A Brief Vindication of Christmas from the "Pagan Origins" Argument

I have always loved Christmas. Ever since I was a kid, I have looked forward to it all year long. I am sure many others can say the same thing. And honestly, I love almost everything about it. From the classic carols to the decorations and lights, the movies (like A Christmas Story or How the Grinch Stole Christmas), and the hot chocolate and candy canes, it really is the most wonderful time of the year! Admittedly, it is a little different now that I am an adult and not a kid anymore. But it is a singular joy watching my own kids open their presents and make their own Christmas memories.

Of course the main reason I love Christmas is because of the observance of the birth of Jesus Christ and the events surrounding it. I love to read the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke and trace out how Old Testament prophecies find their fulfillment in Jesus. It is a joy to meditate on and to sing of the truth of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
  Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
  Jesus our Immanuel.

With all that said, one can excuse me if I find myself unimpressed and maybe even a little provoked many of the attempts to attack the Christmas holiday, both from the secular world and even within professing Christianity. Of course I expect the secular Babylon to hate anything to do with Jesus. I am not at all surprised that the world wants a thoroughly non-religious Christmas (not that there's anything wrong with Rudolph, Frosty, Winter Wonderlands, etc...).

But what really bothers me is when Christians eschew Christmas as somehow the fruit of pagan festivals, and thus offensive to God. Now I do believe that Christians should be able to abide by their own consciences. If any observance violates one's conscience, one should be left alone to follow where it leads, and others should respect it. But I equally have the right to disagree and to state why. And it is to that I turn. I intend to show that even if the so-called "pagan origins" of Christmastime traditions are true (and most of the time, that is debatable at best), those things can still be appropriated (or shall I say re-appropriated) for use in Christian observances. The same holds true of Easter and its unique traditions.

Now just for the sake of argument, let's assume that much of what is connected with Christmas - decorated trees, December 25, yule logs, etc. - can trace its origins to paganism. Does that therefore disqualify Christmas as a legitimate Christian celebration? The answer is a resounding no!

To prove my assertion, I appeal to Paul's teaching to the Corinthians regarding meat sold in the marketplace that had previously been offered up to idols in pagan ceremonies:

Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.  For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 NKJV

If any of those who do not believe invites you to dinner, and you desire to go, eat whatever is set before you, asking no question for conscience’ sake. But if anyone says to you, “This was offered to idols,” do not eat it for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness.”“Conscience,” I say, not your own, but that of the other. For why is my liberty judged by another man’s conscience? But if I partake with thanks, why am I evil spoken of for the food over which I give thanks?

1 Corinthians 10:30 NKJV

 

As the above quoted scriptures indicate, there is only one God and all things ultimately belong to Him because He created them. He already owned those elements that have been ostensibly offered to pagan "gods". Furthermore, according to Paul, idols are really nothing anyway. There is nothing inherent in an idol, nor in that which is sacrificed to the idol that can defile something that God already owned and pronounced "good" (Genesis 1:31).

 

To apply this teaching of Paul to Christmas traditions that were supposedly borrowed from ancient pagan practices, it really doesn't matter where they originally came from. First of all, in observing Christmas, no one is celebrating or worshiping Saturn (the Roman god, not the planet), the Invincible Sun, Odin, Thor, Zeus, or any other pagan deity. Christmas is the observance of Christ. Secondly, even if there are pagan origins to yule logs, wreaths, Christmas trees, mistletoe, etc... (a point which I concede merely for the sake of argument), we know that they are "nothing at all in the world" (1 Corinthians 8:4), so they cannot by definition be defiled. It is evident therefore that God is not displeased by Christmas observance or the various traditions that have arisen over the centuries. 

Christmas is a wonderful season filled with rich traditions. It has stood the test of time. In its very essence, it honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians should certainly use their consciences to determine to what degree they celebrate, but I agree with Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew Fred:

 

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say...Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

  -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol