who don5t wish to participate in those aspects but still en9oyable as a religious holiday. It should also be noted that the mistletoe tradition may %:T be %orse, but could be attributed to a first century Celtic druid fertility ritual. "lso, the date of Christmas 2"# have derived from a 2ithraic festival, #ald;, (2ithra being a religion dating bac, to <=0>> &C/) celebrating the rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice that5s date was changed by the 'omans in 0 th century "D to be on December 4?th. The similarities between 2ithra and Christianity already being 8uite shoc,ing.