Have you researched this? As far as Christmas is concerned, it's impossible to be from pagan sunworship if the origin of the word "Christmas" is about 1000 years after Christ. And Santa Claus is on about 150 years old or so.
I think what you're refering to is "winter festivals" common in Roman and Greek traditions - which share a common tradition with the traditions of Christmas, but not representative of the same holiday.
Similarities are the gift giving and decorations, etc. But the significance of Christmas has always been to celebrate the birth of Christ - whether accurate or not.
The winter months were always used for celebration because there wasn't much agricultural work to be done, thus many similarities can be found with any winter festival. But it's not the same nor a derivative of it - I'm curious how you came to this conclusion?
I think this all depends how you're defining 'derivative'. Christmas Day was selected to fall on the same day as pagan festvals, and I very much doubt there was a sudden discontinuity in people's celebrations as Europe moved to Christianity. The same midwinter festival simply evolved as people's religion changed and so their explanations for celebrating shifted, and new elements were brought in to represent Christian beliefs. The same process is happening with Christmas' progression to a secular festival for many people nowadays.
This said, I honestly doubt that God would mind. If your purpose is to celebrate the birth of Christ, he'd surely be aware of that and appreciate the intention. It always seemed deeply unfair to me as a child that whilst the Muslims, Hindus and irreligious alike all joined in at Christmas, the Jehovah's Witness kids weren't allowed.
Edited by caffeine, : Deleted 'Saturnalia' - I should check my facts before posting instead of relying on vague memories.
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