Today, Christmas holiday is celebrated by many as a Christian holiday honoring the birth of Jesus. But even before the birth of Jesus, Europeans had a holiday celebration tied in with the Winter Solstice on December 21. They rejoiced that the worst part of the year weather wise was behind them. This was the time of year they could begin to spend more time taking care of their animals and crops because the days were getting longer.
The tradition of the Yule Log came from Scandinavia. Men and their sons would go into the woods and cut down a tree during the Winter Solstice. After cutting a large log out of it they would carry it home and burn it in the fireplace. The larger the log the longer it burned and this suited everyone just fine. Because as long as the log burned the family would feast. Sometimes the Yule log would burn for twelve days. That caused great celebration! As with all fireplaces, sparks flew from the Yule log and the family would count these to see how wealthy they would be the coming year as each spark represented a farm animal that would be born to their livestock, such as a pig, cow, horse, goat. In those days their wealth was in farm animals.
But celebrations of the Winter Solstice go even further back in history. In ancient Rome, where pagan worship was practiced, Saturn was the god of agriculture and Saturnalia was celebrated in his honor. The whole Roman Empire celebrated and during this time everything was in a state of social frenzy. The higher classes, peasants and servants disregarded the protocol of the day and all celebrated together.
During the Saturnalia Festival, which often lasted a full week, the Romans rejoiced all over the country. There were no restraints place on the people’s behavior; the adage “eat, drink and be merry” was followed to the hilt. Little work was done during this time; businesses and shops were not open during the Festival.
The god of agriculture, Saturn, was not the only pagan god celebrated during the winter. Methra, an infant type god who was carved out of a rock was also worshiped by the Romans. His birthday, December 25, was for the Romans a most sacred day. This day was set aside for celebrating family and being together.
Another ancient Roman solstice celebration was held in honor of Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine and grapes. He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans. Usually held on December 25, this festival called Brumalia, from the Latin word which means “shortest day”, included drinking and merry making. The feast of Bacchus, which began on November 24and lasted thirty days, was begun by Romulus. During this time he entertained the Senate. At the feast one of the activities was to make prophetic predictions for the remaining of the winter.

An interesting book, 4,000 Years of Christmas , takes the celebrations held in winter back thousands of years to Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilization.
The day that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus may well have been influenced by these ancient solar celebrations. As we have seen, December 25 was already a holiday for many people so making it one for Christians also seemed natural.