How to gut your own argument, Christian style.

Use science and history to make it sound like your point has validity, then completely contradict yourself.

Let Charles Moore show you how it's done:

It might surprise some non-Christians to learn that Christmas as we know it wasn't always universally revered among devout Christians. It wasn't celebrated at all by the very early Church. Birthday observances in general were shunned as trappings of paganism.

Actually, Mr. Moore, most of us non-Christians do know that Christianity simply ripped of an assortment of rituals from other superstitious beliefs to rally Christians to their newer, more expensive, just as ridiculous seasonal cluster-fuck of magical items and supernatural icons.  I think it's more likely Christians who would be surprised to learn that very thing, since they think Christmas is a shiny, new celebration that no other religion had previously practiced under some other name.

Moore goes on to describe in a fair bit of detail how the Christian celebration of Christmas committed these thefts, who they stole from, and why.  Pretty accurate, historically.  Good so far.

Then he tries to make his point, which he fails to realize he has already defeated:

However, it is still the one time of year that Jesus Christ is thought and spoken of in somewhat reverential tones in popular culture, and that base is something devout Christians ought to build on, not retreat from.

...More than any other time of year, Christian images, language and principles achieve some serious traction in the public square at Christmastime, despite radical secular separationist attempts to eliminate them.

Christians: reclaim your holiday; and a Merry Christmas to all!

But Moore, didn’t you just tell us that nearly everything attributed to how Christians celebrate Christmas is stolen, or made up by conquerors wishing to keep a hold on the damn pagans, and in fact based on much older superstitious beliefs centered around that particular date?