Christmas Is A Pagan Holiday?

There’s a war on Christmas. Did you know that? There are those in the world who hate Christmas and don’t want anyone else celebrating.

I ran into a group like this, a few years ago. A women was in my Bible study group. I sensed that something was amiss with this woman, but I didn’t quite know what it was. She would never use the name Jesus. She only called Him Yeshua, but only rarely. She preferred to talk about the Father and not Jesus. We were studying the book of Acts that year. She would bring up a verse, during our small group time, then twist it a bit, saying the Hebrew interpretation was such and such. That was odd. The New Testament was never written in Hebrew, it was written in Greek.

The oddity of what this woman believed came full force at Christmas time. Every year in our Bible study we had a big Christmas tea. I had to contact each member of our small group to see if they would be attending and get a head count. Before it was even December, this woman emailed me and said she WOULD NOT be attending the tea. But she said it in such a way, I got a sense that it didn’t just not fit her schedule, she was making a stand. Making a stand AGAINST the tea. I called her and she asked me if I got her email. I said yes. She then restated what she had said in the email that she WOULD NOT be going to the Christmas tea. I said I knew that, because she had sent the email. I could tell she wanted to tell me why she WOULD NOT be going to the tea. I took the bait.

I asked her why she couldn’t attend the tea. She went for it. Christmas, according to her, was a pagan holiday. Now that she was studying Acts, she realized how important it was not to dabble in anything pagan. As a Christian, she just couldn’t be part of that pagan holiday, Christmas. I got off the phone with her feeling accused and… pagan. I was a Christian. And I loved celebrating Christmas. It’s one of the few holidays that means anything. Christmas and Easter, the two celebrations that are totally Christian based. We celebrate Christmas because Jesus came into the world to grow up, and sacrifice His life for the sins of the world. What an awesome thing to celebrate! Christmas is hope. But this woman was saying it was pagan. Pagan!!! And I, being a Christian, was celebrating a pagan holiday! According to this woman, I needed forgiveness for committing such an atrocious sin.

The woman touched on a few reasons for not celebrating Christmas. We don’t know the actual day Jesus was born. Well that’s true, but we know He was born. Pick a day, any day, and let’s celebrate! She said that Christmas was close to the pagan Roman holiday called Saturnalia. Well that’s true too. But those of us who celebrate Christmas don’t know anything about Saturnalia, we are celebrating Christ’s birth.

Jesus, coming into the world, IS a time to celebrate. We Christians CAN celebrate. It’s one of two holidays we should celebrate. Yes, we don’t actually know when Jesus was born. But we can still celebrate. God described a celebration for Christ’s birth. Some wise men from far away, came to celebrate and they brought gifts. Some angels showed up to some shepherds and terrified them. The angels told the shepherds to go check out the newborn King. This was a celebration. And they did.

By the end of the year, this woman had managed to recruit a friend of mine into her group. I started to do an online investigation to figure out what they were in to. I discovered they were into a movement called “Hebrew Roots.” The basic premise of the group is to start following the law again. In the process, they throw Jesus under the bus. With Jesus, we don’t need the law. Salvation comes from acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior, the One who died, rose again, and paid the price for our sins. You need to throw Jesus out in order to return to practicing the law.

So for me, as a Christian, is it okay for me to celebrate Christmas? Absolutely. Am I a pagan if I do celebrate? Absolutely not. Christmas gives us a big, big reason to celebrate. Jesus coming to this planet is a big, big reason. So as for me and my household, we celebrate Christmas, And we do it in good conscience. We celebrate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s birth, who provided a way of salvation for all mankind. I think that’s worth celebrating!