Christmas offers an opportunity to look upon the incarnation with fresh amazement. But does the timing of our celebration just reflect pagan tradition? Today is Christmas Day, the day we celebrate the birth of Christ. Every year we get Christmas questions. The most asked, by far, is about Santa. We addressed him on the podcast twice already, back in 2016 and in 2018, in episodes 978 and 1288. Check those out. Episode 978 ends with one of the great paragraphs in the APJ archive too. But here is the second-most-asked-about Christmas question, represented by at least 35 emails in the inbox that I can see. Why did the church begin celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25? This date appears to be connected to a holiday with Germanic roots in the pagan celebration of yule or yuletide. In those emails, commonly mentioned texts include those that forbid God’s people from accommodating or adopting the traditions and holidays and feasts of the nations. Especially mentioned are 1 Kings 12:33 33 And he went up unto the altar which he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up unto the altar, to burn incense. , Deuteronomy 12:29 29 When Jehovah thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest in to dispossess them, and thou dispossessest them, and dwellest in their land; –32, and Jesus’s own words in Mark 7:9 9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. . The same is true of Jeremiah 10:1 Chapter 10 1 Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: –4, a text used to warn against Christmas trees even. So maybe this is a horrible question to address on Christmas Day. I don’t know. But from the emails, here’s a representative one from a listener named Michelle. “Hello, Pastor John! Why do Christians celebrate Jesus’s birth on December 25th? Before I was born again, I was a pagan and celebrated yule. As I understand it, Constantine placed Jesus’s birth date on December 25th to sort of cover up a pagan holiday, to get them to switch to Christianity more easily. But after being born again, the thought of celebrating Christmas makes me uneasy. Should it?” Read or listen to this interview at our website: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/is-christmas-too-pagan-for-christians Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes: https://www.desiringgod.org/ask-pastor-john