Solstice

brainstorming ways to celebrate Solstice with my Dad: "we could ask [the incredibly Baptist neighbor next door] if he wants to have a drum circle!"

there is no way Jesus was born in december, even that close to the equator. those poor [fictional] shepherds.
in case any of you still had any doubts about it, the Gospels are mythology, and the Nativity stories even moreso. nobody was around when Jesus was born. they made up stories about what they thought should have happened because, as my Origins of Christianity prof put it, "all great men must have extraordinary births."
way to go early Christians for co-opting a pagan festival to convince the pagans that they were already practicing your religion anyway.

that said...
if people realized that every newborn child has the potential to change the world for the better, that every person who has ever been and will ever be born has a story to tell, that Jesus was just another man, albeit one who was charismatic enough to make people listen--maybe the world would be a better place, and maybe Christmas would serve as the reminder it should be.