Was Christmas Ever Regarded As a Pagan Event?

Well....yeah. 

The Puritans had a rejection era in the 17th Century.  

In England under Oliver Cromwell (1645 period), Puritans banned Christmas celebrations.  Chief reason?  They saw it as decadent, unbiblical, and rooted in "pagan" Roman festivals like Saturnalia, which involved feasting, revelry (fun-making), and social inversion around the winter solstice. 

What was Saturnalia?  Saturnalia was written up as a ancient Roman festival held in honor of Saturn (god of agriculture, time, and wealth)....oddly celebrated from December 17 to 23 in the Julian calendar during the late Republic and early Empire periods.  I should note....originally, it was just a one-day event, and after a while (like all things)....folks felt a 7-day celebration (probably boozing-up) was more in order.

Oddly....Saturnalia was combined into a public event and a religious event.

So, back to the Puritan issue.....early colonial America (Boston from 1659 to 1681), Puritans outlawed the holiday and fined participants.  They even noted....there zero  indicators/facts for December 25 as Jesus' birthdate. 

This "War on Christmas" framed the event as a corrupted, heathen holdover, though the ban was lifted in England after 1660 and in America by the early 1680s.