Christmas, Scripture, and Tradition

Why clarity matters for faith, witness, and truth

Written By Kino Smith

Why this was written

This study was written out of a concern rooted in the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God, and not out of fear, legalism, or contempt for people’s sincerity.

One of the most common arguments Christians make when questions arise about Christmas traditions is a slippery one. It usually sounds like this: I don’t worship pagan gods, so these practices don’t matter. My intentions are pure, so there’s no issue.

The problem with that reasoning is not whether your faith is shaken. The problem is that faith is not formed in a vacuum, and witness does not stop with personal intention.

Not everyone grew up in the church. Not everyone has the same biblical grounding or cultural reference points. A new believer, or someone investigating Christianity from the outside, can easily be shaken when confronted with legitimate questions they have never been equipped to answer. When someone from the world points to Old Testament warnings against pagan practices, quotes verses like Deuteronomy 12 or Jeremiah 10, or challenges the traditional manger scene, the Magi narrative, or the idea of “three wise men,” and the Christian has no clear, honest response, the result is often confusion, embarrassment, or doubt.

Even if your faith remains steady, what does it say about our witness when the story we tell collapses under basic historical and biblical scrutiny?

This is why clarity matters. Scripture calls believers to worship God in spirit and in truth. Truth includes historical truth, biblical context, and intellectual honesty. This is not about forbidding celebration. It is about equipping Christians to celebrate, or abstain, with full awareness and integrity, so that tradition does not masquerade as doctrine, and personal liberty does not undermine collective witness.

What follows is written in that spirit: to equip, not accuse; to clarify, not condemn; and to help Christians engage Christmas with biblical literacy, historical honesty, and love for both believers and skeptics.

1. What the Bible actually says about celebrating Christmas

The New Testament never commands Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a holy day. There is no date given, no feast prescribed, and no apostolic instruction requiring a yearly nativity celebration. Jesus never celebrated His own birth. The apostles never taught one. The early church did not observe one as a required act of worship.¹

What Scripture does emphasize repeatedly is the life, teaching, death, resurrection, and return of Christ. When Christians are given a commanded memorial, it is the Lord’s Supper, which proclaims the Lord’s death until He comes.²

This distinction matters. A practice can be meaningful without being mandated. Christmas can be a cultural or devotional observance, but it cannot honestly be taught as a biblical ordinance.

2. What is Christian, what is tradition, and what is pagan by origin

Confusion disappears when we separate categories.

What is Christian by doctrine

These are defined by Scripture and do not depend on season or custom: repentance, faith in Christ, worship of the Triune God, obedience to Christ’s commands, proclamation of the gospel, and the Lord’s Supper.²

What is tradition

These are later developments within Christian cultures, not commanded in Scripture: a December nativity celebration, advent calendars, nativity plays, seasonal carols, and church pageantry. Tradition can be meaningful, but it is not revelation.³

What is pagan by origin but often reinterpreted culturally

These include evergreen symbolism, certain gift-giving customs, Yule-related fire traditions, and solstice-based light symbolism. Pagan origin does not automatically mean present pagan worship, but it does require honesty and restraint in how such practices are described.

3. The birth of Jesus as Scripture actually presents it

Luke describes the birth itself. Jesus is born under urgent conditions and laid in a manger because there is no proper lodging.⁴ Shepherds are nearby, outdoors at night, and they visit the newborn.⁵ This is the entire birth scene.

Matthew’s account occurs later. Matthew 2:11 says the Magi enter a house and see the child with Mary.⁶ Jesus is described as a child, not a newborn, and the setting is a house, not a stable. Shepherds are absent. The manger is absent. These are two distinct moments that modern tradition merges into one scene.

4. The Magi and the “three wise men” narrative

Matthew never states the number of Magi. The idea of three comes from the number of gifts, not the text.⁶ The Magi are not kings and not Christians. They are eastern court scholars, commonly associated in the ancient world with astrology and dream interpretation.⁷ God speaks to them within their flawed system, just as He spoke to Pharaoh through dreams and Balaam through a pagan oracle. Use does not equal endorsement.

