We’re all a little busy during this Christmas week (including myself), so I figured I’d put together a short and sweet blog post to answer the nagging question that many people inevitably pose around this time of year, “Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?” The ‘One Minute Apologist’, Dr. Bobby Conway, effectively answers this question in the video above. Some Christians may feel a little jumpy after hearing the news that Christmas may somehow be associated with some sort of pagan celebration. Some may even feel that our beloved Christmas celebration is nothing more than a copy-cat version of a pagan holiday, leading them to ask the question, is Christmas really about the birth of Christ?

On the surface, these are legitimate concerns if you knew nothing more than Christmas was celebrated on the same day as a pagan holiday. The important question to ask is, do these holidays celebrate the same thing? As it turns out, Christmas was purposefully dated on December 25^th to serve as a competing holiday to the preexisting pagan celebrations. Christmas was never intended to celebrate anything other than the birth of Christ, despite the ‘pagan’ dating. Under Emperor Constantine, Christianity was transitioned to become the dominant religion and it made sense for the Roman Empire to date Christmas on December 25^th in an attempt to convert followers to Christianity from competing pagan religions.

So, for those who worry that Christmas somehow evolved from pagan celebrations…fear no longer. Your Christmas holiday is purely Christian without the heathen influence of pagan celebrations. Simply because something is dated on the same day doesn’t mean that it’s the same celebration.

I wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas! Let’s not forget the reason why we are celebrating this amazing holiday! Don’t become too caught up in all of the consumerism that this culture is so infatuated with! Let’s celebrate the gift that God has given us! In the end, we can’t take our cars, houses, cell phones, etc… with us after we’re dead and gone. Jesus Christ made is possible for us to have salvation through grace, which is a gift that is infinitely and eternally valuable. As cliché as it is; strive to put Christ back in Christmas.