I like to celebrate the Yule on the winter solstice...it's a secondary Celtic holiday. This year there will be a lunar eclipse on the solstice so it should be very exciting! I'm planning to take a nighttime hike. I also celebrate Christ's birthday, usually on Christmas Eve by going to services and meditating. Christmas Day is a time for celebrating with family and exchanging small presents as tokens of our love. Santa Claus rules over Christmas Day, and I also look forward to merriment and feasting. New Year's Eve is dedicated to friends and looking forward to the coming year. My philosophy is with so much happening at the end of the year, you have to compartmentalize!
Early Christians probably chose the solstice for Christ's birthday arbitrarily, and they appropriated many things from other religions. After all, the most holy Christian Day...Easter...is named after the Greek Goddess of Rebirth!