Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?

“Click here and find out the TRUE Pagan Origins of Christmas!” There are literally thousands of theories and claims about the origins of Christmas and, depending on your Google search and which rabbit hole of the internet you fall down, you’ll find many headlines like this. But such theories about the pagan-hijacking of Christianity miss several important points that Christians should consider in the holiday season.

Here are five reasons why Christmas isn’t a pagan holiday, but actually one Christians can receive and celebrate with joy:

1. Because the early church wasn’t dumb. Christians in the early church weren’t duped into celebrating a pagan holiday, and they certainly didn’t purposely seek to enmesh Christianity with paganism.
2. Because Christmas is not a rip-off of pagan festivals and traditions. The early church had many reasons for celebrating Christmas festivities, but among them was not an attempt to adopt pagan practices in order to make Christianity more appealing.
3. Because the message of Christmas is greater than Santa and commercialism. We don’t need to let worldly pitfalls keep us from enjoying the Christmas season. The gospel is so profound and otherworldly that even in a highly commercialized holiday, the strange wonder of God being wrapped in human flesh, coming to the world as a helpless babe to redeem man, can’t be muffled, no matter how crowded the mall’s parking lot.
4. Because Christians have good reasons to celebrate in the harshest of winters. Special observance and celebration of this gospel when the days are darkest and coldest makes even more sense because it’s the hope we have in tribulation, distress, persecution, and famine (Rom. 8:35).
5. Because Christmas isn’t a fairy tale. Christmas is the confession that God really did come into human history; to save man from the darkness of the world and the coldness of our hearts. And this confession, even in the bleakest, or overly commercialized seasons, is our hope and stay.

To read a fuller explanation of each of these points, download our free Core Guide: 5 Reasons Christmas Is Not a Pagan Holiday

Caleb Wait

Caleb Wait (MA, Westminster Seminary California) is the Associate Producer of Core Christianity. He and his wife Kristin have two young children and live in Southern California. You can follow him on Twitter at @calebwait.