Well, I think you worded it pretty well, Kat. I think December is a good time for celebrating our diversity of rich traditions. What gets me worried is when people go overboard in trying to sterilize things so nobody gets offended. I get a bit peeved with our library, which calls December 25 "The Holiday" and January 1 "New Year's Day."
Yuletide is a near-perfect term, I think. It calls a spade a spade, and shouldn't offend anybody. The symbols I think of are wreaths and trees and candles and light and snow - and crackling fires in the fireplace. Not distinctively pagan, I suppose - but I think they're all originally pagan symbols of the season.
-Joe-