There is quite a bit of evidence that the Christian Church took over existing pagan holidays and relabeled the pagan holidays by reworking them and refashioning them in their image.
Excerpt from the article:
Christmas - New World Encyclopedia
The historical development of Christmas is quite fascinating. According to the Bible, Jesus' birth was celebrated by many well-wishers including the Magi who came bearing gifts. The early Christians in the Roman Empire wished to continue this practice but found that celebrating Jesus' birth was very dangerous under Roman rule, where being a Christian could be punishable by death. Thus, Christians began to celebrate Christ’s birthday on December 25, which was already an important
pagan festival, in order to safely adapt to Roman customs while still honoring Jesus' birth.
This is how Christmas came to be celebrated on the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, and it was from the pagan holiday that many of the customs of Christmas had their roots. The celebrations of Saturnalia included the making and giving of small presents
(saturnalia et sigillaricia). This holiday was observed over a series of days beginning on December 17 (the birthday of
Saturn), and ending on December 25 (the birthday of Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun"). The combined festivals resulted in an extended winter holiday season. Business was postponed and even
slaves feasted. There was drinking, gambling and singing, and nudity was relatively common. It was the "best of days," according to the poet Catullus.
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The feast of
Sol Invictus on December 25 was a sacred day in the religion of
Mithraism, which was widespread in the
Roman Empire. Its god, Mithras, was a solar deity of
Persian origin, identified with the Sun. It displayed its unconquerability as "Sol Invictus" when it began to rise higher in the sky following the Winter Solstice—hence December 25 was celebrated as the Sun's birthday. In 274 C.E., Emperor Aurelian officially designated December 25 as the festival of Sol Invictus.
Evidence that early Christians were observing December 25 as Jesus' birthday comes from Sextus Julius Africanus's book
Chronographiai (221 C.E.), an early reference book for Christians. Yet from the first, identification of Christ's birth with a pagan holiday was controversial. The theologian
Origen, writing in 245 C.E., denounced the idea of celebrating the birthday of Jesus "as if he were a king pharaoh." Thus Christmas was celebrated with a mixture of Christian and secular customs from the beginning, and remains so to this day.
* I recommend reading the rest of the article on its original site*
