Christmas Is NOT a Pagan Holiday. It's Very, Very Christian.
Introduction
Today, Christmas is celebrated by 2 billion people worldwide. Although we take it for granted that Christmas comes around every December (or January, for our Easter Orthodox friends), it was not originally part of the church calendar. And its inclusion had to overcome a couple of challenges.
Challenge 1: No Corresponding Old Testament Festival
The holidays Easter and Pentecost make sense for a religion like Christianity, that sprung from biblical Judaism. These holidays have corresponding feast days established by the Lord in the Old Testament. Easter corresponds to Passover, and Pentecost corresponds to Shavuot, or First Fruits. However, there was not an Old Covenant feast day corresponding to the birth of the Messiah.
Challenge 2: Unknown Date of Jesus's Birth
Christ’s birth date is not given in the Gospels, and dating the birth of Jesus, and indeed the birth of Jesus itself, was not a focus of the Early Church. They focused primarily on His death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That being said, a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ was inevitable.
John Chrysostom (c. 307–407 A.D.) remarked that "without the birth of Christ there were also no baptism, passion, resurrection, or ascension, and no outpouring of the Holy Ghost; hence no feast of Epiphany, of Easter, or of Pentecost." In other words, without the birth, there would be no life, death, and resurrection. So it makes sense that a holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus would eventually find its way into the church calendar.
At first, a different holiday fulfilled this need. Epiphany, meaning “manifestation” or “revelation,” is observed annually on January 6 and celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Magi, representing the Gentiles world (cf. Luke 2:32). Epiphany was established in the East and moved westward.
How Did Christmas Start and Spread?
Whereas Epiphany had spread from the East to the West, the spread of Christmas went the opposite direction.
The earliest mention of Christmas comes from Rome in A.D. 360, by a bishop named Liberius. He referenced the “birth-festival” of Christ, indicating that it was already an established holiday. Christmas reached Antioch (modern Turkey) about 380. It marched eastward to Alexandria, Egypt, by 430. From obscure origins, Christmas quickly became seen as one of the most important Christian holidays.
On December 25th, 386, Chrysostom preached a Christmas sermon calling the holiday "the fundamental feast, or the root, from which all other Christian festivals grow forth."
Why Is Christmas On December 25th?
Historian Philip Schaff says that Christmas,
was probably the Christian transformation or regeneration of a series of kindred heathen festivals—the Saturnalia, Sigillaria, Juvenalia, and Brumalia—which were kept in Rome in the month of December, in commemoration of the golden age of universal freedom and equality, and in honor of the unconquered sun, and which were great holidays, especially for slaves and children.
It could be that the church fathers discerned in those pagan festivals a deep desire which paganism could not satisfy. By celebrating the sun at the time of year when the days begin to grow longer, the pagans revealed their longing for light and hope in a dark and seemingly hopeless world. Christians find light and hope in the incarnation, atoning death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. So it could be that the Christians adopted, adapted, and redeemed those pagan festivals, transforming them into Christmas at a time when the people of the Roman Empire were converting to Christianity en masse.
Just as the Hebrews conquered and redeemed the land of Canaan, and just as Christians took over the Roman Empire through mass evangelism and built Western Civilization on its ruins, so Christmas supplanted and replaced the pagan holidays with a more meaningful, truer, and better celebration.
If all this is true, then the problems that accompany Christmas—over-indulgence, commercialism, etc.— can be seen as a return to the pre-Christian, pagan days. These are perversions of the true meaning of Christmas, which those festivals unwittingly pointed forward to.
This would be appropriate, given how Christmas—and its predecessor Epiphany—commemorate Christ's arrival in the world and His manifestation to lost humanity, both Jews and pagan Gentiles.
However, it may be that Jesus really was born on December 25th after all. An Early Church tradition held that holy people died on the day of their conception. It was maintained that Jesus, the holiest of all men, had died on March 25, the same date on which He had been conceived. Doing the math, He would have been born nine months later, on December 25th. If this Yuletide origin story is true, and I suspect it is, then the dating of Christmas has nothing to do with pagan holidays at all.
Either way, whether December 25th originated as the supposed date of Jesus’ birth, or it was reclaimed and redeemed from pagan holidays, it is the perfect time of year to celebrate the birthday of the Lord.
Christian Christmas Traditions
People sometimes try to accuse Christians of “stealing” Christmas traditions from paganism, but the following all have deeply Christian roots:
Candy canes: shaped like a J for Jesus. Red stripes remind us of Isaiah 53:5: “with his stripes we are healed.”
Carols: Commanded in Scripture. See Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.
Christmas Tree: invented by Martin Luther. Reminds us of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:17), the tree Christ died on(Gal. 3:13), and the Tree of Life (Rev. 2:7).
Christmas Lights: remind us of Jesus Christ, the light of the world (John 1:5).
Mistletoe: a tradition dating from 18th C. Christian England. Also, a fulfillment of 2 Corinthians 13:12.
Presents: commemorates God giving His Son (John 3:16).
Santa Claus: based on St. Nicolaus, a Christian saint who gave gifts to the poor and contented for the divinity of Jesus.
Stockings: St. Nicolaus filled these with money for the poor.
Wreaths: came from using all the parts of the Christmas tree.
Yule Log: used to count down the 12 days of Christmas—first referenced in 17th C. Christian Germany.
The Real Meaning of Christmas Today
C. S. Lewis once wrote that there seem to be two opposing holiday seasons running side-by-side. One is the season of Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas during which the church prepares to observe Christmas and commemorate the Incarnation of God in the flesh. The other, Lewis called Xmas. At its best, Xmas is a Dickensian throwback characterized by carolers, Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchet, and such nostalgia. At its worst, Xmas is a chaotic, stressful, commercial event stretching from Black Friday through to Christmas Day. Xmas can be a time for family, childlike wonder, and hope, but these things are often swallowed up in the purchasing, planning, and traveling.
The rush and cacophony of Xmas competes with the stable, simple, true meaning of Christmas: the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. God the Father sent His Son as light into the dark world to save His people from their sins, as the angel Gabriel announced to Joseph in Matthew 1:21. The Word of God became a man, lived without sin, died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead. He now rules over all of Heaven and Earth (Mt 28:18). One day He will return to set the world to right.
The message of Christmas is about more than warm feelings, giving and receiving presents, and watching adorably ridiculous Christmas movies (whether featuring Hallmark Channel actors or Bruce Willis). Christmas presents us with a question: will we make the necessary effort to break through the pandemonium of Xmas, in order to set our hearts on the true meaning of Christmas? Will we allow our hearts to be transformed and redeemed by the Son of God whose life, death and resurrection transform the world and every soul who believes Him?