Does it ever occur to anyone that many things are pagan because Paganism (or "earth magic" or animism or whatever) was around before Judaism and Christianity? It's the oldest form of religion/belief system as far as anthropologists can determine. Man worshipped nature or more accurately, the seeming power behind it a long time before the Judeo-Christian belief systems came about. Judaism started in the Bronze Age, which isn't really that long ago in the history of the human race.
Yeah, I know, many believe that humans haven't been around that long, but hey...that's THEIR problem if they reject science, isn't it?
Also, even the Jews had harvest festivals (the festival of booths), an observance of the spring equinox (Passover) , a winter solstice observance...humans can't escape the fact that the turning of the seasons and the phases of the moon are significant and tend to observe them in some way. The Jews and now Christians borrowing from both Jewish and Pagan observances seem to be evidence of that.
The origins of the European Pagan Yule are actually quite lovely and worthy of being observed in some surviving form as we do now, even if you don't share the faith of the people it originated with. It was a time to go out and see if your neighbors had enough food to get them through the harsh winters in that part of the world. You brought gifts, food, booze and sat around the fire and sang, and blessed the gods of nature that provided enough for you to get through the winter. Since these folks didn't know the Jewish or Christian God at all, what did you expect them to do? Not have religion or feel blessed because was not the kind that was in a Bible that extols a god they never heard of?