In the NT that their no mentions of Christmas and none of the apostles seem to even celebrity Jesus bd?

Question

Where do the tree decorating, gift giving and dec 25 come from?. So when was Christmas actually started? and by whom?

Answer 1

From the pagan holiday of Yule which is celebrated on the December solstice. It is one of the many pagan rituals that Christianity permanently borrowed and made their own.

Answer 2

Lots of great answers listed, but one other thing. At first no one cared about the birth of Jesus, just his prophetic career and death and the theological implications of this. Not until the Jesus Followers really started getting Greek/Egyptian converts did the birth thing matter. In those religions you always had a cult of the Divine Son, which was a god who's birth was important theologically speaking. He could be born from a Virgin Goddess, he could be resurrected from death in some way, etc. When the new converts were told the stories of Jesus, they naturally compared them to the religious stories that they understood the best, and started making comparisons. That eventually led to Jesus having a birthday holiday and naturally Saturnalia and Yule, both holidays about the New Son/Sun and New Year, fit perfectly. So the new converts, as they rose to power in the church, decided Jesus' symbolic New Life was like the new sun/new year and therefore set the date. The actual date really doesn't matter, theologically speaking. If a person gets stuck on the date issue, chances are they won't be capable of moving on to more significant, morally-challenging issues concerning Christianity.

Answer 3

The Gospel of Luke. Birth of Jesus explained in detail!

Tree decoration, gift giving, carols are cultural traditions that are not held bound by Biblical, Sacred Tradition or the Authority of the Church.

Dec 25th is the Feast Day of the Church to focus on Jesus Birth. This is simply the time that we reflect the wonderful gift from God the Father for His Son Incarnate.

Answer 4

The reason that Christ's birth is celebrated in December was to help Christians avoid the temptations associated with a pagan holiday called Saturnalia, which marked the winter solstice.

Saturnalia was an occasion for celebration, visits to friends, and the presentation of gifts, particularly wax candles, perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice. Homes were decorated with greenery. Candles and lamps chased away the spirits of darkness.

People also indulged in various sexually immoral practices, which would have been quite a draw for most people. Seneca complained that the "whole mob has let itself go in pleasures."

To give the Christian something better to do, the bishops in the region decided to hold a mass in honor of Christ's birth. It was called the Feast of the Nativity. (Later changed to Christ's Mass.)

Of course, as Christianity became the state religion, people who "converted" brought their pagan ways with them, so by the time of the 6th century, the practice was corrupted.

As to when Jesus was actually born, He would not have been born later than early autumn, as the climate of Israel resembles the North American continent in many ways. Shepherds would not be watching their flocks by night in the winter.

Answer 5

I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that. The early church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus. As the church grew after the persecution was over, many different forms of heresy had crept into the young church. Most converts had come from paganism, and brought with them many of their celebrations. Many holidays were consolidated and or combined to please the masses long ago. "Christmas" was probably one such 'compromise'.
I believe tree decoration came out of Northern Europe late in church history.

Answer 6

Is Christmas a celebration based on the Bible?

Date of the celebration

M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia says: “The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of N[ew] T[estament] origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the N[ew] T[estament], or, indeed, from any other source.”—(New York, 1871), Vol. II, p. 276.

Luke 2:8-11 shows that shepherds were in the fields at night at the time of Jesus’ birth. The book Daily Life in the Time of Jesus states: “The flocks . . . passed the winter under cover; and from this alone it may be seen that the traditional date for Christmas, in the winter, is unlikely to be right, since the Gospel says that the shepherds were in the fields.”—(New York, 1962), Henri Daniel-Rops, p. 228.

The Encyclopedia Americana informs us: “The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the ‘rebirth of the sun.’ . . . The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration.”—(1977), Vol. 6, p. 666.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”—(1967), Vol. III, p. 656.

Wise men, or Magi, led by a star

Those Magi were actually astrologers from the east. (Matt. 2:1, 2, NW; NE) Although astrology is popular among many people today, the practice is strongly disapproved in the Bible. (See pages 144, 145, under the main heading “Fate.”) Would God have led to the newborn Jesus persons whose practices He condemned?

Matthew 2:1-16 shows that the star led the astrologers first to King Herod and then to Jesus and that Herod then sought to have Jesus killed. No mention is made that anyone other than the astrologers saw the “star.” After they left, Jehovah’s angel warned Joseph to flee to Egypt to safeguard the child. Was that “star” a sign from God or was it from someone who was seeking to have God’s Son destroyed?

Note that the Bible account does not say that they found the babe Jesus in a manger, as customarily depicted in Christmas art. When the astrologers arrived, Jesus and his parents were living in a house. As to Jesus’ age at that time, remember that, based on what Herod had learned from the astrologers, he decreed that all the boys in the district of Bethlehem two years of age and under were to be destroyed.—Matt. 2:1, 11, 16.

Gift giving as part of the celebration; stories about Santa Claus, Father Christmas, etc.

The practice of Christmas gift giving is not based on what was done by the Magi. As shown above, they did not arrive at the time of Jesus’ birth. Furthermore, they gave gifts, not to one another, but to the child Jesus, in accord with what was then customary when visiting notable persons.

The Encyclopedia Americana states: “During the Saturnalia . . . feasting prevailed, and gifts were exchanged.” (1977, Vol. 24, p. 299) In many instances that represents the spirit of Christmas giving—an exchanging of gifts. The spirit reflected in such gift giving does not bring real happiness, because it violates Christian principles such as those found at Matthew 6:3, 4 and 2 Corinthians 9:7. Surely a Christian can give gifts to others as an expression of love at other times during the year, doing so as often as he wants to.

Depending on where they live, children are told that gifts are brought by Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Père Noël, Knecht Ruprecht, the Magi, the elf Jultomten (or Julenissen), or a witch known as La Befana. (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1984, Vol. 3, p. 414) Of course, none of these stories are actually true. Does the telling of such stories build in children a respect for truth, and does such a practice honor Jesus Christ, who taught that God must be worshiped with truth?

Answer 7

you are opening a can of worms here-- the only birth days mentioned in the Bible were Herods(where John the Baptist was be-headed- and in the book of Job (and they all died). so..... christmas- was actually started in Babylon long before Jesus came here- a very long story(and that is where Easter came from also).Nimrod began it all with his wife. I will send you a video for free if you e-mail me an address- or order one for yourself, go to www.aroodawakening.com- and order the book-truth and tradition(it comes with a video) he will tell you the whole story. and the christmas tree is mentioned in the O.T. but never in a good way- see Isaiah or Jeremiah.

Answer 8

Christmas isn't even Jesus' birthday. It was a Pagan holiday.

Answer 9

there are two sides to Christmas, the fun side and the spiritual side . You have to be smart enough and mature enough to separate the two and enjoy them both.

Answer 10

Pagan holiday.