So here's the thing: if you're running some johnny-come-lately export-oriented religion from the Middle East and you pull off a hostile takeover of a European pagan winter festival, you can't really complain if your customers start to ignore the rebranding.

The ritual moaning from cathedral pulpits that Christmas is losing its true religious meaning is fast becoming a tradition in itself. But in truth it is not clear it ever really had one. Blatantly goalhanging on the effort put in by other religions, Christianity managed to appropriate and re-label extant celebrations, particularly the great Roman winter solstice festival of Saturnalia. And while the image got a makeover, the festivities were little changed. Pretty much everything about Christmas (or Yuletide, its more poetic heathen name) has been lifted straight out of the pagan book of common prayer.