The whole point of the holiday season is to bring a hard year to a nice end. Giving and receiving presents reflects a good side of humanity; generosity. There can be many arguments for and against Christmas but the history is also controversial. There were traditions that pre-dated the Christians that still hold sway today.

Pagan traditions of the Yule log, decorating trees, kissing under the mistletoe,tree decorating and gift giving, all have lasted. Even thought the early church banned the tree and it only caught on in the 19th Century.
The debate as to when Jesus was born ignores the fact that maybe the Christians were trying to tolerate or adapt there faith to pre-exisiting faiths.
Romans had traditions of giving gifts near "Christmas" December 17th to be exact and a celebration of Saturnalia the Roman good of plenty. December the 25th follows suit as the solstice feast of Mithras, god of light.

The issue of the history of Christmas will always be clouded in the mysteries of faith.

Even Santa Claus could be said to be an adaption of the Germanic speaking tradtion of St Nikolaus on December 6th. In some places it is still celebrated hand in hand with
present giving on th 24th/25th.
Although the history and traditions may be stolen, we should not miss that point that it is a time to give. So lets not take away too much from the Xmas history and give in a little to the fact that history is not always so black and white, in this case hopefully white.

Learn more about this author, Stewart Tunnicliff.
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