December 2025 Newsletter Article
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”—John 1:9
If you’re reading this, it’s likely the Christmas season. As you may know, Christmas is a twelve-day season spanning December 25th until January 5th. Epiphany marks the start of a new season on January 6th. In this season, sometimes we may get the question, “Is Christmas a pagan holiday?” Let’s take some time to unpack this question and debunk some myths while also acknowledging what we don’t know.
Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?
My short answer is, “It is if you make it a pagan holiday.” That is to say, there are millions of people in America and billions of people worldwide who treat it like a secular holiday. If you have a Christmas tree, open presents, and don’t take any time to adore the Christ child, for you, it is a pagan holiday. For example, one of my seminary professors, Dr. Naomichi Masaki, is from Japan. In a chapel sermon, he mentioned that plenty of Japanese people celebrate Christmas. Only 2% of Japan is Christian. (He also mentioned that Christmas became a wonderful evangelism season as his congregation would reach out to their neighbors to share the true meaning of Christmas.) Certainly, without belief in Jesus as God, many Japanese would celebrate Christmas in a “pagan” fashion.
Defined this way, any good gift of our Heavenly Father can be made into a “pagan celebration.” Easter becomes a “pagan holiday” when we make it about the Easter Bunny and eggs rather than the resurrection of Christ. Satan can corrupt any good gift and turn it “pagan.”
Does Christmas Have Pagan Roots?
However, what someone is usually asking when they ask, “Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?” is whether its celebration was co-opted from Roman pagan rituals. The usual narrative goes something like, “The first Christians were persecuted, so they chose to celebrate Christmas in a time where the Romans were having feasts to their false gods, so the Romans would be too busy partying to notice the Christians celebrating Christmas.” This is a common narrative. This is something I heard from my LCMS pastor when I was in junior confirmation. To celebrate Christmas, it is supposed that Christians were spinning off of idol worship of gods such as Saturn or Sol Invictus.
Christian apologist (that is, defender of the faith) Wes Huff addresses this topic in his video “Christmas isn’t pagan and here’s why.” First, he points out that many of these festivals don’t actually align with December 25th. Their celebration was December 17th—not December 25th. Second, although the evidence we have for the first celebrations of Christmas are from the early fourth century, the earliest evidence we have for celebrations such as Saturnalia (a festival to Saturn) or Sol Invictus taking place on the 25th are from the middle of the fourth century, later than our records of the first celebrations of Christmas! Additionally, the worship of Sol Invictus—any time during the year, not just December 25th—didn’t start until 200 years after Christ.
The fact of the matter is that by the fourth century, Roman pagan worship had declined so much due to the influence of Christianity that it’s just as likely that the Romans were copying the Christians by moving things to December 25th rather than vice versa! We don’t have any evidence to prove that December 25th was first a pagan holiday before it was celebrated by Christians.
What about December 25th?
It is true that we don’t know for certain the day of the year Jesus was born. The Bible doesn’t tell us. Because the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks, it likely wasn’t winter which would have been the rainy season in Israel.
However, it was a commonly held belief by theologians that a holy person died the day they were conceived. Perhaps it was an over-interpretation of Deuteronomy 34:7 which states that Moses was 120 years old when he died. They read it as exactly 120 years old.
According to this logic, theologians believed Jesus died on March 25th. Although the Bible doesn’t tell us the exact day Jesus died, we know it was during the Passover, so it generally would take place during the spring. Nine months after March 25th is December 25th. This, many scholars argue, is the reason Christmas is the day it is, not because of anything the pagans did. The symbolism of Christmas being near the winter solstice, that is, the longest night in the year, speaks an important theological truth that Jesus is the light of the world, even if Jesus’ true day of birth was not December 25th.
Aren’t Christmas Trees Pagan?
It’s easy to find a website that tells you that a Christmas tree is pagan. It’s harder to find primary sources that say that. We have no evidence that Christmas trees were adapted from pagan roots. One of the earliest references to a tree in the history of the church is the story of Boniface who lived in the eighth century. This “Apostle to the Germans” felled a sacred oak tree dedicated to Thor. When Thor didn’t strike him dead, the locals converted to Christianity. Other scholars postulate that the Christmas tree originates from Christians in the 1500s decorating evergreen trees with fruit to signify the fruit of the Tree of Life from Genesis 2. Still others point to a tale of Martin Luther making the first Christmas tree trying to emulate the beauty of the night sky in the forest by putting candles on its branches.
The exact origin of the Christmas tree may be uncertain. However, according to Wes Huff, we have no evidence that it was adapted from pagan rituals.
What about Jeremiah 10:3–4?
“for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.”
Some have pointed to this passage as proving a Biblical prohibition on setting up a Christmas tree. Context demonstrates that the Lord is warning against carving graven images that people worship, not Christmas trees.
Putting it All Together
We can be disgusted by the amount of commercialization that our culture has made Christmas about. We can be sad about people more worried about presents than worshipping Christ. Indeed, we should be. However, there is still value in celebrating Christmas as we consider the wonder of God becoming one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. Some Christians such as Puritans or those under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell outlawed Christmas because of the excesses of the holidays. However, we need not through the baby out with the bath water (or throw out the Christ child with the creche, if you will).
On one hand, we shouldn’t be bothered if some Christians for the sake of their conscience choose not to celebrate Christmas due to our culture corrupting a proper celebration of Christ’s birth. On the other, Christians are to be free to celebrate the birth of Christ as Christmas without worrying it is tainted by society’s improper observance of the festival or worries about its pagan roots.
- Pastor Jacob Eichers, December 2025
Links
Youtube: Christmas Isn’t Pagan and Here’s Why
Lutheran Witness: Why December 25th?
On a lighter note:
Lutheran Satire (made by LCMS Pastor Hans Fiene) Horus Ruins Christmas