Influence? They proudly "manufactured" it out of whole cloth.
If you remove detritus from a figment, what have you got?
What demonstration of truth derives from a majority engaging in a practice, even for a long time?
I am not sure if you are being intentially obtuse or you just don't understand what i said. I will state it as clearly as i am able. Christmas is today for the vast majority of Christians one thing and one thing only, the celebration of the birth of Christ, period. The date of this event whether it was actually on Dec 25th or not is irrelevant. The machinations that the Catholic church have been involved in concerning Christmas is important to Orthodox Catholics I assume but has absolutely nothing to do with my premise. People have been celebrating the birth of Christ in one form or other since shortly after his crucifixion. The celebration of todays Christian is as different from what you are referring to as it is from the celebrations of 200AD If you have a problem with the Catholic church and it's "version" of the celebration of Christ' birth, that's between you and the Vatican and not pertinent to my original premise. Oh and BTW Christmas has over time become a generic referance to the birth celebration, much as "Kleenex" has become a generic term for anything you blow your nose on"