Your Opinion: Christmas rooted in paganism?

Dear Editor:

Around 30 years ago I had a doubting of faith. Not in Christianity, but on church teachings. I started to look around for other sources of religious information. I came across a TV church whose teachings seemed to match Scripture, especially the Old Testament. One thing that horrified me and shook me to my soul was their assertion that Christmas shouldn't be celebrated by Christians because it had its basis in Paganism. I was mortified and guilt-ridden for several years, especially at Christmas. I eventually started to research on my own and found much of what the church had been saying was false. Even today mainstream media still puts forth some of these falsehoods as fact. In reality most links to Paganism are guess work based on vague references in stories or accounts that scholars still debate today. As time goes on, I find these so-called links to Paganism come in trends. Someone will bring up one pagan tradition or another, then when it is either ignored or someone proves it false, it goes back into hiding for another year or two. Two years ago it was Saturnalia, then Sol Invictus and this year it is Yule.

The base traditions, especially decorations, come from about 1,000 years ago and mostly from Northern Europe. In the middle of winter it was dark, cold and there really wasn't much to choose from for decorations. It wasn't like you go to the corner department store, the only things even remotely decorative came from nature like moss, evergreens, apples, nuts and holly plants. So it is not a surprise that many different religions, cultures and even versions of Paganism used the same decorations, it is all they had. Other traditions claim to be linked to the Pagan version of Yule but when one researches Yule one finds that scholars guess what Yule originally was, but for centuries after it has meant Christmas. Even so, everyone at that time used wood fire for heat, candles for light, and Germans lived off pork. To claim that these were only used by Pagans in their holiday celebrations would be to say that only Christians use electric lights and furnaces. So for those who are going through what I did years ago, take solace in the fact that history isn't so defined and enjoy Christmas as a Christian and be merry.