Then I think we should take all the christian stuff out of Christmas. Free religion after all.
It'd be called Mas then. Christmas litteraly means Christ's Mass (sort of self explanitory...).
If you look back at history, you will find that the romans celebrated on the 25th in honor of one of their Gods (other traditions span much farther back, but I will start here). The day was full of drunken parties and celebrations for this pagan God. If I recall, this was called Saturnalia. Christians were horrified of course, and wanted to keep the 25th a solemn day of fasting in honor of Christ. So to compete with this, the Christians decided to turn their celebration as festive as Saturnalia, with lights and parades and the such to attract followers.
Now, what I find interesting is that Jesus was probably not born in December at all. If you look at the bible, you will find this verse: "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night" (Luke 2:8). This would be impossible in December, where the herders would very rarely take their livestock out durring the night as it would be far too cold. I would guess that the Christians back then declared the celebration of Christ's birth in December to counteract the wild and paganous celebration of Saturnalia.
To Nashy, in the U.S., early settlers were actually prohibited to celebrate Christmas using floats and trees and such like today, especially around New England. They wanted to observe it as a solemn holiday honoring Jesus. I find it ironic that today many states are moving to a position to ban religion icons entirely during Christmas (especially around New England).
Now I do think that Christmas was very much designed by pagans, but the Christians won in the end with that. Does anyone celebrate Saturnia nowadays? No. Is Christmas very similar in celebrations compared to Saturnia? Yes. But one thing is changed now thanks to Christians. What the Christians did was turn what was basically a holiday of wild drunken orgies into a celebration of the Christ, the king of peace. Now we have a peaceful holiday, one to give presents out and spend time with our families and friends.
And on the topic of only having taking Christ out of Christmas for free religon, I'm going to guess that you are kidding. If you aren't a Christian, then simply have fun with your eggnog, and pretty christmas lights, and all of that. If you are a Christian, then do all of that and also go to Church, and set up a nativity scene if you really want to. Both sides are happy that way, so what's really the issue with taking out everything Christian about Christmas? What I find funny is that people want to change Christmas into "Mas", or better yet Saturnia. People want to ban nativity scenes, take away Christ from the very holiday celebrating his birth and baptism. People only want eggnog, Christmas music, and candy canes.
If you guys want Saturnia back then have it. But you're going to have to rename the holiday.