What part of Christmas tradition is not based on Yule?
967237
The 25th of December was also the birthday of the Roman god Mithras () and the Greek hero Dionysus. Mithras was known as the unconquered sun, hence his association with the solstice time. Early Christianity adopted the 25th as Christ's birthday around the 3rd or 4th century BC birthday, as the early scriptures do not record the day of Christ's birth. This is generally accepted to have been a way of amalgamating Christmas with the older festival of the sun, which was still being observed by the Pagan community. It also helped to replace the worship of Mithras, which once rivalled Christianity in popularity\n\nFootnote\nFather Christmas or Santa Claus is based on St Nicholas who is the patron saint of children, canonised after resurrecting three boys after they had been murdered. He was associated with the giving of gifts to the poor and needy, and was widely famed for his generosity. Over the centuries his image became amalgamated with other archetypes to become Father Christmas.
704429
It's funny you asked that.  My girlfriend and I were discussing last night what we and our friends will be doing for Yule this year.\nWe always get together at one or the other's house and do a ritual that is kid as well as non pagan friendly because we usually have family and/or friends in attendance who are not pagans.  And of course we eat... a lot.\nI was just about to do a little research and start working on our ritual.  Thanks for reminding me...
728263
Christmas does not celebrate Christ; it celebrates the pagan Saturnalia. As this question notes, Jesus was not even born in December. Nearly all so-called Christmas customs dishonor Christ.\n\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/19981215/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20001215/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_01.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/19981215/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm\n\n\nBy contrast, it's tragic that the one holiday Christ actually *DID* ask Christians to commemorate is entirely ignored by almost all of Christendom. It is, of course, the Memorial of Christ's death, sometimes called "the Last Supper" or "the Lord's Evening Meal".\n\n(1 Corinthians 11:23-25, NWT) The Lord Jesus in the night in which he was going to be handed over took a loaf... Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” 25 He did likewise respecting the cup.. Keep doing this... in remembrance of me.” \n\n(1 Cor 11:24, 25, NEB) "Do this as a memorial of me.” \n\n\nChrist Jesus himself personally celebrated and explained the significance of that Last Supper to his followers (see Matthew 26:26-29). Christians who commemorate the Last Supper have done so on the same Jewish calendar date as Jesus did, Nisan 14, which generally falls between late March and mid-April. Interestingly, Christians in the centuries immediately after Christ's impalement were sometimes called "Quartodecimans" which literally mean "Fourteen-ers", because the early Christians were well-known for this true holy day.\n\nHow would Jesus feel to learn that the holiday he commanded was widely ignored, while his so-called followers chose to celebrate a pagan false god and their own traditions of men? We don't need to wonder.\n\n(Matthew 15:6-9) You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”\n\nLearn more:\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/lmn/article_08.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/rq/article_11.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20041215/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20011115/article_02.htm\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/20050101a/\nhttp://watchtower.org/e/jt/
710045
i say merry christmas.  we're not religious people, so we celebrate it as a family holiday.  we get together with all of our family members to eat and exchange gifts, and we do santa for the kids.  i can understand the whole pc happy holidays thing, but i don't think people of other belief systems should be offended if someone tells them merry christmas, they're just trying to be nice.
5102
The use of mistletoe during Christmas came whenever Christianity arrived on the Celtic isles. Most Christmas traditions are an absorbtion of older pagan traditions, in this case mistletoe is an absorbtion of the Celtic belief that mistletoe has magical powers, namely that of healing and fertility. It was hung in Celtic homes to bring prosperity and ward off evil.\n\nTo this day Druids in Tenbury Wells, in Worcestershire, central England still preform a blessing before the town's mistletoe goes on sale. Britian's House of Commons is currently backing the creation of an annual national Mistletoe Day, scheduled for Dec. 1.
949806
Of course there is a Santa. He represents the magic that is in the air at Christmas time.That has to explain how all the things seem to get done.
754175
There is nothing wrong at all, with many or most of our holidays being agricultural in nature.  \n\nThat does not mean that Christians can't also celibrate them in they're own ways.  As I believe you said, you celebrate the idea of Santa.  He is fun.  And yet there is no Christian symbolism with him, but that is ok, you also celebrate Christ's birth.\n\nAs far as holiday's also being agriculturally based, that is ok and good, we all have to eat.  And so we enjoy the times that things are planted and harvested, and rejoice in God's creation.\n\nMany of the early festivals in the Bible are based on harvests, plantings, etc.\n\nJesus had wine at the last supper.  An agricultural product.
