All quaintly Frazerian, Tabster - however, it would seem far more likely that the Puritans were reacting against frivolity per se rather than any conjectured provenance of any particular 'custom'. Thus 'pagan' is the rougher / ruder / licentious aspects of human behaviour, rather than the deliberate observance of 'older' traditions / rituals / beliefs that we might think of today.

Mythic analogue is not to be taken as evidence of derivation as such, rather of morphological resonance given that such things are (generally) pretty well defined, as in the case of The Christmas Story as found in both the Gospels & the various apocryphal / folkloric sources.   

Interesting that The Cherry Tree Carol gives January 6th as Christ's birthday - a purposeful reaction against the Catholic Gregorian Calendar perhaps? I wonder, does anyone still celebrate Christmas on this day? On second thoughts, don't answer that...

Anyway, here's a double-bill of Batman on BBC4, featuring the late, great Burgess Meredith; the perfect thing for eve of Advent. Joy to you all!