Christmas started out life as a Pagan holiday. Pagans know that the birth of Christ settled on December 25 to take advantage of the celebrations already happening around that date. We discuss the Victorian origins of our current customs. We point out that Romans lit candles and traded gifts during the December season of Saturnalia.

When I converted from Catholicism to Witchcraft in my late teens I self-consciously rejected Christmas. Candy canes are Christian symbols – out with them! We don’t celebrate Christmas, we celebrate Yule! My family and friends gave presents on Dec. 21. We put up a tree with a star instead of an angel as a topper. We traded Happy Holidays cards. On Christmas Day we ate dinner at an Indian restaurant filled with our Pagan and Jewish and Buddhist and Hindu friends.

Except…I missed Christmas. There’s a lovely hush as the stores close and the traffic dims and people go inside with their families. A sense that everyone is celebrating the same thing together. That we agree to suspend our usual conflicts for a moment of peace, in the hope that the relief and happiness it brings will motivate us to find a way to make it permanent.

I realized that casting Christmas out of Yule was like trying to cast Yule out of Christmas. It takes the fun out of it! If Christmas trees are a recent invention and gift giving goes back to Pagan times what does it matter if we do it on the 25th along with everyone else?

Christmas framed my childhood. The heady anticipation as the day drew steadily closer. The scent of incense at Mass. The delicious rattle of wrapped presents. The music and foods and decorations that only happen once a year that mark out the best day of the year.

So now I wish people Merry Christmas. I put an angel at the top of the tree. I buy advent calendars and eat a tiny bit of chocolate every day in December counting down to the 25th. I watch the televised Mass from the local church and the amazingly ornate version beamed to the world from the Vatican. I hang candy canes and sip peppermint whipped cream with my hot chocolate. My Pagan life is strong enough to handle a little Christian cheer. I consciously celebrate that one day of peace in harmony with all my neighbors.

But we still eat Indian food for dinner!