The True Origins of Christmas
Where Did Christmas Come From?
Is Christmas pagan? Why December 25? Where did the tree and Santa come from? Every year the same questions come back around. Here are short, honest answers, with the history and the sources.
Read the Series
Ten short articles, five to eight minutes each. Start anywhere.
All articles
- Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?5 min
- Why Do We Celebrate Christmas on December 25?6 min
- Did Christians Steal Christmas from Saturnalia and the Sun God?7 min
- Is the Christmas Tree Pagan? The True Story of St. Boniface8 min
- Did the Vikings Invent the Christmas Tree?7 min
- The Christian Origins of Santa Claus6 min
- Has Christmas Been Bought?6 min
- Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? What the Bible Says7 min
- The Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Carols8 min
- Top 10 Christmas Myths (and the Truth Behind Them)8 min
The Short Answers
No. Christmas started as a Christian celebration of Jesus' birth. It grew up surrounded by cultures with plenty of pagan festivals, but living next door to something isn't the same as being it. The "pagan Christmas" idea mostly took shape about 300 years ago. Read the full article
The Bible doesn't give a date. Early Christians believed Jesus died on March 25 and that he was conceived on that same day of the year. Add nine months and you get December 25. The math started at the cross. Read the full article
Saturnalia was a different holiday, on different days (December 17 to 23), for a different god, and early church leaders told believers to stay away from it. The evidence for a December 25 sun festival also shows up later than the Christian reasoning for the date, not earlier. Read the full article
No. Nobody is bowing to the tree in your living room. Boniface didn't invent it, but he did cut down a tree people worshiped and showed them it had no power. A tree was never the problem. Worshiping it was. Read the full article
Yes. Santa started out as Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop of Myra who loved Jesus, gave in secret, and stood up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves. Read the full article
The Bible doesn't require it, and it doesn't forbid it. Jeremiah 10 is about idols, not Christmas trees. It leaves the choice with believers who want to honor the Lord, and there's a lot worth celebrating. Read the full article
Celebrate Christmas with Us
The history matters, but the story matters more. Join us on Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24 at 5 PM, by candlelight, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.