What hard evidence is there that Jesu ben Joseph was born on 12/25, or anywhere around the Winter Solistice?

Cynics claim that the early Christian church put the date there so as to "take over" the pagan Yule holiday as a Christian one. Makes sense to me.

On the other hand, if we still had an "old-fashioned" Yule, we might be burning a human sacrifice over the yule log, instead of merely sacrificing our good credit standing to buy people presents that they don't need. So maybe it's just as well.

Peter.