If you've still got some of those gift vouchers and you're still looking to expand your music collection then I'd recommend Faded Seaside Glamour by The Delays if you can buy it over there. Ah-ha! Yes, you can.

Not really. We were both agreed that the celebration of Christmas was a reaction to the pagan festivals of the time, in essence they just pasted an extra layer on top of the whole thing.

So if there had been no paganism then there would be no Christmas as there would have been no need for an alternative celebration, and prior to that time the birth of Christ was not celebrated on any particular day.

By contrast had there been no Christianity then we would still be holding feasts on the 25th, we would still exchange gifts, we would still decorate trees, we would still decorate our homes with holly and mistletoe, carolers would still call. Christ just caused the rebranding of the holiday, not the holiday itself.

“Christmas is indeed about Christ. Hence the name.”

I'm agnostic. I still celebrate Christmas, for me it's a time for family, a time for thinking of others, and a time for reflecting on all the things I have to be greatful for. By your definition I can't celebrate Christmas because I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I rather like Christmas, it's a nice time of year, the whole family gets together, I get to go back home and see friends I haven't seen in ages, it's the only time you get those little sausages wrapped in bacon, and it's nice to have a tree up.

If the name of the holiday's all that keeps me from a celebration I love then I'm going to write to my MP, I'm going to call the local press, I'm going to talk to everyone I meet, and I'm going to do my damndest to make sure that from this day forth instead of “Merry Christmas” people say “Happy Holidays”.

So as you say, Christmas does have roots in paganism, but the true spirit of and reason for Christmas is not paganism or sun gods or anything of the like. The true reason for Christmas is Christ. It's not Mithrasmas, or Isismas, or Saturnalia (as the Romans called it). It's Christmas. Some of the traditions like the Yule log and carolers do come from pagan rituals, but those have nothing to do with Christmas itself; those are merely artifacts of the holiday. The spirit of Christmas doesn't require logs or fires or songs.

And yes, the season is too commercialized, but then what holiday isn't? I deliberately avoid stores as long as humanly possible, then dart in a few, make a few quick gift purchases, then leave again for as long as humanly possible.

No worries about the rant. That's why I have comments enabled.

Yes, yes they have, but it isn't about Christ. Stripped right back the true reason for Christmas is this: people were afraid that the sun wouldn't come up again.

It's a pagan tradition, and is at least twice as old as Christianity. The holly, the exchanging of gifts, the mistletoe and the tree are all pagan traditions and rituals, but nobody's out there demanding that people remember the Yule in Yuletine,

It might seem like I'm being particularly petty about this, but I'm English, we have a state religion here, so I've sat through hundreds of lectures on how the “true” meaning of Christmas was being forgotten, and not one of the people ranting about it had in mind heading up to the nearest stone circle for a spot of sun worship. I'm fed up of it, Christmas isn't a christian tradition, the early chruch found that they couldn't suppress the old pagan festivals so they put their own spin on them, they made Christmas about the birth of Jesus (which likely actually happened in the spring), Easter about the resurrection, and halloween was linked with All Saints Day.

Christmas isn't Christian. If you're going to be Christian you should celebrate the birth (and death) of Christ every day of your lives, and not just (or even especially) on a set day every year. Christ didn't want religion to be ritualised and formulaic, he said so before inventing the Lord's Prayer (which has of course become one of the most formulaic and ritualistic parts of churchgoing…)

Don't get me wrong, if people want to celebrate the birth of Jesus at christmas time they should be free to do so and I wish them well, it's the arrogance of demanding that everyone else do likewise that irks me. Christmas means different things to different people, for me it's the family centred holiday invented by Washington Irving in the 19th Century, to other people it's primarily about hope, or charity, or Christ, or Odin, or yes, presents. When people talk about the “true” meaning of Christmas they really mean the meaning that they personally ascribe to Christmas. “I think people today have forgotten about the meaning that I personally ascribe to Christmas” doesn't sound as impressive though, does it.

Finally, if you think the season is to commercial then STOP BUYING STUFF.

Ahem. Bit of a rant there, sorry about that, I know you barely even touched on the subject, I guess twenty odd years of holding my toungue have taken their toll…