Is Christmas Pagan? Does It Matter?

A new debate has broken out over the West’s favorite holiday.

Most people accept Christmas as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ because they have not given the matter much thought.

Until recently, those who have examined the subject generally accepted that Christmas has pagan roots. It is never mentioned in the Bible. It’s easy to prove that Christ was not born in December—the fact that shepherds bring their flocks down from the fields before Judea’s rainy winter is just one piece of evidence among many.

Even still, these people don’t reject the holiday. Most respond simply by saying, OK, it’s pagan, but now we use it to honor God and enjoy time with family—what’s wrong with that? For more radical secularists, the idea that Christmas was pagan actually increased the appeal of the day.

But now there is new pushback, particularly online. Popular threads on X and prominent articles reject the “Christmas is pagan” narrative. What is the truth?

The Case Against Christmas

Christmas is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church.” Encyclopedia Britannica states: “In particular, during the first two centuries of Christianity, there was strong opposition to recognizing birthdays of martyrs or, for that matter, of Jesus.”

Instead, Christmas was generally recognized as being based on pagan holidays that took place around the winter solstice, including:

• Saturnalia: A weeklong festival that is generally celebrated from December 17 to 23, devoted to the Roman god Saturn.
• The birthday of Sol Invictus—or the Unconquered Sun: Worship of Sol Invictus grew in the Roman Empire during the third and fourth centuries. His birthday was celebrated on December 25.
• Yule: A Germanic festival that is celebrated in northern Europe around the winter solstice.

The Case for Christmas

Some argue against such connections. “No, Christmas isn’t pagan,” declared the Spectator last week. The Telegraph accused English Heritage of promoting the “outdated” belief that Christmas was based on the birthday of the Sol Invictus.

The reasoning? First of all, neither Saturnalia nor the winter solstice (December 21 this year) occurs exactly on December 25.

That’s not massively convincing. Roman emperors shifted the calendar by a few days. Augustus Caesar shortened Saturnalia to three days; there’s some evidence that the Emperor Domitian had it celebrated on December 25.

The calendar itself has shifted over time, with the Julian calendar gradually getting out of sync with the sun. Western nations had to chop out several days and shift to an updated Gregorian calendar to keep it lined up.

So we have a ceremony that looks a lot like Christmas, with gift-giving, feasting, wreaths and decorative trees. After 2,000 years, the dates don’t line up perfectly—but these two are still way too similar in practice and time to be a coincidence.

A second line of attack admits that Christmas and these pagan festivals have a lot in common—but says Christmas actually came first.

The first reference to Christmas is in the calendar of Philocalus from a.d. 354. The Spectator article cites that calendar as our only source for a festival celebrating the birth of Sol Invictus, also on December 25. Sol Invictus was a relatively new cult to Rome. How do we know it wasn’t followers of Sol stealing from Christians?

Asking “How do we know?” isn’t proof. But we also have an earlier reference to the birth of the unconquered sun. The calendar of Antiochus of Athens, from around the second century a.d., also gives the birthday of the sun as December 25—comfortably predating Christmas. To be fair to the Spectator, it doesn’t specifically say that this day was celebrated. But it’s clear followers of Sol Invictus did not pick their god’s birthday to coincide with Christmas.

None of the Christmas apologists points to a biblical reason for celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25. How do they say we got the December 25 date? In the third century, Hippolytus of Rome and Sextus Julius Africanus decided that Christ was conceived on March 25. How? By philosophy. They reasoned that:

1. All prophets were conceived on the day of their death.
2. Christ died on the spring equinox, March 25.
3. The world was created on the spring equinox.
4. Christ was conceived on this same day, March 25.
5. Therefore, He was born nine months later, on December 25.

None of this is in the Bible. The holy day calendar recorded in the Old Testament revolves around lunar months, not the sun’s position in the sky. Their whole system of dates was thoroughly infiltrated by the pagan society they lived in. No wonder their dates for Christ’s birth, death and conception coincide with preexisting pagan festivals.

The account raises other questions. Many others came up with alternative dates for Christ’s birth and conception. Why did the ideas of these two win out? Could it be because the festivals based on these dates coincided with popular festivals already celebrated across the Roman Empire?

Thirty years ago, theology professor Susan Roll wrote: “No liturgical historian, whatever her or his position on the concrete causes of the development and institution of the Christmas feast, goes so far as to deny that it has any sort of relation with the sun, the winter solstice and the popularity of solar worship in the later Roman Empire.” None of the supposedly new scholarship on the subject provides any convincing denial of the relationship between Christmas and these ancient pagan festivals.

