A Holiday Embraced by Nearly Everyone
Without question, this is the most celebrated and profitable holiday the world has ever encountered. Its popularity has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. Countless people from all walks of life and different faiths — even atheists — come together to practice the various customs of what is now known as “Christmas,” celebrated every December 25th.
What “Christmas” Actually Means
The very word “Christmas” comes from two words — “Christ’s Mass” — a Roman Catholic teaching concerning the Lord’s Supper. In that practice, a priest offers Christ up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world each time the mass is performed, and by a supernatural ability supposedly given to him, transforms the bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ. Catholic members are instructed to worship the wafer itself. This is plainly contrary to what the Scriptures teach concerning the true meaning of the Lord’s Supper and Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of His people (Hebrews 9:12, 24–26; 10:10, 12, 14).
Why Christ Is Not Merely “The Baby Jesus”
The baby whose birth is celebrated at Christmas is the Creator of the world. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). This world is no cosmic accident — it was created by the Triune God, through the very Lord Jesus who was born in Bethlehem.
One of the more popular concepts surrounding Christmas is viewing Christ merely as a “baby,” a notion figures like Dr. Felix Konotey-Ahulu and John Rice have each, in their own way, advocated. But this distorts the true account contained in the Bible — Christ spent 33 years on earth before returning to heaven. Viewing the Lord as a perpetual infant, however sentimentally intended, is simply not biblical.
Why December 25th? The Pagan Origins of the Date
We know for a fact Christ was not born in winter, as Palestine’s climate was cold from December through February, and shepherds in Judea customarily watched their flocks no later than October. So why was December 25th chosen as the official date? It was about converting pagans to Catholicism. Rome held an annual winter festival observing the birthday of their sun god, Mithras — itself rooted in the Babylonian religion, which celebrated the birth of a son (Baal, or Mithras to the Romans) from a mother-goddess deemed the “queen of heaven.”
Adaptations of this same festival spread widely: some ancient Arabian tribes marked the birth of their own moon deity on December 24th, and the Anglo-Saxons called December 25th “Yule day” — “infant day” or “child’s day” — long before any Christmas tradition existed. Under Constantine, the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD officially declared the celebration now known as Christmas in place of the old winter Roman festival, folding pagan customs into a new holiday bearing biblical names so as to unite pagans and non-pagans alike under Catholicism. Centuries later, that appeal spread into most Protestant circles that had once shunned the very idea of a “Christmas celebration” — nothing in their own history reveals any origin for a day set aside for Christ’s birth, yet many of these assemblies, Baptists among them, have not only accepted this Roman Catholic holy day but now labor to put Christ into it.
How Christians in the Past Viewed Christmas
Spurgeon returned to the subject in his Treasury of David, on Psalm 81:4: “When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord.”
He was hardly alone. In America’s early history, Governor William Bradford, a Puritan, worked hard to stamp out all “pagan mockery” during the Christmas season, including the holiday itself. Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols and decorated trees. As a December 23, 1983 USA Today article on the holiday put it: “A broad element of English Christianity still considered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century.”
The Customs and Symbols of Christmas
The Christmas Tree. The most recognized symbol of the season, decorated with lights, glitter, and ornaments in every shape and size — a custom now expanded to homes, yards, and even government buildings. But what does an evergreen tree actually have to do with Christ’s birth? Nothing found anywhere in Scripture. To the ancient pagans, however, the evergreen represented eternal life, since it stayed green through every season, and was used to honor the god Adonis — slain, and later restored to life by the serpent Aesculapius, his stump growing into an evergreen tree. Other cultures adapted the same symbol: Rome’s Baal-Berith, supposedly revived by the same serpent on December 25th, and Egypt’s Baal-Tamar, worshipped in a palm tree.
The custom of bringing the tree indoors is credited to St. Boniface (675–755 AD), who cut down a sacred oak in the presence of newly baptized converts; an evergreen was said to have miraculously sprung from its stump, symbolizing the death of paganism and the rise of Catholicism. Centuries later, Martin Luther helped popularize the custom further by decorating a fir tree in his own home. Scripture speaks directly to this practice:
Santa Claus. Also called “Father Christmas,” the figure children flock to for presents traces back to a Dutch Roman Catholic bishop of the 4th century, Sant Nikolaas — “Saint Nicholas” — known for giving treats to children and later canonized by Rome. His familiar red apparel comes from the vestments of Italian bishops. “Kriss Kringle,” another name he goes by, is German for “Christ Child.” But paganism had its own version first: “Bes,” said to live at the north pole and craft gifts year-round for well-behaved children — later adapted into Catholicism and, through European tradition, expanded into a figure who travels the world judging who is “naughty or nice.” Even his reindeer trace to Babylonian myth, later adapted into Norse Yuletide tradition.
The “Divinity” of Santa Claus. Considered as a figure rather than a marketing character, Santa carries god-like attributes — he never dies, possesses the “magic” to visit billions of homes in a single night, and judges the people of the world as good or bad, rewarding acceptable behavior. That is not a picture of faith freely given by grace; it is a picture of salvation by works, dressed in a red suit.
