Greetings

Yes, it is true that it is hard to say what are Christian and what are Pagan traditions - but the length of time that Christianity has been around pales in comparison with the pre-Christian faiths. People do not give up traditions - they modify them and/or continue them on regardless of the fact that they make little sense to their new faiths. Few Chrisitan traditions were invented by Christians. It is not that Christians lack imagination, it is a simple case of "been there, done that. The philosophy of Chrisitanity may have been fairly novel, but the traditions are not. Otherwise, Jesus' birth would be celebrated in the correct season and his resurrection would not be a "floating" date that is completely tied into both the lunar and solar calendars.

The tradition thing reminds me of a story I heard a few years back.

A young girl was helping her mom make the holiday dinner and watched as her mom cut a big slice off the top of the large ham she was about to put into the oven. The girl asked her mom why she did that and was told that it was family tradition - her grandmother did that and so did her mom. The girl wasn't really satisified with her mom's answer - she wanted to know if it was for good luck, or what - so she asked her grandmother later on that day. Her grandmother told her that she always cut the top of the holiday ham when she was younger because the oven she had back then was too small for the whole ham to fit.

pax yall & save the top o' the ham for me.