Many of the same Christmas traditions we observe today originated over 4,000 years ago, long before the birth of Jesus. The twelve days of Christmas, the Yule log, exchanging Christmas gifts, caroling from house to house, large holiday feasts, holly, mistletoe, and evergreen boughs adorning doors and mantles are all traditions practiced by ancient Celtic, Norse, Germanic and Roman Pagan societies.
It was referred to as Yule to most Pagans. The Romans called in Saturnalia. It was, and still is for many, celebrated on the first day of winter, the winter solstice, which falls on either December 21 or 22 each year. It was the time ancient Pagans celebrated the rebirth of the sun and the return of longer days. In fact, modern-day Pagans still celebrate Saturnalia and Yule today. Yule, however, has become synonymous with Christmas for many in modern-day society due to the term being used from generation to generation. Over time, later generations lost the knowledge of what Yule truly is and have been unable to separate it from Christmas. Just do a search on Amazon with words like “Yule” and “Yuletide” and you’ll get titles in the results such as “Classic Christmas Stories: Sixteen Timeless Yuletide Tales,” and “A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories and Poems.”
Here’s how it all came down: Around 325 CE, Constantine, himself a Pagan, driven by his own political agenda and desire to unite Christians and Pagans to create a stronger Roman Empire, declared December 25th to be an “Immovable Feast.”
Around this same time, the Church declared this date to be the birth date of Jesus Christ, despite little or no evidence that Christ was born in December (most scholars believe Jesus was likely born in the spring). Clearly, the decision to celebrate Jesus’ birth in December was largely, if not entirely, influenced by the need to entice Pagans into converting to Christianity by making the transition from their winter festivals to Christmas as painless as possible. It is probably no coincidence that the birth dates of several pagan Gods, including Ishtar and Mithras, had been celebrated on December 25th for thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
During the early years of Christianity, many Christians refused to celebrate Christmas due to its Pagan origins and traditions. Since celebrating birthdays at all was also considered a Pagan tradition, many Christians refused to celebrate the birth of Jesus at any time during the year. After all, there is absolutely nothing in the bible dictating how or when to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact, there is nothing in it dictating his birth be observed at all. Christmas as we know it did not become popular until the 19th century.
While there are still a handful of fundamentalist Christians who refuse to participate in Christmas - either because of its Pagan roots, it’s over commercialization, the focus on indulgence and merriment, or the fact that the very word Christmas is considered by some to be taking the Lord’s name in vain - most Christians today are protesting the secularization of the holiday. It does indeed seem that the Christmas season, which unofficially starts on Thanksgiving and includes Hanukkah, Yule, Kwanzaa, and New Years, is becoming a time for people of all faiths, and even the faithless, to celebrate peace, charity, family and good will. But many Christians are opposed to this merger and are threatening to boycott retailers that use terms such as “holiday” rather than “Christmas” in their politically correct advertising campaigns.
The U.S. Supreme Court itself considers Christmas a secular holiday. At least that was its argument when, on December 19, 2000, it upheld the decision to keep it a federal holiday, which it has been since the 1800s.
