Tried sharing this with a pastor at a baptist church I used to attend...got a message back about 5 minutes later (obviously didn't read it) saying that christian's aren't supposed to judge one another (guess Christ wasn't very Christian by that logic then...which makes my brain hurt thinking about the mental gymnastics required to reason that out), what Paul said about those who esteem one day above another, that "no one I've ever met actually worships a christmas tree" after I quoted Jeremiah 10 to him, (guessing he doesn't understand what worship is, and Jeremiah 10 mentions customs, not worship), and sent me a video after he said he wasn't going to debate it with me, about why christmas is christian or something to that effect.
A long time ago I spent time with some pagans and yes, they did confirm that it was all centered around the winter solstice, the greenery was to honour the "green man" otherwise called by them Cernunnos AKA the horned god (one guess what that thing represents), and the whole decorated evergreen tree thing was supposed to keep life in the home so that it could return to the forest in warmer months as some kind of empathetic magick for nature. Yes this is all pagan superstition, and I could have listed that off to him, but I think the thing that made me question how blind he actually was, this guy preaches against the catholic church as a false religion...and he's following their traditions...I was tempted to reply back that he had no right in future to criticize Catholicism if he was going to follow after their traditions, or even ask him if the Halloween party he threw at the church building went well (I don't know his stance on halloween but I strongly get the notion that he would condemn it as pagan)...but I think back to Proverbs 18:13:
"He that answereth a matter before he heareth [it,] it [is] folly and shame unto him."
If he had supposedly had heard all of the arguments before about why christmas was pagan and wasn't convinced about it (his words, not mine)...and wasn't interested in even discussing the matter, I don't think anything I say will ever convince him.
I wish Chris was wrong about it, but he's right, religious leaders are the most stubborn when it comes to trying to reason with over the meaning of scripture, but I guess if Jesus couldn't convince them of what the law and the prophets said (especially since he wrote the law and sent the prophets), then it should be no surprise...the only hope from there is that God will open their eyes, he did it for Paul after all.