Is December 25 Just a Pagan Holiday?

It seems like that’s what everyone wants us to believe.

After all, the only reason Christians celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25 was because the Romans had a pagan celebration on that day and Christians took it over. Right?

Wrong.

Serious scholars do not believe that. There’s no evidence for it. We have nothing in writing from early church fathers or ancient historians that indicate that Christmas was a takeover of an already Roman holiday. It’s just something that historians assumed hundreds of years later and passed off as fact, though, as stated, there’s nothing to it. 

Actually, we have evidence to the contrary.

Christian started celebrating Jesus’ birth on December 25 (in the west) and January 6 (in the east) towards the end of the third century (first indicated around 200AD). It is true that in later centuries (mid 4th-10th), church leaders began to “christianize” some Roman practices and Roman festivals became days to honor saints, etc., but that sort of thing was unheard of in the 3rd century. Instead, Christians in the 3rd century believed in distancing themselves from pagan holidays and practices, according to historians of that era and church leaders of that time. They wanted pagans to see them as altogether different, and refused to participate in their holidays, festivals and celebrations. One early church leader defended the date of December 25 for Jesus’ birth, claiming it was only a coincidence that it fell on the same date as a pagan celebration.

And then I’ve heard the common argument, “Shepherds would not have been in the field in the middle of the winter.” I just returned from Israel and Beduin shepherds are in the fields twelve months of the year in parts of Israel even today. During the first century, a special kind of shepherd watched sheep in the winter in the hills of Bethlehem, outside of Jerusalem, watching flocks of unblemished sheep kept specifically for Temple sacrifices. Wouldn’t it make sense that an angel would appear to these shepherds and in a sense say, “These sheep will not be needed much longer, because the true Lamb of God has been born!”?

Early Christians believed that Jesus was born on December 25 for reasons far different than choosing an existing holiday. There were two explanations for it. One has to do with the date of Jesus’ crucifixion and the other has to do with the timing of the angel appearing to Zecharia, announcing the conception of John the Baptist.

A blog post like this is too short to go into detail, but some fascinating articles documenting this can be found in theological journals and biblical archeology periodicals.

But to shorten the arguments, we know that 2nd-3rd century Jews and Christians believed that God’s appearing and special work was often accomplished on exact dates though separated by years. Because conception was celebrated in their circles more so than births, they believed that Jesus’ conception and crucifixion would have occurred on the same date. Christians in North Africa calculated Jesus’ crucifixion on March 25 (modern calendar), and since they then believed Jesus would have been conceived on that date, they came up with the December 25 date as nine months later.

Around the same time, Christians in the west calculated the date they believed Zecharia would have been ministering in the Temple. They became convinced it was The Day of Atonement. Since Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, was six months pregnant when Mary conceived, they estimated Jesus' conception as the same date those in North Africa had arrived at, and calculated his birth based on that as December 25. Christians in the east made the same calculation around the same time, but using their lunar calendar, they came up with the date of January 6, still celebrated by Eastern Christians today.

Everywhere in church literature, all the way into medieval times, whenever it was discussed, December 25 was put forth as the date because of one of the two arguments above. Winter Solstice or a Roman festival was never part of their reasoning and those who came up with the December 25 date would have adamantly rejected those claims because their theology at that time repudiated synchronism (merging pagan practices with Christian). Later Christians did adopt many pagan practices into the celebration of Christmas (the tree, etc.), but the date was chosen earlier and it was celebrated because they really believed that was the date Jesus was born.

None of the above is proof and the date of Zecharia’s time in the Temple is up for debate, as are other assumptions in those arguments. We still don’t really know the exact date that Jesus was born. But my point is this: December 25 is as good a date as any. And celebrating Christmas on December 25 began as a Christian celebration and not a pagan one. Celebration on December 25 around the world is of Christian origin, not pagan. Yes, lots of worldly and unchristian things have been inserted (like lavish materialism), but as Christians, we really should stop saying things like, “Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 anyway.” Just stop the neigh-saying. He might have! And the evidence for this date is at least as good as any other. It is a celebration of a wonderful event, the incarnation, that has been passed on through the centuries from our Christian forefathers, and it’s a healthy tradition to reclaim, redeem, and embrace.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!