The Bible provides no support for December 25th being the date of the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact, the only Biblical allusion to the time of year in which Christ was born suggests a radically different date. Luke 2:8 states that upon the birth of Jesus Christ, “there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night”. Anyone with a passing familiarity with Palestine knows that December falls within Palestine’s cold, rainy season. No shepherd worth his salt is going to have himself and his flock out at night in the middle of a near-freezing rain. In short, if the passage from Luke is to be accepted, the information suggests that Christ was born in the late spring, summer, or early fall, times when shepherds would be pasturing their flocks by night.........

In the meantime, beginning by at least 200 CE, the Basilidians, an early Christian group in Egypt, were celebrating the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist (PBUH) as having occurred on January 6th. This date was then gradually accepted into the church’s liturgical calendar as the Feast of the Epiphany (manifestation). In settling on January 6th as the Feast of the Epiphany, Eastern Christianity accepted that date as celebrating both the physical (birth) and spiritual (baptism) manifestation of Jesus Christ.

By the start of the fourth century, Western Christianity was celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th, although this date was still not officially sanctioned as a church festival. (Meanwhile, Eastern Christianity continued to hold onto January 6th.) It was not until the Philocalian Calendar of circa 354 CE that the Western Church officially sanctioned December 25th as a church festival celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Throughout most of the fourth century, Christianity was in severe internal dispute regarding the concept of “the son of God”. The majority of Christians at that time interpreted “the son of God” as implying a special relationship between Jesus and God that started at the moment of Christ’s baptism. In this way, Jesus was seen to be the “adopted” son of God, not the begotten son of God. No divinity for Jesus was implied in the former relationship, while divinity was part and parcel of the latter relationship.

Separating the dates of the baptism and of the birth of Jesus Christ was seen as one way in which to combat the notion that Jesus became the “adopted” son of God at his baptism. If one played up the birth of Jesus and separated that date from his baptism, one could stress the concept that Jesus was the “begotten” son of God at his birth, rather than becoming the “adopted” son of God at his baptism. As such, during the fourth and fifth centuries, most of Eastern Christianity gradually accepted the December 25th date for the birth of Jesus, although the Armenian churches continue even today to celebrate January 6th as the birth of Christ.

Given such a shaky historical provenance for December 25th as the anniversary of the birth of Christ, how did that date manage to hold onto the collective imagination of Christendom? Quite simply, that date was also quite important to the pagan converts that were beginning to flood into Christianity. The Roman Saturnalia was celebrated on December 17-24th, and December 25th was the date of the Roman Brumalia. Both the Saturnalia and the Brumalia were important pagan holidays. A Christian celebration on December 25th helped these pagan converts feel right at home.

Source: MuslimsNY