5. When Jesus was most likely born

Scripture gives no date. What it does give are contextual clues. Shepherds were outdoors at night with their flocks, which makes a cold Judean winter unlikely.⁵ Judean winters were rainy and cold enough that flocks were typically sheltered by late fall. This points more plausibly to a milder season, often argued as spring or early fall. December 25 is not supported by internal biblical evidence.

6. Where December 25 came from

December 25 already carried religious significance in the Roman world. Saturnalia, held in mid to late December, involved feasting, gift giving, social inversion, and seasonal symbolism tied to Roman gods.⁸ In 274 AD, Emperor Aurelian elevated Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, as a major imperial cult, with December 25 associated with solar symbolism.⁹

The date was culturally powerful long before it was Christian.

7. How Christmas entered Christian practice

After Christianity became legal under Constantine, church leaders faced a social reality. Pagan festivals were deeply embedded, and outright suppression risked unrest. The common solution was not discovery of Jesus’ birth date, but reassignment of meaning. Solar victory became Christ as Light of the World. Behaviors often remained while theology shifted. This is a classic example of syncretism under imperial pressure.¹⁰

Constantine himself ruled within this blended world, using solar imagery for years, including coinage depicting Sol Invictus and monumental symbolism in Constantinople.¹¹ Christianity rose, but Roman symbolic language did not vanish overnight.

8. Early African church voices

Origen of Alexandria viewed birthday celebrations as pagan practices associated with rulers and sinful biblical examples.¹² Tertullian of Carthage warned Christians against participating in pagan festivals and rituals, arguing that participation reshaped allegiance even when intentions seemed harmless.¹³ These voices show that caution about pagan blending is not a modern obsession, but an ancient Christian concern.

9. What the Bible says about mixing worship

Scripture consistently warns against adopting pagan worship methods and repackaging them as devotion to God. Deuteronomy forbids learning how the nations worship their gods and doing the same “for the Lord.”¹⁴ Jeremiah condemns learning the way of the nations through religious customs involving adorned trees.¹⁵ Jesus rebukes tradition that overrides God’s commands.³ Paul warns against turning calendar observances into spiritual measuring tools.¹⁶

The issue is not joy or generosity. The issue is authority.

10. St. Nicholas and modern traditions

Nicholas of Myra was a historical Christian bishop remembered for generosity.¹⁷ Santa Claus, as known today, is a later cultural composite shaped by folklore and commercialization.¹⁸ Teaching children Santa is a cultural choice, not Christian doctrine.

11. Liberty, doctrine, and witness

Romans 14 teaches liberty of conscience regarding days and practices.¹⁹ Colossians warns against judging faith through festivals and calendars.²⁰ Liberty governs personal practice. Doctrine governs what is taught as required.

Even if one’s personal faith is not shaken, witness still matters. Scripture calls believers to walk wisely toward outsiders and to be able to give a reasoned defense of their hope. Honesty strengthens witness. Confusion weakens it.

Final Hope: Worship in Spirit, Truth, and Care for the Poor

My hope in presenting this study is not merely that Christians would gain historical clarity, but that such clarity would lead to worship that is truly in spirit and in truth. Jesus explicitly teaches that true worship is not anchored to location, ritual, or season, but to alignment with God’s character and priorities.

That alignment inevitably raises uncomfortable but necessary questions about how the modern Christmas season functions economically and what it communicates to the watching world.

The Economic Reality of the Christmas Season

In the United States, annual holiday spending now regularly exceeds $950 billion, and in several recent years has approached or surpassed $1 trillion when retail purchases, travel, decorations, food, and entertainment are included.²¹ Retail gift spending alone consistently falls between $620 and $650 billion per year.²²

At the same time, the U.S. poverty line remains approximately $15,000 annually for an individual and $30,000–31,000 for a family of four, depending on household composition.²³ According to the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 38 to 40 million Americans live below this threshold, including more than 11 million children.²³

Multiple economists and policy researchers have analyzed what it would cost to lift every American above the official poverty line through direct income supports. These analyses consistently place the figure between $175 and $250 billion per year, depending on assumptions and program design.²⁴

This means that less than one-third of annual holiday spending—and in some estimates closer to one-quarter—would be sufficient to eliminate measured poverty in the United States for a full year.

