Christmas

“The establishment of December 25 evolved not from biblical precedent,” says The Christmas Encyclopedia, “but from pagan Roman festivals held at year’s end,” about the time of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Those festivals included the Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, god of agriculture, “and the combined festivals of two sun gods, the Roman Sol and the Persian Mithra,” says the same encyclopedia.- Awake!, December, 2010, p. 5

 To add a little more information, I recall reading in Blomberg's historical reliability of the Gospels that Christians began celebrating Christmas as a response to the Romans celebrating or praising Mithra. It was basically politically motivated. I can't find the exact quote right now. I think I'm going to have to start writing down relevant quotes as I'm reading a book or something for future reference!