"A Myth without Historical Substance"

"The idea that the date was taken from the pagans goes back to two scholars from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many 'paganizations' of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many 'degenerations' that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism. Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the gospel."

William J. Tighe in Touchstone magazine argues that Christmas in December is not due to the winter solstice.