From a Hellenic outlook that's part of it, but I don't know about other traditions. The Greek writers have said Zeus holds hospitality as the greatest law and will not help along a greedy person. Speaking of how disregarding the lessons of the gods can bring suffering.
At least some of modern Christmas observances have their origins in Saturnalia, which in turn has root in the Greek festival of Kronia. Gift-giving is one custom I'm aware of practiced by the Romans, and feasting was customary for the Kronia among Greeks.
Belief in the gods in some way persisted all through medieval Europe among peasantry, and even some nobles, who sometimes claimed descent from a specific deity.
The Greeks thought Zeus was omnipotent, but I'm not sure they meant the Abrahamic definition. I'd venture to say it probably means Zeus's power is beyond comprehension.
The Quran saying Jesus spoke in the cradle reminds me of something from the gnostic Valentinus. He said he had a vision of the word and saw an infant speaking.
You speak as though something being mythology would mean it has no truth, when in fact the truth in it is very like the gods, of an essence other than our everyday literal/material.
I know a lot of suffering is of human making as you said, and the gods aren't our babysitters. In fact, one of the things I thought about while asking this question is the attribution of the law of hospitality to the gods among the Greeks. It went something like this in my mind:
The gods have...
I've asked this question concerning the god of monotheism, so now I think it only fair to pose this question to myself and other polytheists.
Basically its this: why do the gods allow suffering?
I'll begin by stating for my part that I don't ultimately know. I can speculate based on pondering...
Although I will say I think there's growth for me to be had in my new path. I have all these ideals that I'm starting to see don't really align with the nature of beast man is. The gods are nothing if not realistic in the extreme about man's nature. It seems like they're more about what needs to...