Just like those who argue that Thanksgiving is "about feeling grateful" (but to nobody in particular).
My atheist mother was always into Xmas because it was intended, she believed, to be a time for family to get together. Most kids like it because it's a festival of getting stuff.
What's different about Xmas, however, is that it's not pagan tradition. Because Xianity spread and adopted a variety of local traditions (not just traditions, but also minor deities--it's called "syncretism"
there are a lot of pagan traditions. Then, because Xianity was widespread and united, a lot of those traditions, esp. in the last few hundred years, have spread.
So my nuclear family when I was a kid had some later Italian and Irish traditions, some German and Scandinavian traditions, plus the core Mediterranean traditions.
As for being Mithraic, that's a nice guess. What we know about the mystery religion would probably fit in a rather thin pamphlet, but only if we include the full front matter and copious footnotes and index in 32-point type. What was said much later about outsiders would fill a small book. And what we have extrpolated for degrees and polemic would fill a bookshelf.
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