Christmas is Catholic not pagan.
The disinformation that the birth of Christ or Christmas was, or was substituted for a pagan festival is incorrect. Christmas is the celebration of our Lord Christ’s birth, it always has been. Cultures all around the world have celebrations at certain times of the year, start of the year, start of spring, summer, autumn or end of the growing season and the end of the year. These are not necessarily religious occasions, so it is easy for people to get confused or be misled and the confusion is understandable.
The two pagan festivals which are used to attack Christmas are Saturnalia, the feast dedicated to the Roman ‘god’ Saturn which was actually celebrated on the 17th of December and was later increased to last a whole week, ending on the 23rd of December. The festival has had several different dates and lengths as well as meanings. We know that many early Catholic figures, discussed the interaction between this festival and the feast of our Lords birth, as did notable pagans. Each side were advising their own not to part take in the other and the pagans were usually demanding that the Catholics should be stopped from having the right to celebrate or even the choice of worship at all. Note, they were not complaining about the Catholics co-opting their festival but about them having a festival so close to theirs. Saturnalia is basically an end of harvest festival, that was first Hellenised, then Romanised and then partially re-Hellenised. Cultural end of year festivals are mainly, happy advents with gift giving and parties, but religiously Saturnalia and Advent are not the same thing. Any similarities in the celebration of these advents are coincidental, as culturally most festivals and holiday’s all around the world at all ages share many human aspects to them.
Sol Invictus is the second roman festival that is confused with Advent. Sol Invictus in the roman version was established centuries after our Lord’s birth and crucifixion, by the Roman Emperor Aurelian, to combat early Catholics from celebrating their Faith. He also wanted to start a new religion (not to the exclusion of other roman gods) based around ideas that he thought made a good roman.
Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord Christ, it would not matter even if it did fall on another religious date or even co-opted/shared another festivals cultural trimmings. The main reason individuals or groups etc use this disinformation is to attack and cheapen our celebration of Christ and thus de-Christ Christmas, is to attempt to drive Christ from the public sphere. It is also intended to make Christ look like he could be a myth like the pagan ‘gods’. No one is denying pagan festivals existed or their cultural impact on the world, Catholics simply state that we have always celebrated our Lord Christs birth on the 25th. We admit that in some details, trimmings, Christmas has been partially culturalized, even from an early date, this does not change what we believe religiously. Christmas is a Catholic holy time and should be treated as one.
I thought I would do a small side piece on the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree is inspired from the story of Saint Boniface cutting down a tree. The idea came from central Europe in the medieval times, the evergreen style of trees were used for their ease of upkeep, prettiness and accessibility and their three part branches symbolising the Holy Trinity. The other staples were added over time, like lights, ornaments, angel etc. The Christmas tree is not a true Catholic or any other denominational symbol of Christ, it is a cultural idea that has become so popular it has been accommodated by all. There is nothing wrong with having a pretty tree in your living room at Advent/Christmas. However, do not put any importance on it, the tree has been used in recent times to again de-Christ Christmas. Sadly the desire to be popular has led the Catholic church to put some significance to the tree. Some say that the Christmas tree is pagan, this is not true. Tree, animal and nature worship is common but for a whole host of different reasons. The Christmas tree is not pagan but cultural.