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Each year at Christmas I hear some new objection to the Christmas “celebration”  that is based on an old argument.  Some of our cultural trappings have been folded into the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus.  Therefore, we should reject it and downplay our whole festivity and idea of Christmas within the Christian community.  About the only “Christian” symbol is the star of Bethlehem.  Almost everything else is suspect and has its roots in a dim, dark idolatrous past.  The tree.  The lights. The candy cane.  The romanticizing of Saint Nicholas.  And the DAY.   Especially the Day, December 25.  Everyone knows that the pagans of the Middle Ages celebrated the feast of Saturnalia and the winter solstice and all the revelry and non Christian activity that was associated with the turn of the season toward spring.  Therefore, this argument goes, the churches and Christian community of today have simply put a Christian garment over a pagan corpse and we should not celebrate such nonsense.  We have simply “Christianized” idolatry and this is wrong.  We should be happy about the birth of Jesus, but we should not accommodate or adapt any of these features or symbols into the Christian community.