In Western civilisation, Christmas has different meanings and different traditions.

To our prehistoric forbears, at Ħaġar Qim temples in Malta and at Stonehenge sanctuary in England, this period portrayed the solar winter solstice. The shortest days, December 21-24, gave way to the rebirth of the Sun, when days started becoming longer. Then, people used to worship the sun, giving offerings and making animal sacrifices.

The story of our traditional Christmas tree began with the Weihnachtsbaum or Christbaum in Germany not earlier than the 15th century. An evergreen conifer, such as spruce, pine or fir, and now PVC, carries the spirit of Christmas. It originally bore edibles like apples, nuts and other foods. In the 18th century it began to be decorated by candles, later replaced by electric lights. Today, there is a variety of decorations like garland, tinsel and candy canes and an angel or star might be placed at the top.

In the 13th century, St Francis of Assisi introduced his first presepe in Italy. This features the scene of the house, cave or manger in Bethlehem where Christ was born.

The Irish people call Baby Jesus Íosagán and their traditions are more or less similar, with a few variants to Weihnachten, Navidad, Noël in Germany, Spain and France, Božic in Croatia and Serbia, Natale in Italy and Milied in Malta.

The central point of Christmas is the birth of the Messiah or Christ, Baby Jesus, from the Blessed Virgin Mary. He is surrounded by his foster father, St Joseph, and by the shepherds who hurried to the scene of His birth. Jesus Christ is known to the Greek-speaking world as Pantokrátor, that is, He who supports the world.

So, we cannot leave Christ out of Christmas in pagan fashion but must keep Christmas holy in His divine name, He who came among us to save the world.