This is not a moral exaggeration. It is a documented economic fact.

Why This Matters Biblically

Scripture is silent about commanding a celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is not silent about the poor.

Jesus identifies feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, caring for the sick, and welcoming the marginalized as actions done directly unto Him.²⁵ The prophets repeatedly condemn religious observance that coexists comfortably with economic injustice.²⁶ The apostles describe generosity not as optional charity, but as evidence of living faith.²⁷

This creates a tension Christians should not rush to dismiss.

Even if one’s conscience allows participation in Christmas traditions that have non-biblical or pagan origins, what does our collective behavior proclaim when the season most publicly associated with Christ is also the season of the greatest excess, waste, and inequality?

Worship in spirit and truth does not demand uniform behavior, but it does demand honest evaluation. It asks whether our traditions clarify the gospel or obscure it, whether our spending mirrors Christ’s priorities or the values of empire, and whether our witness strengthens or weakens the faith of those still learning.

A Call to Clarity, Not Condemnation

This is not a call to abandon celebration, nor a demand that every Christian observe the season identically. It is a call to stop confusing silence with innocence, tradition with command, and personal comfort with faithful witness.

If Christ is Lord, then truth strengthens worship, clarity strengthens witness, and care for the poor remains one of the clearest expressions of faith—whether in December or any other month of the year.

Footnotes and References

1. No New Testament command establishes a feast or required celebration for Jesus’ birth. Compare Luke 2 and Matthew 1 to 2 with the apostolic letters.

2. 1 Corinthians 11:26, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+11%3A26

3. Mark 7:8, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+7%3A8

4. Luke 2:7, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A7

5. Luke 2:8, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A8

6. Matthew 2:11, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A11

7. Matthew 2:1 to 2:12, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1-12

8. Macrobius, Saturnalia, primary ancient discussion of the festival’s customs and meaning.

9. On Aurelian and Sol Invictus, see Steven Hijmans, “Sol Invictus, the Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas,” Mouseion (2003).

10. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire, on cultural adoption and religious change under imperial conditions.

11. Jonathan Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age (Cambridge University Press), and standard numismatic cataloging in Roman Imperial Coinage for Constantine’s solar coinage.

12. Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, trans. Gary Wayne Barkley (Catholic University of America Press), on birthdays and scriptural examples.

13. Tertullian, De Idololatria (On Idolatry), in standard English translations, on pagan festivals and Christian participation.

14. Deuteronomy 12:30 to 31, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+12%3A30-31

15. Jeremiah 10:2 to 4, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+10%3A2-4

16. Galatians 4:10 to 11, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+4%3A10-11

17. Adam C. English, The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus (Baylor University Press).

18. Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas (Vintage), on the development of modern Christmas and Santa traditions.

19. Romans 14:5, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+14%3A5

20. Colossians 2:16, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+2%3A16

21. National Retail Federation, Holiday Sales Reports, documenting U.S. holiday spending totals approaching or exceeding $950 billion annually when retail and non-retail categories are included.https://nrf.com

22. National Retail Federation, Holiday Retail Sales Forecasts, reporting $620–650 billion in annual retail gift spending in recent years.https://nrf.com/insights/holiday-and-seasonal-trends

23. U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States (most recent annual report).https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty.html

24. Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy, The Cost of Ending Poverty in the United States, estimating $175–250 billion annually would lift all Americans above the official poverty line through direct transfers.https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu

25. Matthew 25:35–40, Jesus identifies care for the poor and vulnerable as service rendered to Him.https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A35-40

26. Isaiah 1:13–17; Amos 5:21–24, prophetic condemnation of religious observance divorced from justice.https://www.biblegateway.com

27. 2 Corinthians 8–9; James 2:14–17, generosity and care for the poor as evidence of genuine faith.https://www.biblegateway.com