I really don’t understand why Pagans and Christians have to spend a season that is supposed to focus on internal examination, celebration of the return of the light, and the coming of the Solar God (whether it’s Sol Invictus, Mithras, or the symbolically-Solar Jesus Christ) arguing about which is valid, where the traditions originated, and whether Christmas is a stolen holiday and even Christian at all.

What does it matter to you?

Okay, I can kind of understand the Christian side of things, given that Christianity is founded on the concept that it is the only valid religion and, in order to prove its validity, must invalidate all other paths. Whatever. It doesn’t matter what we say or do, they will continue to attempt to invalidate us. I personally couldn’t care less whether the customs were adapted from various Pagan traditions across cultures. It should be expected from a religion that is designed to convert.

But what does it matter if Christians took the date of Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, Yule, or whatever other Solstice holiday that happens to share mythic similarities to the birth of Christ? What impact does it have on our celebrations? Why can we not take a look at Christianity with the same eyes that we examine ancient Pagan religions with and see the mythic and archetypal similarities in Christian and Jewish teachings that we can see between Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mayan, and Celtic myth? Or is it just that we’ve got too close ties to Christianity and that, since most Pagans leave Christianity because of some perceived trauma, we feel the need to declare this relatively young religion invalid? Does it have to be wrong? What happened to the concept that all paths to God are good and it may be right for them?

This is the problem I have with both communities. We insist upon attacking each other. And it happens every time a major holiday overlaps in the Wiccan Wheel of the Year and Christian liturgical calendar. Yule/Christmas, Ostara/Easter… Who the hell cares? What does it really matter?

If you go back, Wicca has stolen and invented holidays that did not belong to it, reverse-engineered a monomyth for the Wheel of the Year from various Classical and Celtic myths, and then tries to validate itself by claiming that it is an ancient religion when, in fact, the earliest it can claim its origins is the 1920s. It takes many things from British Traditional religion (not BTW, but the ancient Celtic and Anglic practices) as well as other religions and ties deeply into the Western archetypes that most practitioners grew up with, but it’s a modern religion. Does this invalidate it? No, of course not. So why does the fact that Christians adopted symbols and dates from the older Pagan religions in order to survive in unfriendly governments and to further the message they feel obligated to share invalidate them? It doesn’t.

My advice to my community: Just celebrate your holiday. Keep it sacred in the ways you feel are right. If you get involved in the debates, don’t attack, merely explain that you share traditions and parallels. Be good ambassadors for our community, not violent, belligerent, childish reactionaries. 

Christmas is Christian because it celebrates the birth of their God. Yule is Pagan because it celebrates the Solstice and the birth of our Gods. Leave each other alone, wish each other happy holidays, regardless of which you celebrate, and let’s not forget everyone else that gets left out in the assumption that you celebrate Christmas in whatever form you might. It’s true that Christmas is not the only holiday, but it’s up to you to keep your holidays sacred, not the rest of the world. 

Blessed Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a joyful wintertime holiday (or summertime for anyone in the Southern hemisphere) for everyone else in whatever religion you practice. If you don’t practice, then I wish you comfort in the new season and a happy New Gregorian Year.