The Church, in its near-infinite wisdom, appropriated this mid-winter festival to celebrate the birth of Christ. His actual birthdate, of course, is unknown. (I hope most of us can agree on that much.)

Well, Poppagator, I'd agree that nobody knows Christ's birthdate and I'd agree that Christmas has pagan origins, but I'm not so sure I'd agree that the Church "appropriated" the feast. Christmas is not the only Christian feast that coincides with older pagan festivals. It's hard to find proof for anything that goes back so far, but I think I'd say that pagans who converted to Christianity continued to celebrate the festivals they had celebrated before, adding a Christian aspect to what had once been a pagan celebration. The Church, in a rare display of wisdom, recognized these festivals instead of attempting to abolish them - but yes, I'm sure the Church added Christian elements to these formerly pagan festivals. The question is whether this happened by church edict, or by the "folk process." The other question is whether it's wrong for Christians to have religious celebrations on days once held holy by pagans. Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist Christians think it is wrong, and they refuse to celebrate Christmas and some other feasts.
-Joe Offer-