“Of course, no one has ever really been able to pin down where exactly Christmas came from, or what it’s truly supposed to mean. On its face, it stems from the old Christian myth celebrating the birth of their savior figure, but it appears to have been adapted from a pre-existing holiday. As time went on, the occasion underwent a number of transformations, until it was widely celebrated in an equally secular context.”

He chewed his prime rib thoughtfully, and continued:

“This, of course, was before the Neo-Pagan revival of the 23rd century, and even longer before the pan-holistic religions that sprang up in the 27th. At that point, the meaning of Christmas became even more convoluted- leftover religious groups in Federation space wanted to focus on the archaic Christian symbolism, the Neo-Pagans wanted it to be a Galactic Winter Solstice celebration, and everyone else just wanted to get their shopping over with!”

He chuckled to himself. “Fortunately, we don’t have to bother with all that tonight. The twentieth century was pretty simple, as far as religious differences went. People fought over which version of the same deity to worship, unless you observed more than one, or none at all!… in which case the monotheists would call a truce to gang up on you!”

Shaking his head, he continued. “So simple to us, and yet so complex for the people at the time! I wonder what they would have thought of the next thousand years?”