Christmas A Pagan Holiday?

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It seems to be the topic of much controversy and misguidance that Christmas is a Pagan holiday. In addition, I've heard stories of people attending school Christmas plays that teach the audience and the children that this is true. If no other religion can be taught in school and the separation of church and state is to hold together as many believe it should, then why is it suddenly okay to bring pagan ritual and tradition into the classroom? It's okay to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and out of public schools and replace it with another. The audience and children are being severely misinformed. Christmas may involve some American traditions originally based from Pagan ritual, such as the yule, mistletoe, the Christmas tree and the like, but Christmas in its true meaning: the 'Mass' ("mas") or celebration of "Christ" does not involve any of these things to make Christmas what it is. It might be the case in some households that the tree, and mistletoe is Christmas, or "Xmas", and the meaning stops there - celebrated for the tradition. In this case, it is a Pagan holiday. Christmas is the celebration of the birth and His Epiphany (or baptism). "Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany." "For many people today, it is primarily as a secular symbol of hope for the New Year and the future return of warmth to the earth. Its future is assured in spite of opposition." "In Europe, Pagans did not cut down evergreen trees, bring them into their homes and decorate them. That would have been far too destructive of nature. But during the Roman celebration of the feast of Saturnalia, Pagans did decorate their houses with clippings of evergreen shrubs. They also decorated living trees with bits of metal and replicas of their God, Bacchus." "Many Pagan cultures used to cut boughs of evergreen trees in December, move them into the home or temple, and decorate them. Modern-day Pagans still do." "The Christmas tree tradition dates back to Western Germany in the 16th century. They were called "Paradeisbaum" (paradise trees) and were brought into the homes to celebrate the annual Feast of Adam and Eve on DEC-24. They were first brought to America by German immigrants about 1700." "As Gail Quick, University of South Carolina - Beaufort's dean of university relations, commented on the occasion of a community tree-lighting ceremony: "This Christmas event every year is the glue that holds this community together - this and the July 4th fireworks. This always makes me feel good. Some of us still believe in Santa Claus."" "At Christmas 2000, the city manager of Eugene, OR ordered that Christmas trees could not be erected on city properties because he considered them Christian religious symbols. He felt that their appearance would violate the principle of church and state." "Those Christians who have been falsely taught that celebrating Christmas is celebrating paganism, and are wracked with guilt because of it. You are doing nothing wrong to celebrate the birth of God's Son; in fact, praising and thanking God for the gift of His Son is beautiful worship in the sight of God. There is also nothing wrong with using some of the winter customs, provided you keep them in perspective and don't allow them to bury the celebration of Christ's birth." http://www.orlutheran.com/html/chrmas_pagan1.html http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm http://www.essortment.com/all/christmaspagan_rece.htm