Emma B., I was raised by a Catholic (father) and a neo-pagan (mother), so please understand if I approach these discussions from a somewhat jaundiced point of view.

That being said . . .

I don't know many Christians who do not recognize and feel some sense of responsibility for the misdeeds of their co-religionists, both current and historical. But after a while, it does get tiresome to hear the same old rants about evil, old Christianity suppressing the peaceful, tolerant, earth-based paganism of ye olde times. Like the Vikings, like the Vandals, like the Visigoths, and lots of other folks whose names often seem to begin with the letter 'V' . . . oh, but we're talking about Britain, right. But Britain really didn't exist 1500 years ago, did it? Nations are historical constructs, and by the time there was identifiably an England, a Scotland, an Ireland and a Wales, these lands were indeed Christian. And Christianity did become established in Europe (Britain included) more or less through peaceful conversion. A little 'more or less' peacefully than those (pagan) Angles and Saxons behaved when they showed up in the 5th century, at any rate . . . .

As for holidays . . .

" . . . the Christian cult was imposed upon them . . . "

If Christianity really was imposed on unwilling, happy-go-lucky pagans, it wouldn't have been necessary to co-opt the old festivals, now would it? What happened can be better described as a cultural synthesis between Christianity (an asian religion, by way of the Mediterranean) and pagan northern European folkways.