Celebrating Christmas and the Pagan Question
Every year, Christians face questions about the appropriateness of celebrating Christmas and putting up Christmas trees. I think it’s inevitable. The holiday season is problematic for many. Some believe the celebration is terribly tainted with commercialism—stripped of its Christian origin—and they decry the secularization of Christmas. Others believe the celebration is an evil compromise with pagan practices and wish the season’s unholy revelry would cease.
Those who feel the season’s celebration is marred by paganism and protest its observance believe that those who observe the holiday are deceived into following a pagan practice. Such people eschew syncretistic thinking and seek to follow Jesus with all their hearts. Frankly, I don’t care much about the elaborate trappings and festivities of Christmas, but I have succumbed to the customs of giving gifts to my kids, saying “merry Christmas,” and singing carols. My family also sets up a life-size Nativity I built to honor the incarnation rather than holiday gaiety.
I think the claim that Christmas trees are equivalent to idolatrous Canaanite customs, which God forbids, is unwarranted. It seems to me that the meaning behind a Christmas tree is more related to one’s motive and what one is thinking during the holidays than it is to its pagan origins. You don’t have to fear Christmas trees because having one does not make you a practicing pagan—unless you’re bowing down and worshiping it (Jeremiah 10:2-5; 1 Corinthians 8:4). Decorating Christmas trees may be a compromise with secular society, but those who choose to have a tree can give it meaning unlike that found in the secular world.
For many Christians, holidays are times when friends and family come together to celebrate something good. For these Christians, Christmas is typically about remembering the birth of Jesus. It’s about celebrating a world of peace and goodwill for all people everywhere. It represents joyful greetings, gift giving, and happy celebrations with many fond memories of loved ones. Christians are sometimes wary of tradition, but tradition in and of itself is not necessarily evil. God doesn’t condemn family tradition or heritage, only the error and wrongdoing sometimes associated with it.
To engage in holiday revelry and merrymaking, on the other hand, is akin to paganism, so we should not sanction or participate in that. Christians can choose to celebrate this time in ways unlike the rest of the world. Instead of overspending on decorations and presents that people mostly don’t need, we can find ways to help those who are poor and hungry. Keeping things simple and focusing on others is more in keeping with the celebration of Jesus’ humble birth. If we rightly reflect on the presence of Jesus, our presents will better reflect the spirit of His birth.
It is true that many who celebrate Christmas have made the day about everything but the Savior. They make it a day of greed and materialistic gain—expressed in the desire for sparkle and amusement. It’s no act of faith to sacrifice to the gods of consumerism and merchandise. There remains a deep need to simplify our lives and to be more concerned with the Savior than with twinkling lights and glistening baubles.
Since Jesus was not born on December 25, there’s something artificial about Christmas. If we are not careful, its shimmering tinsel and festive displays can replace what actually comes from God. Christmas is nowhere ordained in Scripture, and its customs were once overladen with pagan rites. Christmas today has little to do with worshiping Jesus, so I respect the decision of those who think it’s best to avoid it altogether. We can definitely benefit and learn from one another’s concerns, but in the end, we should not let our disagreements distract us from community. Paul lays down an important principle for Christian conduct: “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (1 Corinthians 7:17, ESV).
Whatever you choose to do during this season, find a way to make the world’s most celebrated day into a time of honoring the Savior who was born into the world. God’s unspeakable gift of Jesus’s birth was a real event that continues to have significance for our world, even if secular society dominates the season. Though Jesus’s birth is unconnected to the date of Christmas, it is fitting that we honor the birth of our Savior during this season or at some other point during the year. Since this is the time when people are most prone to think about Jesus and His birth, I believe it’s a good time to talk about it.
Seek ways to redeem the season by reflecting upon God’s love expressed in the person of Jesus. When we recognize who the babe born in Bethlehem truly is, it makes a sanctifying difference in our lives. It is the union of Jesus with our human nature and with His divine nature that saves us from our sins. We can join in celebration with the angels that appeared on the hills of Bethlehem by living more incarnationally because God still wants to dwell within us.
