> Do you think about the long pre-Christian traditions of those two
> festivals,
> in particular?


Some things, like bringing in the Yule log. We used to do that. And had fun
with bits of mistletoe.
Why not celebrate the start of the year and the sun's return? All the
better if we got a White Christmas.
Jesus probably wasn't born at Christmas, anyway.
Our elders used to read us the Dickens story, "A Christmas Carol".

And at Easter we used to think about the Passover, Exodus and the ten
plagues of Egypt etc, as well as the Christian story.
But we didn't have the Easter Bunny, that is a more recent idea. We got the
Easter eggs, though.

The churches were full of spring flowers, and it was easy to believe in the
Resurrection.
Easter in Autumn is more of a promise than a celebration.