Christmas
Christmas has its origins in pagan Rome. There was the so-called festival of the winter solstice, where the recovered po-wer of the Son was celebrated. Also known as Saturnalia, this festival was dedicated to the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn. In the early days of the Roman Empire, the birth of the sun god "Mithras" and the deity "Saturn" was celebrated on December 25th. In the late Roman era, the 24th/25th December was celebrated as the day of the birth of the Roman god of the sun, Sol Invictus, whose name means "unconquered sun". When the Christianization of paga-nism began, the risen Jesus Christ became the Sol Invictus. Various images show Jesus with a sun disk over his head, as can al-ready be found on images of Egyptian dei-ties. Later this became the so-called "halo".
The ceremonies usual for the Saturnalia consisted of sacrifices and big feasts at the temple of Saturn until late at night. The drinking spree of Christmas has its exact counterpart in the feast of the drunken-ness of Babylon, which in the Bible is sym-bolic of everything contrary to God. Like today, candles were lit on the eve of Christmas. The Christmas goose was part of the worship of the Babylonian Messiah. Similar rites were practiced in both Egypt and Rome.
The Christmas tree was also spread in both Egypt and Rome. In Egypt it was a palm tree, in Rome the fir. The palm tree symbolized the pagan messiah under the name "Baal-Tamar" while the fir tree symbolized him under the name "Baal-Berith". In almost all pagan cultures, trees were worshiped as a symbol of fertility. The fir tree was consi-dered a "magic tree" because, unlike other tree species, it thrives all year round. In some cultures it was decorated with fruits symbolizing new life, in others with 12 can-dles in honor of the sun deity. Often the tree was also ritually sung. This practice is widespread in today's Western society....
Santa Claus goes back to a medieval figure called Sinterklaas. The name Sinterklaas is the Dutch name for a folk figure based on the historical Nicholas of Myra. He is the protagonist of a children's festival cele-brated on December 5th in the Nether-lands, December 6th in Belgium and in many former Dutch colonies. He wears a bishop's attire consisting of a red smoking cloak and a bishop's staff.
Parallels to this can be found among the Germanic tribes, who worshipped a godness named Odin. Odin, whose name means "the inspired one," was considered the god of wisdom, magic, and occult knowledge, as well as the god of death. He is depicted in pictures as a tall, old man with a long white beard and holding a spear or staff. According to pagan tradition, he traveled around the world on a white horse that had eight legs. Odin is the model of today's Santa Claus. In 1930, the Coca Cola company started trying to get people to buy their drinks in winter too. To do this, they took their corporate colors and leaned on the tale of Sinter-klaas, giving him the look of Odin and replacing Odin's eight-legged horse with eight reindeer.
A closer look reveals that Santa Claus is attributed with various qualities that only God possesses. According to this, Santa Claus would exist forever; that is, he would have neither a beginning nor an end. Fur-thermore, he would be omniscient and could do supernatural things that hu-mans are unable to do. He would also bring good gifts to the people and at the same time punish the disobedient.
This makes belief in Santa Claus akin to modern idolatry, especially when people offer him thanks and appreciation and sing songs to him instead of to God. The same applies to all other imaginary or mythological figures that people in the world worship instead of their Creator. This is sin in God's eyes and draws people's attention away from God. After all, God alone is in truth the one who gives us life and all good gifts. That's why it is He to whom we owe thanks and who will ulti-mately judge us for our deeds in life.
The name "Nicolaus" (English: "Old Nick") is in German a well-known old name for Sa-tan, the devil. The phrase "Ho, Ho, Ho!" typi-cal of Santa Claus is associated with a fi-gure called "Robin", which in turn is a medieval nickname for the devil. His dis-tinguishing feature were those three words that are supposed to express a kind of malicious or devilish laughter.
The belief that Santa Claus would enter a house through the chimney comes from an old Norse legend, according to which the Norse goddess "Hertha" appeared by the fireplace. Druidic householders then brought gifts of milk and pastries to ap-pease the goddess so that she would bring good luck to the house.
The custom of celebrating Christmas was declared a "Christian festival" by Pope Ju-lius (reigned 336-352 AD) under the desig-nation "Christmas Eve" as the day of Christ's birth or Sol Invictus, although According to the Bible, Jesus was not born on De-cember 25th, but in the spring at the time of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. Further-more, neither the Bible nor Jesus commands us humans to celebrate the day of his birth. At the heart of the Christian faith are the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Bap-tism and the Lord's Supper are meant to remind us of Christ's work for the redemp-tion of mankind.
Due to its increasing spread in the empire, Christianity became the state religion in the fourth century AD under Emperor Constantine (reigned 306-337 AD), who himself was a worshiper of the Roman sun god. While the pagans continued to cling to their superstitions and their centuries-old traditions, Christians opened up to the pagan customs and rites very early on. In order to maintain religious and social peace in the empire, a new religion emerged under the influence of Constantine, which represents a mixture of Christian faith and pagan superstition - Catholicism. In this way pagan symbols and customs were "Christianized".
The use of the term "Christmas" can only be dated back to the 12th century. Songs like "Every year the Christ Child comes again" are still sung in the traditional churches. Jesus, the Son of God, is degraded to the "Christ Child", who brings presents to people every year. The Advent (Latin: "adventare" = to arrive) prepares for the arrival of the Christ Child.
The Bible, on the other hand, makes it clear that Jesus appeared as the savior of the world in order to atone for the sins of mankind through his death on the cross, so that everyone who believes in him and converts to God will be saved, that is, en-titled to receive eternal life and be pre-served from God's judgment. This is the real gift for mankind. Associated with this is the call to every human being to turn away from their sins and to be reconciled with God. At his second coming, Jesus will con-demn all who have resisted God's will to the last, and redeem all who have fol-lowed him and lived godly.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Americana
Catholic Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia of Religion