It’s loosely based on religious practice of giving thanks to God. But during my life it has been a very secular holiday. No religious miracle or event that it’s celebrating. Just generally be thankful.
I agree that Christmas is a religious holiday even though it has roots based in pagan celebrations and today has a lot of secular importance and less religious importance.
I recognize the high holidays every year when we have to rearrange moose hunt around them. 
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I get the day after Thanksgiving, and a day next to Christmas. And you don’t need a paid day off for Easter because in this predominantly Christian nation is it trivially easy to find a job where you never work on the Christian sabbath, which Easter falls on.
No other group has important holidays that NEVER fall on a work day.
I wasn’t kidding about Jews being over-represented in having gotten our sabbath added to the “weekend”. That’s a huge deal. And it’s one that Christians can just take for granted.
Yes, I agree with all of this based on the experience in my lifetime. Both holidays have become very secular despite their religious beginnings.
I would say “Christmas” has always been a Christian holiday that hijacked a pagan one (now with more secular, commercial, material overtones).
I did initially qualify that Thanksgiving, despite its religious roots*, is now more secular & historical-focused:
*The Pilgrims may have viewed their survival as a miraculous provision. 
According to Pew, 70% of Americans identify as some sort of Christian denomination. 24% unaffiliated religious/atheist/agnostic. 6% other, non-Christian religions, including Jewish and Muslim which make up half of that group.
So, I’m thinking the Christian holidays (Christmas and to some extent Good Friday, really) are important to a good portion of the population. Easter is always on a Sunday, so most of America has that day off anyway.
Due Christian Religous influence, as Lucy pointed out.
This is just some random coincidence that most Americans have the two sabbath days off as “the weekend.”
I would say that Christmas had always been a basically secular celebration because “it’s cold and dark, let’s light some candles, eat rich food, and drink booze because the sun is coming back, and anyway, we need an excuse to do something cheerful”. The Christians managed to put a religious spin on it as marketing for their way of life, but they didn’t really change the underlying holiday.
I think people combining the cultural and religious elements of Christmas is why it’s ~70% calling themselves Christian and not a number much smaller
As i said, excellent marketing!
Actually according to a pastor of mine the roots were loosely Jewish!
Happy Juneteenth!
I found this overview of the history of Juneteenth interesting
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/juneteenth-federal-holiday-biden-1.5616451
Enjoy your party, Miss Van Pelt!
Thanks, we had a blast. This was a celebration of my household being fully vaccinated, and we saw a lot of friends we haven’t seen in more than a year. A good time was had by all.
None of that seems remotely juneteenthly.
It’s a texas thing. Leave it to the Texans.
Great marketing indeed.
However, they aren’t totally made up holidays. Both real-world events. One celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ. The other, his death. Christians decided to time those holidays to coincide with he winter and spring celebrations of the non-Christians. A ploy, no doubt, to attract members.
uh, the name of the holiday is CHRISTmas. It’s the celebration of the birth of Jesus CHRIST. 
why is this even being debated?
And to celebrate Christ we give eachother presents around an evergreen tree, Santa brings kids presents, and we put out pretty lights at the darkest part of the year.
Easter is a truly Christian holiday set on a date that’s plausible for the event it commemorates. It doesn’t commemorate the death of Jesus (that’s Good Friday) but his resurrection, which is a central mystery of the faith.
Christmas? Just a rebranding of yuletide and saturnalia.
Don’t forget the rich foods and booze and visiting family and friends.