Mistletoe. This plant serves no practical purpose for man or beast — it is in fact poisonous to both — yet the Druids found one anyway, using it as a corrupted symbol of Christ, calling it the “Man of the Branch,” a false messiah descending from heaven to rest upon a tree. Since a kiss was considered a symbol of reconciliation between God and man, the custom of kissing beneath the mistletoe began, its supposed magic believed to have been carried down from heaven in the toes of a mistle thrush.
Gift-Giving. Perhaps the most appealing custom of the modern holiday, and the source of the vast majority of retailers’ annual profits. Yet looking back to the actual account of Christ’s birth, the gifts recorded were given to Christ — not exchanged among the local population. The roots of this custom, like the rest of the holiday, are simply not biblical.
Examining the Christmas Carols
When believers sing hymns to God, both the music and the content must glorify Him — the two go hand in hand. A look at several of the most popular Christmas carols reveals how far their content has drifted from Scripture.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” contains errors that don’t agree with the biblical account — the “herald angels” never actually sang “Glory to the newborn King.” Its author held views on baptismal regeneration flatly contrary to Scripture’s own teaching that faith is a gift of God apart from any water rite (Ephesians 2:8–9), which is worth bearing in mind when weighing whether the hymn rests on a sound biblical foundation.
“Silent Night! Holy Night!” — written by Fr. Joseph Mohr (Roman Catholic priest, 1818), tune by Franz Gruber (1818, Roman Catholic) — distorts the actual scene: angels were singing and shepherds were visiting, so it was hardly a “silent” night. The claims that “all is bright” or that angels sang “Alleluia” appear nowhere in Scripture, nor does light radiating from the infant’s face. Interestingly, the hymn doesn’t actually describe the First Advent at all, but the Millennium — likely folded into Christmas caroling by Protestants who once rejected the holiday before eventually going along with its popularity.
Other favorites — “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” “The First Noel,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Away in a Manger” — carry similar doctrinal or factual problems worth examining on their own, though space here moves on to more pressing matters.
Scriptural Support and Basis for Not Celebrating Christmas
In Deuteronomy 12:29–32, God tells His people that if any pagan worship is found in the promised land, they are to destroy every part of it — He did not want His people worshipping Him in the manner pagans worshipped their gods, not even in the slightest degree. In 1 Samuel 15:1–3, 7–9, 21–23, Saul rebels against the word of the Lord and decides to worship God his own way instead. Isn’t that precisely what the Christmas celebration is — man’s own way of worshipping God?
Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image
Pictures of Christ, nativity scenes, and Christmas cards depicting Jesus all violate this command. God has given us His Word, not images, since no true description of His appearance exists — the Word alone is what teaches us of Christ. Looking to the Christmas season itself for happiness, joy, and fulfillment — absorbed in gift-picking, or lights on a tree or in the yard — rather than through a pure, personal, biblical relationship with Jesus Christ, is itself a form of idolatry (Exodus 20:2–3; Matthew 22:36–38).
Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the LORD Thy God in Vain
“Christ” and “mass” are two words entirely opposed to one another, and to join them is to take the name of Christ in vain. Taking a pagan celebration, “Christianizing” it, and calling it a celebration of Christ’s birth is doing exactly that. Even Rome’s own leadership has, at times, conceded the emptiness of the custom it presides over:
Christians are not instructed to observe even the Jewish holy days given to God’s people under the Old Testament, and certainly have no liberty to invent a day found nowhere in the New Testament and observe it yearly using pagan customs to do so. The Apostles, who walked with Christ and were taught directly by Him, never instituted a special day to celebrate His birth after His ascension — nor is there any record of such a day while He lived on earth. The birth of Christ was real, important, and historical, but that alone does not make “Christmas” biblical. Scripture, in fact, devotes far more attention to the miracles of Christ than to His birth — which raises a fair question: why is no special day set aside for those?
Thou Shalt Not Follow a Multitude to Do Evil
Some favor the holiday because it draws people into the assembly, or puts them in a more receptive mood to talk about the Bible; others point to families gathering together. There is, of course, nothing wrong with gathering as a family around the holidays even apart from observing Christmas itself. But if believers were free to add to the worship of God whatever holidays focus attention on isolated events, it would make Scripture appear incomplete, and open the door to exactly the kind of behavior it warns against. Believers are to worship God in all the ways He has commanded — nothing more, nothing less.
Be Not Conformed to This World
No true Christian should celebrate Christmas, for it is man-made worship whose customs trace back to pagan gods across many cultures and religions through the ages. We are not to conform God’s Word to the world’s celebration; we are to conform ourselves to His Word, daily. As Revelation 18:4 puts it, believers are to come out and not be partakers of her sins.
An Archaeological Footnote
In 2007, Italian archaeologists uncovered a pagan shrine only a few steps from a building many call a “church” — though the word’s true meaning is the assembly of the saints, not a structure — built under Constantine, who had declared the first Christmas on December 25th, 325 AD.
Related reading on this site: The True Meaning of Easter and the Passover, which examines the same pattern of pagan customs absorbed into a professedly Christian holiday.