Why Is Christmas Celebrated on December 25?

According to the Library of Congress:

“The origins of the holiday are uncertain; by the year 336, however, the Christian church in Rome observed the Feast of the Nativity on December 25. At that time, Christmas coincided with the winter solstice and the Roman Festival of Saturnalia. Today, observations of Christmas incorporate the secular and religious traditions of many cultures, from the ancient Roman practice of decorating homes with evergreens and exchanging gifts at the New Year to the Celtic Yule log.”

Christianitytoday.com explains that during the first three centuries of Christianity, the celebration of Christ’s birth was usually done on Epiphany (January 6), one of the church’s earliest established feasts. Some church leaders opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen (c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods.

Not all of Origen’s contemporaries agreed that Christ’s birthday shouldn’t be celebrated, and a number of theories circulated about what the date should be. Suggestions ranged throughout the calendar. One Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21, because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun. Another, following the same line of reasoning, concluded that Christ’s birth and baptism most likely occurred on Wednesday, because the sun was created on the fourth day.

The same site reports that “the eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen’s concern about pagan gods and the church’s identification of God’s son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman “birth of the unconquered sun”), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian “Sun of Righteousness” whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival.”

Although Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336 after Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the empire’s official religion, Eastern churches continued to adhere to January 6 as the date for Christ’s birth and his baptism. The Western church does celebrate Epiphany on January 6, but as the arrival date of the Magi rather than as the date of Christ’s baptism.

Things became complicated again in the sixteenth century when Pope Gregory devised a new calendar, which was unevenly adopted. The Eastern Orthodox and some Protestants retained the Julian calendar, which meant they celebrated Christmas 13 days later than their Gregorian counterparts. Most—but not all—of the Christian world now agrees on the Gregorian calendar and the December 25 date.

For the origin of other Christmas customs, see our post here.

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