December 25: is the Right Day for Christmas

Encore Post: Every year we Christians are inundated with claims that December 25th isn’t the right day for Christmas, that Christianity co-opted pagan festival dates as their own, that all of the church calendar was a marketing scheme to pull pagans into different celebrations and convert them. These claims are not true. They are manufactured to sow doubt.

December 25th is a very accurate date for celebrating Christ’s birth. Christians initially celebrated the birth of Jesus on the same day as the Easter Triduum. (Triduum means three days, namely Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter). This stemmed from an early church practice of recognizing a saint’s death date as the same date of their birth. The ancients seemed to like the symmetry of it.

When Christianity began to recognize Christ’s birth as a different day, the dates in December popped up quite quickly. Hippolytus of Rome argued for December 25th, in the early 200s AD. St. John Chrysostom seems to have closed additional discussion, declaring December 25th the right date in the 300s AD. There is a reasonable amount of data that supports the claim.

Zechariah served in the temple with his kinsmen, the sons of Abijah. They served in the 8th month of the Jewish year. Nissan, the 1st month, falls between early March and early April, and identifies the moveable feast of Easter. The 8th month falls between mid-October and mid-November.

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense… And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” (Luke 1:8-9, 23-25)

After these days, Elizabeth conceived. We’ll assume an earlier date within the window, as the church fathers likely did. So, Elizabeth conceives around October 25th. Now, we leap forward to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy and find this in the text.

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Luke 1:35-40)

Mary conceives around March 25th. Then she visits Elizabeth, who is in the sixth month. John the Baptizer will be born around June 25th. Six months more will bring us to the next event.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:6-8)

Jesus’s birth on December 25th is a thoroughly reasonable estimate. Early Christians’ selection of the date of Jesus’s birth seems to have been primarily influenced by the scriptures and some simple mathematics. Now, the date may not be entirely accurate. There are around 30 days of wiggle room in the start of the calculation. But, December 25th is the right time of year. It’s at least very close to the right day, if not exactly correct, which is also possible.

While a different day could be plausible, I’d suggest that a theoretical discussion is fruitless. A claim against December 25th needs to pass three bars. Name a day. Without a particular day in place of December 25th, the discussion is moot. Having named a day, back it up in the calendar calculations. If the alternate day suggested doesn’t fit the calendar math, we’re not getting anywhere. With a day in mind and calendar back-up, cite the opinions of Church fathers. The fathers were less than a quarter of the time away from events of Christ’s life compared to us. Without the backing of more Church fathers than the Christmas Day we know, it’s just and argument for argument’s sake.

Dear Christians, let us prepare our hearts and rejoice at our Savior’s birth.

Rev. Jason M. Kaspar
Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church
& Preschool
La Grange, TX
and
Mission planting pastoral team:
Epiphany Lutheran Church
Bastrop, TX

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