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Well, Christmas coincides more or less with the solstice, and also with the Roman Saturnalia, which was a whoop-ass end-of-year festival in ancient times.
Interestingly enough, Christmas wasn't a big deal in Christianity up until 100-150 years ago. I read some American colonial accounts of Christmas in which some of the colonial bigwigs wanted to stop celebrating it, because it was mainly an excuse to get drunk and rowdy. In those days, Easter was the big Christian holy day -- and really still is, from a religious standpoint. But like somebody said, the marketers got hold of Christmas and the rest is history. In Japan, Christmas is an excuse to rent a fancy hotel suite and get laid -- that's how the Japanese saw all those GIs on leave celebrating Christmas back in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and so that's how they see the holiday (most not being Christians anyway).
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