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People often ask me as a skeptic if celebrate the Christmas and I say

"sure" Well, not because of the baby Jesus but then again most

Christmas traditions have nothing to do with the baby Jesus. Take the

Christmas tree for example. Centuries before the Christ child wassupposedly born, many cultures brought evergreen trees into their home

for decoration in the month of December to celebrate the arrival of the

Winter Solstice and do ask their various pagan gods ... harvest the

following season. The practice continued in various forms throughout the

ages. The ancient Egyptians honored their sun god Ra with palm leaves

and evergreens trees.

The early Romans decorated their homes and temples with evergreen

boughs as part of pagan festival called Saturnalia: the festival of Saturn,

the god of agriculture.

The Vikings of Scandinavia believed that evergreens were the special

plant of their god, Baldur and they were burned Yule logs in feast until

the last amber burned out. The actual Christian tradition of Christmas

tree began as late as the 16th century in Germany and Christmas trees

were still seen as pagan symbols throughout the US until the 1840's. The

Winter Solstice, not the baby Jesus, most likely account for the selection of

the December 25th as the Christmas day. Late December was when the day

started to become noticeably longer and the Sun seized its movement tothe south. So the Winter Solstice was celebrated for the birth of the Sun. It

just wasn't the Sun most religious people have in mind. And you might be

surprised that America didn't even declared Christmas day as a national

holiday until June 26th, 1870.

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The exchanging of gifts? Pagan in origin. Standing back to the festival of

Saturnalia and originally banned for that reason by the Catholic Church in

the middle ages.

Christmas carols? They traced back to the middle ages as well. Not as

religious songs but as common folk songs sung during harvest festivals

and they were only later integrated into worship by religious figures like

Martin Luther. Mistletoe was a happy Christmas tradition but few realised

that mistletoe was once considered as mysterious magical plant by the

Druids and Greeks, a Pagan symbol of life and fertility . In Scandinavia

mistletoe was considered "the plant of peace" under which enemies could

declare a truce and arguing spouses could kiss and make up.

Many decried the use of word "Xmas" to mark the holiday often

clamouring that we should put Christ back in the Christmas. Well,

actually Xmas is Christmas. The "X" comes from the first letter of the

Greek word for Christ and those who declaring Xmas a war on Christ are

appereantly confused. Of course confusion would be understandable, if

you follow the Biblical acount of the Christ child. For example, the book

of Luke has Mary and Joseph living in Galilee. But Matthew has them

living in Bethlehem, in Judea. Matthew: Chapter 1 says angel appeared to

Joseph but Luke: Chapter 1 says the angel appeared before Mary.

And what about the three kings we hear so often about? In the book of

Matthew they were magi, astronomers, not kings! There is no mention of

there anywhere. And the entire account contradicts to one in the book of

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Luke which has been Jesus visited by local shepherds, not astronomers!

And miraculous virgin birth? Not so much. Matthew apparently misread

the original translation from Hebrew to Greek. The Hebrew word"almah" doesn't mean virgin, it translates "young woman of

marriageable age" or "young maiden."

What about the lineage of Jesus? The book of Matthew has 28

generations between David and the birth of Christ. But Luke lists 41

generations. According to both Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born on or

before 4 BCE during the reign of Herod the Great. But Luke said that

Joseph and pregnant Mary had to go to Bethlehem for a census by

Quirinius. That census took place in 6 AD, years later and after the death

of Herod. And even if there was a census it would taken place in their

local tax district requiring no travel and Roman tradition was to register

only the men meaning that Mary wouldn't have had to make the journey

at all.

Matthew says the Jesus' birth took place in a house but the book of Luke

says Jesus' birth took place in a manger because there was no room in the

inn. After Jesus was born Matthew says the family immediately fled to

Egypt for several years to escape of Herod's wrath. But the book of Luke

has them returning immediately Nazareth. And by the way no ancienthistorian or geographer, no other source other than the Bible confirm

that the city of Nazareth even existed in the 1st century AD. In fact, the

expression Jesus of Nazareth is most likely a bad translation which means

the one of the truth and city of Nazareth was likely named much later by

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the faithful or the opportunistic. The list goes on and on.

Ultimately, many of the traditions of Christ's supposed birthday have

absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ and instead came from other earlier Pagan traditions. And even if there had been a Jesus Christ as

much as hate to break into you unlike the depiction on yearly Christmas

card, because he was born in the Middle East, Jesus Christ was most

certainly not white!

Still, I'm a fan of Christmas. I enjoy family, friends, Christmas light

displays, the Christmas trees, stockings, gifts, the classic Christmas songs,

hot chocolate and pumpkin pie. But like many other skeptics I also

celebrate the season knowing that those plastic Nativity "Jesus"es are

actually more real than the Jesus they represent and his millions of

Christians erect pagan symbols and practice pagan traditions while

defending Christian saviour story , it is a chance for the rest of us, to simply

smile warmly, offer them a cup of hot cider and wish them a "Merry,

Merry Xmas!"