White Christmas

It snowed in Jerusalem... and Egypt... and in a bunch of places it doesn't usually snow very much.
The kids are practicing for their Christmas pageant, where they will play shepherds, magi, Mary and Joseph, all Middle Eastern type folks, who despite being connected to all sorts of Christmas carols were probably not at all accustomed to Sleigh bells and Jack Frost.  In fact, we need to remember that Jesus may or may not have been born in winter, we don't really know, and for most of the history of the Christian faith we haven't really cared.
As I have stated before, and will gladly talk about with anyone who wants to listen, so many of the things we associate with Christmas are profoundly pagan things: winter solstice, evergreens, feasting, gift giving, and figgy pudding (actually not too many people really do the last one anymore, because well... yuck).
I'm not trying to be a Grinch, because I like those things (actually I kind of even like figgy pudding, if you put that sugary butter stuff on top of it).  I have a Christmas tree and we let our kids believe in Santa (at least Cate, Jack has scientifically debunked the mythology).
However, I think it's important that, as modern people of faith, we know what mysteries to hold tightly, and what myths to hold lightly.  As we proclaim the startling reality that God became a man, we need to understand that that alone is enough of an amazing truth. As Christians we should not get bogged down defending the mythological elements of the story and/or traditions, because that simply confuses the issue.
As the Daily Show points out so wonderfully, when people try to defend things that are logically and obviously not true, they just look ridiculous.
The idea that our celebration of Christmas really has that much to do with Jesus' actual circumstances is problematic.  As it is that we think Jesus looked like this:

Instead of this:

Of course, I know that the second image is every bit as speculative as the first.  Since folks didn't have cameras, and since Jesus was not rich enough or famous enough for anyone to actually paint his portrait, we really don't know what he looked like.  But given what EVERYBODY else who lived in that part of the world looked like at the time, I think the second one is a better guess.

Yet what everybody knows is that the first one is Jesus, because of tradition.  Just like everybody knows there were three wisemen (even though the Bible never says so).  Just like everybody knows that Mary and Joseph were cruelly cast out into the cold, because they didn't make proper reservations and ended up in some God forsaken cave with the animals (actually they were probably staying with relatives who had been put upon by far too many out of town family members who had to come to Bethlehem for the census.  Joseph and Mary getting their own stall was most likely a profound act of hospitality, everyone else was probably doubled up or crowded into the common living area.  And I guarantee you, when the baby was being born there were gaggle of womenfolk bustling around, keeping Joseph and the other men far away.  And I guarantee you the baby Jesus cried... a lot.

I also suspect that when a bunch of shepherds showed up in the middle of the night, there were some questions that needed answered before they ever got near the baby.  And when some Persians (read Gentiles) showed up with expensive gifts, there was more than a little consternation among Jesus' Jewish family.

But we don't hear much about any of this, because the really important thing is that something unprecedented had happened: Emmanuel, God with us.  I don't mind doubting or re-evaluating, or re-envisioning any of the details, and I'm not threatened by people who want to tell me that things didn't go down just the way the songs say.  Most of all, I'm not worried or upset when the world gets it all wrong, because that, for me is and important part of the true story of Christmas: when nobody expected it God showed up.