All a Merry Christmas! Someone has already celebrated, someone just starting (Catholic vs Orthodox) is a private matter. I suggest a few facts about Christmas and related events.
In the days of early Christianity, Christmas is not celebrated as a great event. the first mention of Christmas as the holiday applies to 200 AD, when the theologians of Alexandria decided that Christmas should be celebrated on May 20. In the 4 th century AD the Roman church attempted to unify the celebrations in various groups and creeds. Having decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25. This date was not chosen by chance - among the pagan cults, which were then distributed, on December 25 was celebrated as the birthday of the Sun. Saint Cyprian later said - "How wonderfully God has ordered that the birth of Christ occurred on the birthday of the Sun."
Near all the temples constructed during the Christmas track with trees, nurseries and lamb, which reconstructs the scene of Christ's birth. It turns out that this kind of scene acquired only in the 13 century by St. Francis, which is highly revered by Catholics as a man who knows how to deal with any animals. In the Middle Ages, Francis traveled to the Middle East. suggesting Muslims to become Christians (otherwise, they are usually thrown into the fire), and he is the main initiator and inspirer of the modern kind of place and environment where Jesus Christ was born.
The tradition of giving gifts at Christmas is also very old. Christmas drinks, cards and beautiful boxes with bows - it's all come down to us from the ancient Romans who exchanged gifts in the New Year's Day. Saint Eligius in 7 century warned of the priority of spiritual over physical gifts, but we can see that some traditions in the literal sense of the word can not be destroyed.
In England, in 1644 celebration of Christmas was forbidden by special act of Parliament. On this day had to work all the shops and other establishments, and gifts and other attempts to make the day more festive declared pagan myths. Conservatives have resisted this innovation until the bloodshed. After some time the celebration was returned to the public. During the Protestant Reformation of the Puritans also refused to celebrate Christmas by announcing its intrigues of Catholicism and other bad words. In Boston, the celebration of Christmas was banned for 22 years - from 1659 to 1681. Ban was lifted by Governor Sir Edmond Andros, and even then it took several centuries, Christmas has become so widespread celebration in Boston.
As often happens with ancient traditions and religions, Christianity is also surrounded by myths and misunderstandings plume. The most common of them - this is the relationship of Christianity with the cult of Mithra. Many aspects of the life of Mithras coincide with similar events in the life of Christ, but the myth of Mithras, in its present form, is also "paint" recently - a few centuries ago. Between "facts" from the life of Mithras and Christ is a significant difference - the first, according to legend the Gentiles, was born on a mountaintop, and communication of Mithras with the shepherds appeared after the spread of the Christian religion. So that we can not say unequivocally that Christians borrowed their religion among the Gentiles, fans of the cult of Mithra. There are at least 50% probability that it all happened quite the contrary.