Some scholars and amateur scholars have the audacity to claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday. Let me start by saying that is utter nonsense! When you say Merry Christmas! You are announcing your celebration of our Savior’s birth and honoring decidedly Christian rituals and ideas. Why are these scholars trying to ruin the holiday for everyone? Well, there are a few reasons. First, these scholars are seeking notoriety. Having their theories and ideas published and going on talk shows to promote their ideas can be alluring. Second, it’s just an exercise of faulty logic. Third, it’s an unholy attack by Satan on a venerated and beautiful celebration. So, let’s explore this further.
Scholars Ruining a Merry Christmas!
To get published in scholarly publications or sell books you’ve written, you must first come up with something no one has heard of before or something people never get tired of hearing. In this scenario, scholars often rely on sensational titles for their works and stretch logic to match their theory or hypothesis. These errors lead to logical fallacies and “stories made up.” These notions do sell books, though, and they know it. So, “scholars” will often adopt an “I’m in it to win it” mindset and fabricate falsehoods to increase the sensationalism of their writing or videos. I find this greedy and sinful, but others live for the notoriety.
This sensationalism leads scholars to rely on logical fallacies to “prove” their point. For instance, they claim that Christmas trees are pagan just because, throughout time, people have venerated a tree, grove of trees, or forest and worshiped it. This worship was a common practice. This fallacy is considered a Hasty Generalization Fallacy.
Origins of the Christmas Tree
If you look deeper into the origins of Christmas Trees, you will find that Christians invented them. Trade guilds with Christian members invented Christmas trees in the late 1300s and early 1400s, and they started decorating evergreen trees to call attention to their trade guilds and celebrate Christmas. This practice started in the Rein region of Germany and France. Then, the practice spread north and then throughout Europe and eventually to America.
During this time, people fell in love with the idea so much that they started bringing a tree into their house to decorate for Christmas. At first, the trees were decorated simply, but the decorations became more elaborate as time went on. Today, many people decorate trees so extensively that you can barely recognize they are trees. But it’s all part of the celebration. It is not part of venerating a tree so you can worship it – at least not for Christians.
For Christians, it’s a way to festively decorate your home for a celebration. The evergreen tree can remind you of eternal life through salvation. The ornaments can remind you of the gifts given to Christ by the wise men. The lights can remind you of the ‘Light of the world,” who Jesus Christ is. The star on top of the tree can remind you of the star that led the Magi to the newborn king, Jesus. Angels remind us of the angels that heralded the birth of Christ to the shepherds or the angel that heralded the news to Mary that she would become pregnant with the Christ child. The Christmas tree is not at all pagan. It is very Christian.
Neutralize Satan by Proclaiming Merry Christmas!
Satan has attacked Christmas from every angle possible. He has clouded the minds of scholars, planted the seeds of doubt in Christians, fabricated lies, and discouraged people. Satan attacks the virgin birth, but if God can create a planet full of life and a universe with billions of galaxies, He can create a unique being and implant it in Mary’s womb. That’s easy stuff for God! So, why question it? You would literally have to believe that God was not the creator of our universe and world even to question the virgin birth. The virgin birth happened exactly as scripture describes.
Satan has attacked the Christmas tree, which I’ve already addressed. Satan has attacked gift-giving by trying to call it commercialism or greed. In reality, it’s all about giving. We give to others because of Christ’s generosity in giving His life to save us. We give to others to demonstrate our love, admiration, and thankfulness for their generosity and friendship.
Further, Satan attacks the date we celebrate Christmas. In many cultures, keeping track of a person’s birth date was unimportant. To the Hebrews, the person’s lineage was the most important thing to write down and remember. This person begat that person who begat the next person. Dates were less critical, especially as they pertained to the masses. Dates remembered Kings but seldom common folks.
At some point, those deciding to celebrate Jesus’ birth needed to pick a date. The Roman Catholics and most of Western society celebrate Christmas on December 25th. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th. Like I said, you must “pick a date” and run with it at some point. If the exact date is unknowable, choosing a date for the celebration is fine. Some say the chosen date is very similar to the dates of a Roman pagan festival called Saturnalia. I say, who cares? One has nothing to do with the other. There are overlapping holidays, feasts, and celebrations happening all the time globally. So, all of this is just Satan trying to wreck our celebration of Christ’s birth.
Merry Christmas Conclusion
Do not let Satan, scholars, naysayers, complainers, and nitpickers ruin your Christmas. Celebrate the blessed virgin birth of our Savior and Lord. Use this holiday to focus on His precious virgin birth, thankfulness, generosity, and joyous giving of your abundance, time, patience, and love. Jesus is the reason for the season! Gratitude, generosity, and giving of your abundance, time, patience, and love result from your salvation. If you’re not saved, you probably celebrate Christmas from a secular point of view. But Christians know the proper and unstoppable reason we celebrate. We celebrate the incarnation of God, the virgin birth, the joyous revelation to the shepherds, the gifts of the wise men, and most importantly, the birth of our Savior and Lord!