Who Cares?

Does any of this matter? Catholic Answers magazine gives some of the above arguments on Christmas not being pagan, then says that “the church has the ability to Christianize people and celebrations alike” and “there is nothing wrong with the church baptizing certain practices of other religions.”

If it’s a question of right or wrong, we should let the Bible be our standard. As ancient Israel entered the Promised Land, God said: “Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God …” (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).

God doesn’t want to be worshiped the way others worship their false gods. Verse 31 condemns the way these false religions are engaged in child sacrifice. God hates that and wants nothing to do with it.

But it’s not just the obvious abominations God tells Israel to avoid. He also tells them not to copy much more harmless-sounding pagan practices, like the way the heathen killed animals or the location of their sacrifices (verses 3-5, 23-24). God is clear: “Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (verse 8). You may see nothing wrong with borrowing days or practices from pagans. It doesn’t matter—God says don’t borrow from them.

Jeremiah gets even more specific in Jeremiah 10:2-5:

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

Jeremiah said, Don’t copy pagan practices. Here is an example of something you should not copy. He then describes something that looks very much like a Christmas tree. Catholic Answers acknowledges this scripture, but says: “Jeremiah was not talking about Christmas trees. He was writing hundreds of years before Christmas became a celebration. He was pointing out the idolatry of the people of that day and … was warning against the idolatry of those who put their hope in earthly gods and things. Near to this, the objector must understand that Christians are not intent on worshiping their trees and are certainly not putting them in their entryways to deter spirits—perhaps for some carolers and eggnog, but not for protection.”

Sure, they weren’t called Christmas trees in Jeremiah’s time. But they are reasoning around a direct command from God. He says, Thou shalt not. Men say, But it’s fine in this case because we know why God says this, and we’re doing it for a different reason.

That’s the Old Testament, and many reject it entirely. God says He doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8), but did He change His view on this between the Old and New Testaments?

In Galatians 4, Paul wrote to Christians who came out of Rome’s pagan religions—who “when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods” (verse 8).

“But now,” he said, “after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years” (verses 9-10).

They were going back to their old pagan ways. They were keeping Saturnalia—while considering themselves Christian. Paul rebukes these same Christians for turning to “another gospel” in Galatians 1:6. They talked about “the gospel,” but it was a different gospel from the one Christ taught. They mixed elements of paganism into their “Christian” religion.” Paul feared they were on the brink of losing their salvation (Galatians 4:11).

Jesus Christ Himself talked of some, saying, “[I]n vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). It is possible to worship Jesus. But if you don’t do it the way God says, it is in vain.

Taking our old, human ideas and “Christianizing” them is much easier than letting the Bible be our authority and changing. As Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, “The hardest thing for anyone to do is to admit that he is wrong.” “Christianzing” our own ways is an easy way to avoid admitting error.

Those who want to keep celebrating Christmas will take verses out of context to justify their position. One common passage is Romans 14:5-6: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. …”

Does this mean everyone should simply do what seems right to them? Did the God of the Old Testament say, “Ye shall not do … every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” and Paul in the New Testament write the opposite? Did Paul rebuke the Galatians for turning back to the holidays they used to celebrate and tell the Romans to do whatever they thought right?

Clearly not. Look at the context. The chapter begins: “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs” (verses 1-2). The passage, as it is most commonly quoted, cuts off halfway through verse 6, which goes on to say: “He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.” The rest of the chapter continues to discuss food, finishing, “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (verse 23).

The context is about people thinking it is right or wrong to eat certain foods on certain days.

As Paul worked to unify converts with Jewish and pagan backgrounds, he helped the Jews understand certain physical rituals weren’t required and helped the pagans shake off their own ways. There are a handful of similar scriptures apologists will take out of context to justify Christmas or argue that we should not judge another’s observance of it.

That’s not what any of them are talking about. Church members should not sit in judgment of other members. Yet Paul exhorted Christians, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God … rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). We must separate truth and error. In Revelation 2:2, Christ praised the Ephesians because they “tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” A Christian must test doctrines and practices to see if they are true.

The Bible exhorts us to come out of the pagan ways of society around us (2 Corinthians 6:17). That is as true today as when Paul wrote it. It is far easier to come up with excuses not to.

Days like Christmas are a test of who we worship, who has authority over our lives. Is it the Bible? The opinion of fellow men? Or do we do what is right in our own eyes?

There is a lot more to Christmas that is pagan and condemned in the Bible. Our free booklet The Truth About Christmas provides more details.