The baby lying in a manger is not a cute Christmas decoration. He is God in human flesh. Heed the voice of the angels. Come lean over the shoulders of Mary and Joseph and look into the face of the baby lying in the manger. As you look into the face of that little baby—so peaceful, gentle, and kind—see God giving us what we need. This is none other than a face-to-face encounter with God Himself. Rather than holiday presents, let the holy presence of Jesus invade our lives, our homes, and our communities for a most impressive witness to the world.
I pray that you will be blessed this Christmas season as you contemplate God coming into our world to forever embrace us in our humanity.
Craig Ashton Jr.
Theological InTents 
2 Responses to “Celebrating Christmas and the Pagan Question”
Many good points, although it is putting the issue of worshipping Jesus vs a over worldy Christmas celebration against each other.. while the main problem is not being recognized., If we can align with the Catholic Church and believe that we can christianize pagan ways, and find good in it, find the good intensions. And think about Jesus that particular time of year because of a day set by the hands of men rather than god. Than you must apply the same principle to a Sunday worship day. Or a Sunday world day. That will most likely Lead to a Sunday law.. after all it can also be christianized., with the same lovely spirit that is felt on Christmas will also be felt every Sunday. Does that make it ok., It is a big contradiction for one to put down Sunday worship but kindly accept Christmas., the main problem is all days that we’re are to worship our creator we’re given by our creator, not man., also there is no mention to celebrate and remember and celebrate the birth of Christ but rather his death and his purpose and example., biblically there is no reason to observe Christmas rather take that same spirit and observe the feasts in lev:23 even as Christ did and his apostles did even hundred years after his death. Even though all the animal blood sacrifices were nailed to the cross for Christ’s blood was the satisfaction and final blood sacrifice to god our father. All feasts were kept until the Catholic Church came into the picture and started to warp and distort the truth and implement and force error
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The Big Picture:
Thank you for your comment. I agree that the customs of Christmas were adapted from Roman festivities which involved pagan practices, but concluding that ones reflection on Jesus during the Christmas season is somehow in alignment with pagan worship practices goes too far.
First, it should be noted that adopting traditions in our worship practices to reflect true theology, is not only allowable at times, but something that God has done on occasion and the New Testament agrees. God gave a familiar tripartite sanctuary to the Israelites that was virtually identical in form to the pagan sanctuaries. In Acts Paul used a pagan idol to the unknown God as a way of pointing people in Athens to the Creator and the promised Savior. It was the tradition of men to bless God before a meal, a custom that Jesus followed, even though God’s Word tells us to recite the blessing after the meal (Deut.8:10). Why would Jesus accept a tradition set by the hands of men and yet reject others? Just because a word, form or tradition is not found in the bible does not make it anti-biblical. The goal is not surrendering to culture and assimilating pagan practices—not to join error—but to counter it. One of the ways a believer might do this today is to distinguish between nativity and festivity. While December 25th is unbiblical, the birth of Jesus is biblical. Christmas observance is nowhere ordained in scripture, so I do not understand how it can be equated with a theology on the biblical Sabbath. Are you saying that it’s also inappropriate to read your bible or think about God on the first day of the week lest you give homage to Sun worship? Is it wrong to rejoice at the birth of Jesus during this time of year? Why would you be against remembering the birth of Jesus? The incarnation is a doctrine of the New Testament.
Second, there is no mention of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament because the Jewish religion simply did not celebrate birthdays. Birthdays were not a Jewish thing, so we are given no birth date by the early disciples marking when Jesus was born. I agree that the New Testament pays closer attention to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Third, while we should recognize the negatives, we should also affirm the positives of why one might choose to remember God’s gift to humanity during this time of year—reasons that are not influenced by the Roman festival. I agree that Christians can enrich themselves by learning about the biblical festivals, but I think it is unfortunate that you are focusing on denouncing something that has become a way of the land and can’t be changed. I also find it ironic that you are trying to point out Roman cultic practices on my blog but you end up stating that the blood of Jesus was a satisfaction to the Father, which is considered by some to be a pagan idea and at best a mediaeval Catholic notion of the atonement. The point of this post is not to denounce “pagan” traditions, but how people can use this time of year as an opportunity to reflect more on what the incarnation tells them about God. I would suggest thinking more about God’s beautiful gift in Jesus during this time of year and refocus the season in ways that do not compromise our devotion to God. Conscience will have to dictate where we each draw the line. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Rom.12:9, ESV).
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