text: Because Christmas is based on Yule. The early Christians adopted this timing to coincide with Yule in order to try to win over the Pegans. \n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Trees#History\n\nPegans used fire/lights light up the dark winter and to scare off any evil spirits that may be lurking. They brought evergreens inside for the same reason. Then they started putting presents ONLY on a tree. Putting candles on the tree was a much later developemt in an attempt to combine the lighting and evergreen traditions. The electric lights we have today haven't been around for very long....only since 1882.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_lights\n\n\n\nBTW: "Chanukah" is a JEWISH Holiday. It has NOTHING to do with Christianity.\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanukah