Christianity didn't come into the scene until much later after the traditional winter holiday seasons were already established by many in the regions. The newly found religion was persecuted by the Romans as a threat to their god worship systems and the Jews as a threat to the remaining members who still did not believe they had a savior. The Jews were waiting for a savior of a more political nature to defend them against the Romans. When Jesus failed to do such a thing, he was discounted as a madman to a lesser prophet.
The Christians of early times had to be secretive about their beliefs as it could mean a certain death. At this time they were the oppressed minority. Then in 315, Emperor Constantine converted to the religion and declared it the official religion of the Roman Empire. The power by the Catholic Church was actively felt throughout the Empire, but they were still under the Emperor. However, the fall of the Western part of the Empire in 476 was eventually replaced by a religious system at first unofficially then officially by the Catholic Church. Whatever they said went.
Before the Catholic Church made all decisions for the people of the region, many who were not Christians were allowed to continue on with their pagan lifestyles - pagan being anyone who was not a Christian. Once the Christians were labeled with all kinds of false and negative stereotypes such as cannibals, lewd, participating in death orgies and such to discredit them, now it was the Christians doing the same to the pagans to promote the need to convert these unsaved pagans. Of course, most of what was said about the pagans were as true as what was said about the Christians.
The Church had a hard time in enforcing the more somber faith on those who looked forward to and enjoyed the seasonal festivals, including the winter solstice. While adopting many of the Christian ways to fit into the new way of life, it was hard to give up the old ways. Sometimes the holidays were celebrated in secret and in other areas it was out in the open.
The Church realized it must do something to keep its members from straying from the faith while avoiding the meanings associated with the pagan roots. They reasoned it was better to re-associate the symbols of the pagan origin and contribute them to Jesus to get the pagans to forget their evil ways and think in more enlightened ways of Christ.
This is very much the same thing that happened within the African-American communities when Kwanzaa was started. Civil Rights was a new beginning and there was a need to have something African-Americans could identify with and to unity as a people. It was loosely based on various African festivals and combined to have a meaning for Americans of African heritage - nothing more, nothing less, but still an important holiday for those who find strength and comfort in its celebration.
To keep the peace, the winter Solstice then became the Christ Mass - now commonly called Christmas. Bits and pieces of the pagan cultures were incorporated to fit the Christian standards by assigning them a different meaning. The church leaders had to pick a reason for the celebration other than the pagan reason, so they chose the birth of Jesus as the reason, even though there was never a recorded date of His birth and by all accounts could not have been born in winter. Symbols and decorations evolved from pagan meanings to Christian meanings. It all was put together over a few hundred years before there was a real general notion of a "Christmas holiday" which was very much pagan in nature.
When you really look at the big picture, Christians are celebrating a pagan holiday, but they changed the meaning of the theme to distance themselves from the pagans. A holiday means whatever you want it to mean. If you really wanted to be different, dress up in a costume and hunt for eggs while shooting firecrackers and call it Christmas - this is a day like any other and whatever meaning you wish to apply to it makes it as special or as evil as you want.
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