The holiday season comes from the winter solstice, the first day of winter, which is the shortest day of the year. Usually falling on December 21st, it has been celebrated in the northern hemisphere since prehistoric times. It was marked as the beginning of "the return of the sun" because, after that, the days start getting longer.
The ancient Hebrews referred to the winter solstice as the rebirth of light, calling it Nayrot, the festival of lights. When Judah Maccabee defeated the Greeks and captured Jerusalem in 164 BCE, he rededicated the temple shrine during Nayrot, renaming the holiday Hanukkah. But because the Jewish calculation of Hanukkah is based on a lunar rather than solar calendar, Hanukkah can begin almost any time in December.
The ancient Romans held their festival of Saturnalia, the feast of Saturn, at this time. It featured wild parties, gift giving, and halls decked with laurel. However, they miscalculated the solstice date, seeing it as falling variously on December 23rd to 25th.
When Roman Catholicism replaced ancient polytheism, the Church found it practical to adopt the old Roman holiday, renaming it Christ's Mass. But this popular move, made in the third century, didn't meet with complete approval. Christians in the Middle East viewed their European brethren as idolaters and sun worshippers for repackaging this pagan festival as the birthday of Jesus.
As Christianity spread across Europe, the various "barbarian" cultures added their own pre-Christian solstice practices to Christmas. Thus the evergreen tree was introduced by Germanic peoples; holly and mistletoe, sacred to the Druids, came from the Celts; and the Yule log and caroling were provided by the Anglo-Saxons.
But some Christians condemned these trappings, especially the Christmas tree, citing Jeremiah 10:1-5 in the Bible: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen . . . for one cutteth a tree out of the forest. . . . They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."
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See also:
List of winter festivals
Sol Invictus
Saturnalia
Yule
Mithras
Christmas
