Beware the confirmation bias! This linked-to article comes to us via an online source promoting the theory—and in this case “theory” is a simile for “hypothesis,” as opposed to the way it is used in scientific terms, as in the Theory of Evolution, for example, where a “theory” is a collection or grouping of established facts—of one Dr. William Tighe, who wants us to believe that Christmas did NOT in fact start out as a Pagan holiday, that the decision to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th had nothing to do with preexisting celebrations like Yule or Saturnalia that had already been celebrated at or around this time for centuries, but was instead the result of guesswork by early Christians to fix the date of Christ’s birth, based upon His death—which makes no sense to me, but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt. Still . . .
The Christmas tree. Mistletoe. The Yule Log. These all come to us from pagan tradition. And Kris Kringle, the other name, coupled with Saint Nicholas, for Santa Claus? He and his elves who live at the North Pole were all pagan figures. (There are no elves in the Bible.) And then there’s KRAMPUS, who has less to do with the Christian devil than with horned nature deities like the Greek Pan. Yule in particular was a much darker holiday before the superimposition of Christian trappings, but the dark stuff is still there, if you scratch away at the surface. Deck the halls!
