Christmas began as a pagan holiday known as Saturnalia in Ancient Rome. It was a week long celebration that basically had no rules. They were celebrating the winter solstice. They would eat and party, share feasts and present gifts to friends and family. The most popular gift to give was a candle it signified that the light would return after the solstice. As we all know after the winter solstice the days get longer again (meaning more hours of light). They got to visit with friends and family in a merry atmosphere for an entire week. They even closed the courts for that week and so the whole social order was relaxed. Slaves didn’t have to work, people could wear comfortable clothes to dinner and the slaves were permitted to wear the owners clothes and eat at the dinner table with everyone. Gambling was allowed in public and anyone was allowed to partake. They drank heavily, played games and sang songs toghether. The homes and streets could be decorated for the holidays in colors that celebrated life and fun. It was their favorite holiday for obvious reasons.

Around 400 AD the Christians main holiday was Easter and they wanted to find a way to make the Winter Solstice theirs too so that they could dictate how it was celebrated. The Church decided to make the birth of Jesus into the Christmas Holiday. Since the bible did not mention anywhere when Jesus was born, Pope Julius Ist picked roughly the middle of the Saturnalia celebration which December the 25th. Even though they did this they were unable to completely dictate the celebration of christmas however they did replace many of the customs with a number of their own. Such as the nativity scene, attending church on christmas eve and giving to the poor. Personally i don’t believe the giving to the poor was their idea in any shape form or way. The pagans spent the entire week making everyone equal and sharing clothing food and gifts with slaves and poor. The christians took that idea from the pagans and called it their own. The main issue with CHRISTmas is that if Jesus was born than he was actually born in March and so in true faith his birth should be celebrated in march not christmas. This is a fact brought to life by puritans not by me. It is a WELL known FACT.

December 25th should be left to santa and the great tradition of saturnalia. So basically the answer to your question is NO. Sean Hannity is wrong. Christmas is a holiday that actually sticks pretty close to the actual real creation of the celebration. We feast, buy each other gifts, party, get drunk, hang out with friends and family and spend plenty of money and time on charity. No one gets something for nothing. Think of it like getting something for all the hard work you’ve done all year. It’s
a paid holiday that everyone gets once a year. Everyone celebrates it because I guess in lamens liberals created it and conservatives made their own versions of it.

For those of you out there that have families or friends that don’t want to celebrate because it’s religious or because it’s commercial than go ahead and tell them they are wrong. They can celebrate it because for the atheist it’s just a time to celebrate and for the religious they can celebrate Christ. Plus why fight a time when you can spend quality hours or days with family and friends.