Most people who celebrate Christmas do so on December 25th. Yet, that particular celebration date doesn’t come from the Bible.

Indeed, the earliest believers in Messiah Jesus didn’t celebrate his birthday.

From the History Channel: “Most Christians today probably can’t imagine Christmas on any other day than December 25, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, for the first three centuries of Christianity’s existence, Jesus Christ’s birth wasn’t celebrated at all.”

Retired UCSF researcher James Grout writes, “If the birth of Jesus was not celebrated by the early church, it also was because there was not a consensus as to when it actually had occurred. . . Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis who died in AD 403, continued to argue that January 6 was the date of Jesus’ birth.”

Historian and theologian Andrew McGowan, PhD writes, “The biblical reference to shepherds tending their flocks at night when they hear the news of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8) might suggest the spring lambing season; in the cold month of December, on the other hand, sheep might well have been corralled.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. As Constantine had made Christianity the effective religion of the empire, some have speculated that choosing this date had the political motive of weakening the established pagan celebrations. The date was not widely accepted in the Eastern Empire, where January 6 had been favored, for another half-century, and Christmas did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century.”

Ancient Origins editor April Holloway writes, “It is written in the Bible that Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem to register in a Roman census (Luke 2:1-4). However, such censuses were not taken in winter, when temperatures often dropped below freezing and roads were in poor condition.”

Holloway also writes, “When King Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century, he had quite a challenge ahead of him with regard to converting an empire full of pagans. It was therefore decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus on a date that was already sacred according to pagan traditions. So as a compromise with paganism and in an attempt to give the pagan holidays Christian significance, it was simply decided that the birthday of the Sun God would also be the birthday of the Son of God. The Catholic Encyclopaedia quotes an early Christian with saying, ‘O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born…. Christ should be born’.”

From historian Kenneth C. Davis:

“In ancient Rome there was a feast called Saturnalia that celebrated the solstice. What is the solstice? It’s the day that the sun starts coming back, the days start getting longer. And most of the traditions that we have that relate to Christmas relate to the solstice, which was celebrated in ancient Rome on December 25. So when Christianity became the official religion in a sense, in Rome, they were able to fix this date. … There’s a little discrepancy about it but there’s no question that the fact that it was celebrated in Rome as an important day with gift giving, candle lighting, and singing and decorating houses really cemented Christmas as December 25.”

Even if Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th, there is nothing wrong with having a celebration on that day.

Just be careful about who you invite over to your place.

Featured Image: “Joyful Christmas” by Viggo Johansen (1891). Image in Public Domain.

David Robertson

The “Wanted” posters say the following about David: “Wanted: A refugee from planet Melmac masquerading as a human. Loves cats. If seen, contact the Alien Task Force.”

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