Christmas is approach ing, and with it, Americans are flocking to Wal-Mart for their deck-the-hall necessities. With Christmas right around the corner, a host of debates — from customers angered by a generic happy holiday greet ing from retailers to questions concerning the true meaning of Christmas in a capitalist society—begin heating up.

Paganism isn’t usually the first word to come to mind in relation to Christmas, but it turns out that often times the hallmarks of Christmas are much more pagan than Chris tian. For example, Christmas trees originated from pagan tree worship and are more closely linked to the winter solstice than the birth of Jesus, according to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. In fact, the belief that Christmas was the day of Christ’s birth is widely thought to be false. Rather, the Christian church adopted winter solstice time as a convenient time to cel ebrate Christ’s birth.

So, why are Christian Americans so Christmas-obsessed? Christmas, much like Thanksgiving, despite the origins of both, relates to a 1950s-era value of family, as consumerism was encouraged in the post-WWII. Today, Americans affected by the recession and the war abroad desperately need their percep tion of Christmas to remain intact. They desire religious undertones affiliated with the season to affirm that every thing will be all right and that there is hope through this tempestuous time.

What then does this lead to? A number of overzealous Christian Americans, good intentions aside, offended by something as simple as Wal-Mart employees saying