Yule logs, caroling, decorated trees, wreaths, mistletoe, feasting, gift giving and just about every single other aspect of Christmas are Pagan, that's hardly a "smidgen". The only Christian thing about Christmas is the name. The Church took an existing holiday and traditions, added nothing significant, moved it a couple of days and changed the name. Sorry but you're the only person failing to see this for what it is. Christmas is the Winter Solstice, the only non-Pagan aspect is Jesus.

Those have been debunked at least billion times before already.

Seriously, atheists grasping straws at the whole Paganism=Christianity thing is getting seriously sad. Its been proven false by thousands of scholars and historians before.

So the only non-pagan aspect of Christmas is...its purpose,its meaning and the reason we celebrate it today? Then it's definitely a pagan holiday, and it's thus completely acceptable for you as an atheist to exploit it. Because you know, it's not like Paganism is one form of religion or anything

But what hasn't been "debunked" a billion times before is the existence of Mithras, Osiris and all the other gods. The whole Christian argument is grasping at straws!! It's so laughable that certain people STILL defend their mythical being of choice and say others are nonsense or pedanticism. Merry Christmas from an atheist, COMMERCIALLY celebrating person (no Jesus, just the commercial holiday, to those who want to give crap).

I think the Christians in this thread have missed out on something important. Political Correctness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Most of the time it is a mark of social progress, and promotes greater respect for the individual. In this case we are talking about using wording that is inclusive and welcoming. Rather then a word that now sadly carries negative connotations. I wonder if you understand that Jesus is not the same for us outside of your faith as he is for the people inside your faith.

You have to remember Free Thinkers, Feminists, Agnostics, Atheists, Jews, Homosexuals, and people of a hundred other faiths have a entirely different view of the man. His was the name on the lips of people who persecuted, tortured, slandered, murdered, incarcerated, and committed acts of wanton genocide on us for over a millennium. Half of my childhood idols were tormented and killed in his name. So when you say that someone should offer you a greeting in his name. You should understand me when I say it is truly perverse.

Would you expect a Jew to wish people a festive celebration of Hitlers birth. Would you expect non white American to do the same for the birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest. No you wouldn't, because you would recognize how truly distasteful that would be. So why do you expect those of us who aren't of your faith to recognize or use your gods name. When he has only ever brought us misery. You are asking that we perform acts of public self ridicule, and to live without self dignity.

I treasure freedom of speech above all things. It is the most precious thing we have. A lot of decent people had to suffer, and die so that one day there would be a world where people could speak freely. They suffered just as much as your god, and I am not going to be brow beaten into disregarding their sacrifice. You can call this holiday whatever you like, but every time you wish this holiday to one of us non believers you should know that you are being ever so subtly rude.

It isn't about self respect, or your self identity. It is about the disrespect you are showing to others. You should never want to do that to others. This is a season of peace, charity, and the joy of giving. In that spirit you should not have a problem with using a couple different words that everyone can be happy with. No matter their faith, lack of faith, tradition, or persuasion. Like I said this wasn't a issue until relatively recently when some people decided to make it a issue so they could throw it in peoples faces. They aren't just empty words anymore. They are words that can be used to hurt.

As an atheist, I couldn't possibly care less what it's called. I say christmas myself actually, who cares about semantics?

It's become a mostly secular holiday these days anyway, at least outside of the US, where most of these debates about religion and political correctness seem to come from.

Oh thanks.  I didn't know what to say so I looked it up.  Sorry, at the end it wasn't a question.  I was quoting scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants.

Christmas is a secular holiday with religious roots. Much like Easter and New Years. I celebrate it, my family celebrates it, many of my friends celebrate it, and none of us are practicing Christians. Christmas has many secular traditions that have little to really due with Christ. Heck, some aspects such as Christmas trees are taken directly from pagan holidays. That being said, that doesn't mean the name should be changed. Hundreds of millions of people still celebrate it as a religious holiday, and the name itself has virtually been secularized, regardless of the fact that "Christ" is in the name.

Besides, Xmas sounds stupid.

Those are all just little traditions that aren't even practiced all over the world.

The Church did not take the existing holiday. They moved Christmas to overlap it and the people brought their traditions with them to Christmas. The Church allowed some and others it resisted.

You act like Jesus is just a small insignificant part of Christmas. There is NO Christmas without Christ. And I'm not talking about a winter solstice. I'm talking about the celebration of the birth of the messiah. That's not an aspect of Christmas, that IS Christmas. All the feasting, gift giving, etc. are traditions that have been brought to Christmas over the years from many different cultures for many different reasons.

Winter Solstice is Winter Solstice. Christmas is Christmas. The fact that Christmas was moved to take place on and overshadow Winter Solstice has NOTHING to do with the significance of Christmas as the observance of the birth of Christ.

A few traditions or even a lot of traditions that have added to the flavor of Christmas does not diminish the importance of the true meaning of Christmas. Old Pagan traditions that have attached themselves to Christmas does NOT invalidate Christmas. The Christmas you see in stores and on TV is not the Christmas you see in Church.

 I was just at Christmas Mass, and there was no Santa, elves, gift giving, yule log, or mistletoe. But you know what was there? A nativity, songs hymns of Christ's birth, and a lot of love. That's the real Christmas. The holiday we have fun with at home with the tree, lights, gifts, etc. is an extension of Christmas, but it would mean nothing without the real thing.

The earliest recollection of christians celebrating the birth of christ is from Rome about a few hundred years after Jesus' death. By then it did not have the characteristics that it has today. Among germanic peoples, they celebrated Yule as an holiday before chistmas. This changed to celebrating the birth of christ at the date of the Yule celebrations, and it was still called Yule for a long time, but the church didn't like the pagan name so they changed it to Crīstesmæsse or Christ's mass which became christmass. In Scandinavia and Finland, the old germanic term of "Yule" or "Jul" is still used. It's complicated, sure, but since Christmas is the relevant term here, I don't think rebranding is that inaccurate. And as many people have said, all the popular christmas traditions have pagan roots. It's easy to celebrate the pagan parts of the holiday, just celebrate like you used to but wihout the nativity scenes and mentioning Jesus.

Good Yule! :D