First:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#The_origins_of_Christmas

"This celebration of the winter solstice was widespread and popular in northern Europe long before the arrival of Christianity, and the word for Christmas in the Scandinavian languages is still today the pagan jul (=yule).

Rather than attempting to suppress every pagan tradition, Pope Gregory I allowed Christian missionaries to synthesize pagan traditions with Christianity, allowing many pagan traditions to become a part of Christmas.[2]"

However:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_christ#Chronology

"Based on the accounts in the gospels of the shepherds' activities, the time of year depicted for Jesus' birth could be spring or summer. However, as early as 354, Roman Christians celebrated it following the December solstice in an attempt to replace the Roman festival of Saturnalia."

So:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia

“The Saturnalia originally were celebrated with a public banquet. It became one of the most popular Roman festivals which lead to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having masters and slaves switch places, which led to widespread drinking which degenerated sometimes to debauchery such as homosexuality and men beating their wives, so that among Christians the (lower case) word "saturnalia" came to mean "orgy".”

Sadly, thus….

The orgy continues in other, more puritan ways:

http://www.personalshopper.com/jsp/index.jsp

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Because:

sounddoc