Many people, including Christians, are fully aware of the pagan origins of what we call Christmas, and celebrate as the birth of Christ, complete with manger and snow and then -- trees? decorated in silver and gold? What happened here? Why don't Christians just admit they "stole" the pagan Yule and Winterfests, and added a Christian twist?
Ah, but, look at the date. If Christians stole the pagan feast, then why is it not on the 21st? You know, the actual date also known to our ancestors, of the solstice, and the return of the Sun? The date of all Winterfests in all cultures who appreciated the return of longer days?
The explanation begins by recognising that according to Jewish tradition, the birthday of a child is not its actual birth, but its conception. Therefore, a child of age two in Bible days, would actually, to our current view, be only a little over one year old. Remember where Luke writes, that all children under the age of two were killed in Bethlehem, and they were sucklings, whereas your average two-year-old is not.
So this is where we state the actual date of the birth of Jesus Christ, in overcrowded Bethlehem (where Joseph needed to be to get his birth certificate for the stupid population count by some stupid Roman occupyer) so there was no room at the inn. Certainly not midwinter, and how do we know this, well, the shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks. Ask any shepherd, they are inside in the Winter. Not that Bethlehem is known for snow, but still. Also, no room at the inn means, no room at the inn, as in, not in the stables, either.
Imagine Bethlehem as a town from Westerns. There's a sidewalk/boardwalk in front of the taverns and shops, and there are mangers, for people who are inside and need to park their donkey or horse or camel or oxen or whatever it is they used to get there. So there was no room at the inn -- and Jesus was born on the street, probably a side alley, then placed in a manger. Nice and dry and warm in the straw. The shepherds went to see a baby in a manger, not a baby in a stable. The wise men came later, when Joseph had obtained a house, which would have probably been the next day. Joseph and Mary were not poor people, this is another Christmas myth just like the singing angels. What? Nope, says nowhere that they sang, but it's a nice thought.
Anyway. The exact date of the birth of Jesus can be known, by the known date of the birth of John the Baptist. There is a reason that story is in the gospel, and it gives us the information that Zacharias the father of John, was serving his priestly course, the dates of which can be derived from the Old Testament prescriptions for same.
So we know John is six months older than Jesus, and we know the date John was conceived, and this leads us to a birthday of Jesus on what is 29 September, on our calendar. Which happens to be exactly 40 weeks, the term of pregnancy, away from December 25th. This explains why it was so darn crowded at the Inn at the time; it was a holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles. Everybody was off, except of course flocks and cattle needed tending.
So let's give some credit to ancient Christian church fathers, who are not celebrating Christmas on any pagan day. That they adopted Winterfest and Yule traditions, because they sort of coïncided anyway -- that the dates and information were lost -- well that's just the way it is.
But December 25th is the date of the conception -- the date the word became life. The trees, Santa, candles, whatever -- they are just scenery -- they used to testify of pagan gods, but not anymore.
