Interesting info on the origins of Christmas

For the last couple of years Christmas has brought about many mixed feelings for me. On the one hand I have many fond memories of Christmas, not just getting presents, but of spending time with family and celebrating Christ's birth through the typical Christmas activities. But then I heard that some Christians think celebrating Christmas is wrong, even sinful, because it was originally a pagan religious festival and therefore should be avoided and basically ignored. Now, this was troubling information for me, rightly so, but I have learned, thankfully, to take my time with information such as this and try to find a biblically balanced view of things.

So, I have now been reading that Christmas was in fact not a response to a pagan ritual but the other way around. Justin Taylor has put together the post I wanted to here. Please review the articles he has posted and there are some informative links in the comment section also.

I am still trying to understand how the argument against Christmas does not commit the genetic fallacy, a logical fallacy. This probably needs more study and thought, but you've got to start somewhere right? I am more concerned with the commercialism and superficiality of the holiday than any pagan rituals or Roman Catholic Masses that occured over a century ago. In the meantime, I'll continue to celebrate Christmas, somewhat reservedly, but encouraged that I get to celebrate Christ birth, death, and resurrection every single Sunday.