1092378
Story of Christmas\nA. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.\n\nB. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).\n\nC. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]\n\nD. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.\n\nE. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.\n\nF. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.\n\nG. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]\n\nH. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews
712369
It does bother me somewhat that it's not called the Yule or Solstice anymore, actually.  As it should be.  \n\n"The word Xmas\nThis abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin.  The word for  Christ in Greek is Xristos.  X is also the letter Chi which is the first letter of Christ's name  in the Greek alphabet.  During the 16th century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name, "X" in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word.  Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christ's name, later Christians who did not understand the Greek language mistook "Xmas" as a sign of disrespect.  Unfortunately, some people of today use it as a disrespectful word on purpose.  It is unfortunate."
571151
Traditions are not established by law, they're established by the people who do whatever it is that they traditionally do.  Some traditions -- such as using fireworks to celebrate certain holidays -- may need to be modified to conform with local laws or ordinances, e.g., no explosives allowed in residential areas.
957133
That's not a question. If this is about it being pagan then stop worrying since Halloween is just as much inspired by All Saints Day Eve, a Christian holiday, as it is by Samhein. No that's not coincedence it's the same story as Yule and Christmas, Christianity's attempt to overshadow other religion's holidays. I celebrate both since it's basically multiple religions that try to out do each other until only secularity overcomes both.
105776
There is a Christian holiday called Christmas when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus and then there is an American holiday called Christmas that is about Santa Claus and reindeer and snowmen and getting together with family and friends and having parades. Whether you celebrate the Christian version of Christmas or the American version of Christmas, it is still Christmas to the large majority of Americans.
217856
The only person I celebrate is Jesus at Christmas time, and show honor and respect at Easter. More than once I've had people mad at me for not celebrating pagan holidays. Sorry, don't do idols or false gods.
5198
I don't celebrate Kwanzaa because I really don't know that much about it.  I have noticed that Kwanzaa has gotten more press than Yule.  I celebrate Yule as a Wiccan.  That is part of being in a minority culture.  Whether it be race, nationality or religion, if its not mainstream its hard to get recognized in the media.  I hope someday the media realizes that there is more to the holiday season than Xmas and Hannukah.
707022
i totally agree with you on everything that you said, that is why my family celebrates the real meaning of Christmas which is Christ.  The world has so corrupted this sacred holiday that it no longer carries with it any meaning!!  the devil has done what he always does, taken Christ out and put something else in His place.
26268
The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany  (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th). In some traditions, the first day of Christmas begins on the evening of December 25th but the following day is considered the First Day of Christmas (December 26th).\n\nThe origin of the Twelve Days is complicated, and is related to differences in calendars, church traditions, and ways to observe this holy day in various cultures (see Christmas).  In the Western church, Epiphany is traditionally celebrated as the time the three Wise Men or Magi arrived to present gifts to the young Jesus (Matt. 2:1-12). In some cultures, especially Hispanic and Latin American culture, January 6th is observed as Three Kings Day, or simply the Day of the Kings (Span: la Fiesta de Reyes, el Dia de los Tres Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag).  Even though December 25th is celebrated as Christmas in these cultures, January 6th is often the day for giving gifts. In some places it is traditional to give Christmas gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Since Eastern Orthodox traditions use a different religious calendar, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and observe Epiphany or Theophany on January 19th.\n\nBy the 16th century, some European and Scandinavian cultures had combined the Twelve Days of Christmas with (sometimes pagan) festivals celebrating the changing of the year. These were usually associated with driving away evil spirits for the start of the new year. \n\nThe Twelfth Night is January 5th, the last day of the Christmas Season before Epiphany (January 6th). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening of January 5th is still counted as the Twelfth Night, the beginning of the Twelfth day of Christmas the following day.  Twelfth Night often included feasting along with the removal of Christmas decorations. French and English celebrations of Twelfth Night included a King's Cake, remembering the visit of the Three Magi, and ale or wine (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA).  In some cultures, the King's Cake was part of the celebration of the day of Epiphany.
697488
They don't celebrate the idea behind christmas, they don't celebrate the birth of out Lord and savior. They celebrate a holiday without the meaning of it. They celebrate the gathering of family and friends for a good meal and a great party.