Myths and Identity Formation

I believe that myths play a large role in the identity formation of those in the United States. Many aspects of our "history" I would consider to be myths rather than fact. These myths include ideas revolving around holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. But these "facts" are in fact based on myths. Christmas and Easter were adapted to fit around the time of pagan holidays, and aspects of these holidays such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are clearly myths. We know that there is no such thing as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. This relates to another common aspect of our culture, the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy is a very common myth used for children who lose their teeth. In my opinion, the most facts that revolve around myths in our culture is in religion. How can we be sure that these stories actually happened? When we do not have any real proof? Yet almost if not everything in the bible has no way of being proved true. However it is helpful when there is no way to prove something, but there are many stories and knowledge about it, to say that it is a fact, rather than a myth. However, we still do not have still do not have firsthand experience of this, but it is almost impossible that we would, because how can we prove something from hundreds & thousands of years ago is true? Or that the "proof" of it is actually true. Therefore, in certain cases it is impossible to dismiss a myth as fact, but because of the information and knowledge we have gathered on it, we believe it to be fact.