Stan Gula wrote:

I call bull****.
Here's some details:
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vita...eRealStory.htm

The Roman Saturnalia celebration predates Christianity, and the Romans
actually stole (errr, adopted) the idea from the Greeks who called it
Sacaea. And the Greeks stole it from Babylon where it was called Zagmuk.
The solstice was celebrated in Babylon 4,000 years before Christ and a lot
of the 'Christmas traditions' have been handed down from the ancient past.
Note that Zagmuk is very similar to Zagnut, a wicked fine candy bar, which
has been made for over 75 years which predates most of us. Not that that
relates to Christmas at all, except that if somebody wanted to buy me a
reasonable priced candy bar for a present, well, hint, hint, wink, wink.

Gonna open a nice bottle of port tomorrow to toast "Longer Days!".

I said "widely popular holidays", Stan.

What percentage of the world today celebrates Saturnalia? Sacaea?
Zagmuk? The Solstice? The most popular runner-up would be Chanukah or
Hanukkah, whichever spelling you prefer, but that is a rather minor
celebration of the Jewish faith which is widely recognized only because
it occurs in the same part of the year as Christmas.
Forgotten celebrations to dead religions really don't count as a basis
for a holiday season.
It doesn't even really matter that Christmas is near the solstice.
If Christmas happened in July, the holiday season would be in July.
And December would be only a time of waiting for New Year's Day.

Karl S.