In modern times, Christians celebrate Christmas as Jesus’ birthday. The rest of us use it as an excuse to buy presents, sing songs and get drunk. But I bet you didn’t know some of these interesting factoids and answers!

1) Celebration of the birthdays of religious figures was originally frowned upon.

The birthday, or “Natal day” was not celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as such. In the early years, it was the death of a religious figure that was celebrated. Why? Because physical death signified birth into eternal life – the true life, as it were.

Physical birth was not considered as important. In fact, some even considered it an egotistical, sinful abhorrence (see e.g. Origen‘s opinions). It was only in Eastern Christianity (i.e. not Roman Catholicism) that Jesus’ birth was celebrated as part of the Epiphany, and then it was celebrated on January 6th.

When exactly the celebration became that of Jesus’ birthday is unclear, as are the reasons for this shift.

2) Where did the twelve days of Christmas come from?

As mentioned, the Epiphany, known to modern Christians as the time the three wise men visited Jesus, is celebrated on January 6. The preceding 12 days, from December 25 to January 5, are known as the twelve days of Christmas, or Christmastide.

A similar 12-day period, Yuletide, refers to the 12 days filling the gap between the two halves of Giuli Tide (essentially December – January) in the ancient Anglo-Saxon calendar. As the Julian Calendar (and later, the Gregorian Calendar) spread back over the rest of Europe, the definition of Yuletide narrowed to mean just Christmas.

Interesting sidenote: Shakespeare wrote a play, “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” set on January 5.

3) Many Christmas customs are of Pagan origin.

In pre-Christian Scandinavia, “Jol” (aka “Jule”, pronounced “Yule”) was a pagan celebration of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year for the northern hemisphere. Pagan winter festivities often revolved around death, and the Yule log was lit to protect the household against evil spirits. As technology progressed, we found it less and less necessary to use massive logs to warm the home, and so the logs got smaller, eventually winding up as a table decoration and cake.

Also a part of Yule celebrations was the slaughtering of a boar as an offering to Freyr, the Norse God of fertility. That, of course, became the Christmas Ham (mmmmm… haaaam).

Pre-Christian Rome had a similar tradition where they sacrificed a pig to Saturn, the Roman God of agriculture. They did this during a festival called Saturnalia, which started on December 17 and ran for 5-7 days. Saturnalia itself was a crazy time, where slaves were served by their masters, people sang in the nude and wanton gambling took place.

The Roman New Year’s Day celebrations also had the custom of giving presents, which were originally strenae (twigs from a sacred grove), and gradually became the presents we know today. Rather ironically, early Christians hated gift-giving because of its pagan origins (see e.g. Tertullian’s opinions).

Mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant that old Norse Druids considered sacred, and the tradition of kissing underneath it comes from Norse mythology. Holly wreaths were used as decoration in midwinter pagan festivals. Caroling probably originated as a form of circle dance having nothing to do with religion, and Roman Catholicism originally frowned upon it. When it was finally generally accepted, the Reformation took place, and Protestants suppressed it… because of its association with Roman Catholicism.

Even Santa Claus has Pagan influences. Santa is a corruption of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. So far, so Christian. But all the trappings surrounding Santa – the chimney, the stockings, etc are Pagan. Some of the stories are quite gruesome. In one of them, the gift-giver is a demon forced to repent!

4) Nobody really knows what day Jesus was born, so why December 25?

The Gospels don’t tell us what day he was born. We can infer some conclusions based upon circumstantial evidence, but those are contradictory. For example, the census Joseph and Mary had to attend (see e.g. Luke 2) would have been foolhardy in winter, as would tending your flock of sheep on a cold winter night.

The date of December 25 comes with much uncertainty. The Jews believe in a concept of “integral age”, where Jesus was supposed to have lived for an integral number of years (i.e. he died on the same day he was born). Jesus’ birth was set at December 25 because that’s the day he supposedly died. Subsequent evidence shows this to be false, or at least, uncertain.

The most likely candidate for the source of the date is pre-Christian Rome’s Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun,” a pagan custom celebrating (what else?) the rebirth of the sun. According to the calendar at the time, the winter solstice fell on December 25, which meant from then on the days would get longer.

Its claim is not without the same difficulty accompanying the other claims, that of uncertainty and lack of historical record. But records do show that the early Church was divided over whether or not it was appropriate to associate the birth of the Sun with the birth of Christ – on the one hand, it could be seen as Providence that Christ should be born on such an auspicious day; on the other, it could be seen as Heresy.

In any case the Church adopted December 25 as Christmas, perhaps to more easily convert the incumbent populace.

And there you have it: a few interesting nuggets of information to chew through Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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Further reading:
1) The Catholic Encyclopaedia’s entry on Christmas. Their other entries are just as dense, informative and interesting.
2) Wikipedia entries on: Natalis Invicti, Tertullian (one of the foundation builders of Christianity), History of some Christmas traditions, Origins of Santa Claus, and many many more.
3) The Active Bible Church of God’s introduction to Christmas.