We cherish children because of Christmas.
Many pre-Christian civilizations practiced ritual child sacrifice. From the Carthage of Hannibal in northern Africa to the empire of the Aztecs, the slaughter of the innocents to placate angry gods went on throughout the year around the world.
“Not every individual pagan is guilty of the hatred of children,” writes John Saward in The Way of the Lamb, “But most pagan cultures tolerate the murder of children: if not by cult, then through abortion and infanticide.”
Before the coming of Christ, even the wisest among the pagans considered the child an incomplete human, an inferior being, little more than a piece of property.