Many years ago, I was trying to "de-Christianize" my holiday decorations. This was, I thought, pretty easy... I had learned from other Pagans that most of the symbols of the holiday were actually stolen from us, anyway. In particular, I leaned into Santa Claus iconography pretty hard, explaining that he was a modern rendition of Odin, based on some rumors I had heard, again, from other Pagans, and was definitely the type to posted "Keep Ostara in Easter" or something like that.
Over time, I learned that all this was highly exaggerated. Yes, there are Christmas and Easter decorations and symbols that have pre-Christian roots, but the idea that Christians didn't come up with any of their symbols on their own is ridiculous, and the attempts to squish ancient Pagan Gods into Christian lore are particularly strained. Christmas being on its way, I'm bracing myself for the number of people trying to claim that Horus was born of a virgin (Isis was not) on December 25th (Egypt used a completely different calendar), and of course that Santa Claus is actually Odin (there are superficial design similarities, but practically no personality comparisons to be had). And Ostara... yeesh, that's a whole can of worms.
But here's the thing: I still practice this way. I still have some Santa Claus decorations that I see as modern renditions of Odin, and one that I see as Bacchus. I still recontextualize the colors and plants and general holiday decor in a Pagan way, regardless of whether or not those specific traditions have any evidence of pre-Christian connections. I do the same for the Spring Equinox, and every other holiday modern Pagans celebrate that have Christian equivalents. I've adopted, developed, and continued a lot of traditions over the years for these holidays that have absolutely no basis in ancient Pagan lore at all. And that's OK.
Mind you: I am not saying that we should try rewriting history. It's very important, in my opinion, that the Pagan community has an accurate grasp of history, which means owning up to the fact that a lot of us learned wrong things about where our religions and the traditions we practice within them come from. That doesn't really make our versions of those traditions bad, though. We are doing the same thing our ancestors did: Adapting traditions we hold dear to the lives we currently live.
This is the thing I think a lot of Pagans misunderstand. Yes, some Christian traditions have Pagan origins in one way or another. Modern Pagan mythology has long contended that this was entirely by force, that Christians "stole" these traditions from "us" as a tool to trick the masses into changing religions. What we forget, or don't care to acknowledge, is that they were the same people, practicing their own traditions. People who converted to Christianity—which was very frequently by their own accord, not by force—did so in a way that allowed them to carry cultural traditions that were dear to them, and over time they developed many more traditions within that religioun that may have had some essence of that Pagan past, but were nonetheless Christian traditions.
Some of you may be wondering at this point, "if some of these traditions genuinely came from Christianity, why would it be OK for us to adapt them into Pagan ones?" There are a few important reasons:
In short, somebody raised in a Christianity-dominant culture, especially somebody raised into a Christian faith cannot "appropriate" from Christianity, at least mainline Christianity... we are cultural insiders. They are already our traditions as much as anybody else's.
I get that this might be controversial to some people, as over the past 10+ years appropriation is a hot-button subject, and in some communities this discourse has manifested as a belief that all attempts to adapt religious traditions outside your own are completely off-limits. This attitude comes from a good place, because our community has historically had a very "mine, mine, mine" attitude about minority spiritual practices, especially Black, Asian, and Indigenous ones. But this is nowhere near the same issue... typically, in those cases, we are making shallow copies of spiritual practices we don't understand, with no permission (or cherry-picked permission) from cultural insiders, and often profiting from those practices somehow, whether we get money or clout.
With mainline Christianity, again, we are cultural insiders. And this is not limited to Pagans. I know very few atheists who don't still celebrate Christmas, as a general well-wishing and gift-giving holiday, and it's not uncommon for Jewish people to do the same, even if they weren't raised into Christianity at all, because Christmas is fun. There's a trend on TikTok called "Halal Christmas" where Muslims show their or their family's silly holiday decorations. Whether you choose to say "I am not a Christian and therefore reject Christmas" or "I have every right to celebrate Christmas even if I'm not a Christian" is a completely personal decision, with both being perfectly valid and reasonable.
I'm using Christmas as an example because it's so convenient, but this is something that extends to every other aspect of your practice. The Gods, how people saw them, and the traditions used to honor them have never been static and unchanging. Gods would be adopted or married into other cultures, changing the way they were worshiped. They would have personality changes matching the societal changes the cultures that worshiped them went through. People from one culture would meet worshipers of a deity from another land, say "hey, this God really reminds me of this God I worship," and they might decide they are actually the same God, or forms of the same God, or create a whole new God that was a mix of both.
We can do that today, too. I'm not saying to be an asshole about it and intentionally ignore a God's known taboos and preferences, but you can worship Gods in ways they were not worshiped in antiquity. You can combine God who have similar vibes into a new God. You can write new rituals. You can declare that a modern holiday like Earth Day or Veteran's Day is a feast day for an ancient God who has an interest in the subject the holiday is about. You can say "Ah, this fictional character seems to have been inspired by a God I worship," and involve action figures of that character into your practice. You can adapt ancient practices to modern needs, and vice versa. All of these may conflict with how these Gods and traditions were seen in antiquity... but so what? Gods and traditions from antiquity conflict with each other all the time, sometimes within those same cultures. Heck, that sort of thing isn't even inconsistent with being human... different people see me as an entirely different person, sometimes with a completely different name, but those depictions of me are all generally accurate to their experiences.
The main thing we need to watch out for isn't keeping our practices pristine, it's being honest about it. Santa Claus can be Odin for you, and hell, Jesus can be Horus for you. That's fine... as long as you aren't muddying people's historical knowledge by perpetuating historical falsehoods.
Happy Trails,