How did Christmas become a christian holiday?

Jesus' birth was not celebrated for the first 200 years or so as it was the resurrection that was seen to be most important and not his birth. Jesus' actual birth was likely in March or April. The reason Dec 25th was selected was because there were already pagan celebrations for the sun on that day, so Christians wanted to celebrate as well and perhaps use it as a witness to others but obviously did not want to celebrate the pagan gods. So they decided to hold Dec 25th as holy, NOT to celebrate the sun, but to celebrate him who made the sun.

The Christian church has a long history of celebrating "masses" on different days of the year in honor of the different saints and heroes of the church. Once of the most holy masses was that given in honor of Christ. Thus the name: Christ - mass.

Often those masses would be timed to correspond with major pagen festivals to give the Christians an alternative to celebrate on those days. Similar to many churches today that offer "Harvest Celebrations" on Halloween to give their people an alternative.

Not all Christian churches celebrate Christmas on December 25th. Much of the Orthodox church celebrates it on whatever Sunday falls between January 6th and 12th. (Similar to how Easter is adjusted to come on a Sunday each year in the Western churches.)

There is no indication that "Christmas" was celebrated at any time in the New Testament. But by the early first century (about 50-70 years after the NT was completed) there was discussion about when to celebrate the Christmas, and whether it should be a "feast" or a "fast" holiday.

Originally it was not a celebration of Jesus' birth, but merely of his life. But as the church also celebrated "Easter" in memory of his death, the Christmas celebration eventually became a celebration of his birth. Nothing in the Bible states that December 25th was the actual date of his birth.

Over the centuries, the method in which Christmas has been celebrated has varied greatly. At one time it was the custom to fast and pray all night before Christmas, ending with the taking of the actual mass (communion) and then a large feast to celebrate.

The Christmas tree is something that has only become popular in the last couple centuries.

But Christmas appears to have began as a Christian alternative to the Roman holidays. They wanted a way to celebrate their religion on those days. With the forced conversion of the Roman world, the celebration replaced the pagan holidays, and also borrowed some of the ways of celebrating from those holidays giving them a Christian meaning instead.

Hi Justin. Good question!

Taking over Saturnalia was one of the only smart things the RCC ever did, imo.

We don't know when Christ was born. Looking at all the details, it seems sometime in September, though it used to be thought it was probably in the Spring. To stop the pagan feasts, the RCC chose Dec. 25, so folks would have an easier transition to Catholicism. Christians seemed to have thought it a good idea to celebrate Jesus' birth, and joined the Catholics.

The unlearned here will say that much of Christianity was adopted from paganism. It was the other way around, in fact. That, and paganism took much from the Jewish Scriptures. (Over 300 prophecies describing Jesus' birth of a virgin, death, and resurrection are contained in the Old Testament.) Also, remember that on Noah's ark, everyone knew the truth. A few generations is all it takes to totally twist the truth into something depraved. (Remember, people who get this mixed up are not necessarily stupid, just unlearned. They are simply missing information. Please don't call them stupid.)

Christianity began in the middle east, then it inched into Mediterranean Europe, as it spread the various pagan cultures tended to keep some of their old traditions, their heritage and adapt them to the new faith. In some areas Christianity spread by force, others by choice. The Catholic church which WAS Christianity at that point in history allowed the people to keep their traditions. This made it easier for people to accept and adapt to the new faith when they could correlate it to their old one...a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Often as not, the original "converts" ...especially those who were "converted" by choice, kept their old faiths alive in their own homes and passed the traditions along, eventually when the cultures became primarily Christian, those pagan traditions had simply been combined with the Christian traditions. Christmas is not the only holiday in which this happened.

Christ's Mass was instituted to give Christians something to do other than participate in the pagan holiday of the same season. There is no teaching within Christianity that Jesus was born on December 25, or January 7, or any other date.

December 25th was established by the Romans to coincide with an ancient pagan holiday celebrated by the ancient Babylonians. This date was not Jesus' birthday. The Roman catholics chose it because the pagan holiday was already in existence and the catholics wanted to take advantage of the crowds that already gathered on this date.

Jesus' birthday is believed to have been sometime in September. Remember the shepherds that were watching their flocks when Jesus was bo

" Maitreya answers: As you probably know, Christmas is a new phenomenon in the West. The beginning of it was with the Druids who used to celebrate the 21st of December and the 25th in their times, when they put apples on the trees as the sign of fertility and candles as the lights of their gods.

Eventually this tradition went to Europe, and the people in Germany picked it up. When they came to the United States, they were the people who started it in New York. They started cutting trees and setting them up there, and eventually it became a national tradition.

It really had nothing to do with Christ or his birthday or his coming, or celebrating God, but it was a pagan tradition that was celebrated with those people in Europe and in England. It is very easy, just go to the Internet and search for “origin of Christmas.” You will find tons of information about where it came from, what its origin is, and what it is for." READ MORE: http://www.maitreya.org/FILES/Conversation/2004/12...

In addition: There is even a warning about cutting and decorating trees right in the Bible!!! What are Christians thinking???? Celebrate God's Holy Days instead of man's holidays. http://www.maitreya.org/english/Other%20Evidences/...

God's Holy Days are listed in Leviticus 23 and we are now approaching the Day of Atonement beginning the evening of Sept. 27-28 and the Feast of Tabernacles starts evening of Oct. 1. READ MORE: http://www.maitreya.org/FILES/THOTH/essays1.htm/Es...

to make Christianity more palatable to the "barbarians." There is little to suggest that Jesus was actually born in December, though he may have been. I read arguments explaining the fall and spring as more likely times. Additionally, we don't even need to celebrate his birth, that came along later. But we associate it with him now and since we don't know the day, then one is as good as another. And it's pretty.

Christians believed that December 25th was Jesus' birthday so they decided to keep remembrance of him. But truthfully Jesus was not born on that date, for the Bible states that the shepards and their sheep were out that night. Bethlehem's (where Jesus was born) weather in December is rainy and cold, so why would the shepards and their sheep be out then? It makes sense.

Christianity adopted it so that the people could continue their ancient celebrations. Christianity has "adopted" most of their religion from ancient religions and customs. That is precisely why it makes no sense.