It Kicks off with the Saturnalia

The good folk at Wikipedia assert that on this day in 497 before our common era the Romans first celebrated the Saturnalia. It occurred at the dedication of a temple to Saturn, god of agriculture, and marked the beginning of a farmer’s festival, itself the beginning of the autumn planting (warm climate in Rome…)

A look at this holiday with its exchanging of gifts and its recurring images of light within the dark, the birth of a new year, and with that new possibility, gives us a pretty good picture of what would become over time and with many changes including blending with other holidays such as the birthday of the Unconquerable Sun observed on the 25th of December, our modern Christmas, and to only a slightly lesser degree Hanukkah.

While I prefer what our Jewish and Christian friends have done with the holiday, you gave it the start it needed for our Western cultures.

So, thank you, Romans.