"In Wicca, a form of the holiday is
observed as one of the eight solar holidays, or
Sabbat. In most Wiccan sects, this holiday is celebrated as
the rebirth of the Great God, who is viewed as the newborn
solstice sun."
-
Winter solstice -> Yule (Wiccan), Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice)
"I'm not so much celebrating Christmas
as acknowledging Yule – the old Germanic and Norse mid-winter
festival supplanted over a millennium ago by early Christian
missionaries and to which we owe most of the seasonal fun,
including the Christmas tree, the lights, holly, mistletoe
and the ham."
- Ancient Yule festivals lie behind much of our British
Christmas,
by
Ian Vince, 15 Dec 2008,
Telegraph.co.uk
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/3776077/Ancient-Yule-festivals-lie-behind-much-of-our-British-Christmas.html)