Top 10 Christmas Myths (and the Truth Behind Them)

Some of what we "know" about Christmas comes from the Bible. Some comes from history. And some comes from nativity plays, greeting cards, and that email your aunt forwarded in 2009.

Let's sort them out. Here are ten of the most common Christmas myths, and what's actually true.

Myth #1: There were three wise men

We sing "We Three Kings." Every nativity set comes with three. But Matthew never says how many there were. He just says "wise men from the east" came to Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1, ESV).

The number three comes from the gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). Three gifts, so people assumed three givers. There could have been two, or twelve, or a whole caravan.

Myth #2: The wise men were kings

The Greek word Matthew uses is magoi, the root of our words "magi" and "magic." These were likely scholars or court advisers who studied the stars, probably from Persia or Babylon. Not kings.

The "king" idea came centuries later, as Christians connected the story to Old Testament passages about kings bringing gifts to God's chosen one (Psalm 72:10–11, Isaiah 60:3). Their famous names, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, came even later. The Bible never names them.

Myth #3: The wise men showed up at the manger

They're in almost every nativity scene, kneeling next to the shepherds. But Matthew says they came into "the house" and saw "the child" (Matthew 2:11). Not a stable, and not a newborn.

There's another clue. After they left, King Herod ordered the killing of every boy in Bethlehem two years old and under, "according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men" (Matthew 2:16, ESV). That suggests Jesus may have been a toddler by the time they arrived.

So the shepherds came the night he was born. The wise men came later, maybe much later. (Fun fact: this is why many churches celebrate their visit separately on January 6, Epiphany.)

Myth #4: A mean innkeeper turned Mary and Joseph away

Every Christmas pageant has one: the grumpy innkeeper who slams the door. But he's not in the Bible.

Luke just says Mary laid Jesus in a manger "because there was no place for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7, ESV). The Greek word translated "inn" there is kataluma. Luke uses the same word later for the "guest room" where Jesus ate the Last Supper (Luke 22:11).

Many scholars think Joseph and Mary were staying with relatives, and the guest room was already full. In a lot of homes back then, the family's animals were brought into a lower area of the house at night, so a manger might have been right there inside. No innkeeper required.

While we're at it: the Bible doesn't mention a donkey either. Mary may have ridden one, but Luke only says they went up to Bethlehem.

Myth #5: Jesus was born on December 25

We covered this one earlier in the series. The Bible never gives the date of Jesus' birth, or even the season.

December 25 is the date early Christians arrived at by calculating from the date they believed Jesus died. It's a meaningful date with a fascinating history, but it's a tradition, not a birth certificate.

Myth #6: Christmas is just a pagan holiday with a new name

This whole series started with this one. The short version: the evidence doesn't support it.

Christians were working out December 25 from the date of the cross long before there's clear evidence of a Roman sun festival on that day. Saturnalia ended on December 23. And the earliest Christmas tree records point to a church play about Adam and Eve, not a pagan ritual.

Some customs have mixed backgrounds, sure. But Christmas itself has always been about Jesus.

Myth #7: "Xmas" takes Christ out of Christmas

This one gets people fired up every year. But the X isn't crossing anything out.

The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word for Christ is Christos, which starts with the letter chi. In Greek, chi looks just like our X. Christians have used X as shorthand for Christ for well over a thousand years.

In fact, an English scribe copying the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle around the year 1100 abbreviated Christmas with that Greek letter. And King Edward VI wrote "Xtemmas" in a letter back in 1551.

So "Xmas" isn't secular. It's actually a very old Christian abbreviation. That said, if "Christmas" fits on your sign, spell it out. Just don't panic when someone else doesn't.

Myth #8: "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a secret Catholic code

You've probably seen the post: during the years when Catholicism was outlawed in England, the song was supposedly a hidden catechism. The partridge was Jesus, the two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments, the four calling birds were the four Gospels, and so on.

It's a clever idea. It's also not true. There's no historical evidence for it at all. The theory first showed up in 1979, when a Canadian writer published an article on how to "decode" the song. A priest spread the idea in the 1980s and 1990s, and the internet did the rest.

Historians point out a big problem: almost everything the song supposedly "hides," like the Ten Commandments or the twelve points of the Apostles' Creed, was believed by Protestants too. There'd be no reason to hide it.

It's just a fun counting song. The twelve days themselves are real, though: they run from Christmas Day to the eve of Epiphany in early January.

Myth #9: The candy cane is shaped like a "J" for Jesus

The story goes that a Christian candy maker designed the candy cane as a witness: a "J" for Jesus, white for his purity, red stripes for his blood.

It's a sweet story, but it comes from children's books written in the 1990s. Another popular version credits a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in 1670 who bent sugar sticks into shepherd's crooks to keep kids quiet during services. There's no evidence for that one either.

The real origin of the candy cane is unknown. It probably got its hook so it could hang on a tree. Christmas cards from the late 1800s still show all-white candy canes. The red stripes came later.

That doesn't mean you can't use a candy cane to talk about Jesus. Just don't tell people that's why it was invented.

Myth #10: Baby Jesus never cried

We've all sung it: "The cattle are lowing, the poor Baby wakes, / But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes." It's a sweet line from "Away in a Manger." It's also not in the Bible, and it actually misses something important.

Jesus wasn't a baby-shaped adult pretending to be an infant. He was fully God and fully human. Hebrews says "he had to be made like his brothers in every respect" (Hebrews 2:17, ESV). Luke tells us he grew, both in body and in wisdom (Luke 2:40, 52). That means he got hungry. He needed his diapers changed. And yes, he almost certainly cried.

Crying isn't sin. It's what babies do. A Jesus who never cried would be a little less human, and a little less like us.

That's the wonder of Christmas. The Son of God didn't just look human. He became one, starting with the hard parts. The God who made the stars needed his mother to feed him in the middle of the night.

The bottom line

Why does any of this matter? Isn't it harmless to tell the candy cane story or put three kings in the nativity set?

Mostly, yes. Nobody's faith is in danger because of how many wise men are on the mantel.

But we follow a Savior who called himself "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6, ESV). When we repeat stories that aren't true, even nice ones, we hand skeptics an easy reason to dismiss the stories that are.

And here's the good news: the real Christmas story doesn't need any help. A young mother in a crowded house. Shepherds running through the night. Foreign scholars crossing a desert to worship a child. God himself, wrapped in cloth and laid in a feeding trough.

You can't improve on that. So let's tell it the way it happened.