I was thinking that Christmas is such a contrived holiday. No, i'm not talking about X-mas, which is awesome. i'm talking about the "religious" holiday. Even though the word "holiday" comes from words meaning holy day.
First off, Christmas was almost super-imposed on top of Winter Solstice (the real holiday). They did the same thing with Eostre. For some reason, Christians liked to use holidays as a form of subjugation. They tried to replace the pagan (and much more fun) holidays with their manufactured religious ones. Most of the things associated with Christmas (like a tree, mistletoe, holly, etc) were pagan in origin.
Secondly: the Christ "origin story" is kind of ridiculous. This seems like someone wrote an origin story after the fact (assuming a Christ existed, which I have my doubts). They have to make him divinity somehow. The Greeks, Romans, and probably even the Norse never had the god having children with humans - sarcasm. Many nations at the time claimed a divine reason for rulership.
A virgin birth, nope I don't buy it. Well, a technical virgin birth is possible. I wonder how many females have tried to use that as a reason.
The time it would have taken people to see a star (or comet) would have this story happening over years (months at the earliest). One night in a stable, inconceivable. Then again, the bible is full of metaphors, allusions, coded messages.
Thirdly: timing. This whole Christ origin story wouldn't have happened near what is now considered Christmas, it would have been closer to Eostre.
So,
* taking parts from other (pagan) cultures and giving them some pseudo-Christian meaning,
* placing a holiday, which even if it did happen, months away from when it would have happened
Christmas is a truly contrived holiday
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