Is Christmas a pagan holiday?

Question

To all the christians out there, this question goes to you!

Answer 1

Yes and no. Christmas is a Christian holiday, in that it does celebrate the birth of Christ.

But there are many aspects of Christmas that come from pre-Christian religions.

The truth is that Christianity has adopted and Christianized Chritmas.

PS This is answer 600! Woo Hoo!

Answer 2

Yes it is.
This is just a fact of history look it up.

"In Roman times, the best-known winter festival was Saturnalia, which was popular throughout Italy. Saturnalia was a time of general relaxation, feasting, merry-making, and a cessation of formal rules. Holly was also considered the key symbolic plant of the god Saturn and festival. It included the making and giving of small presents (Saturnalia et Sigillaricia), including small dolls for children and candles for adults.[7] During Saturnalia, business was postponed and even slaves feasted. There was drinking, gambling, and singing, and even public nudity. It was the "best of days," according to the poet Catullus.[8] Saturnalia honored the god Saturn and began on December 17. The festival gradually lengthened until the late Republican period, when it was seven days (December 17-23). In imperial times, Saturnalia was shortened to five days.[9]"

"The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and Mithras, a soldiers' god of Persian origin.[10] Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday.[11]"

"The identification of the birthdate of Jesus did not at first inspire feasting or celebration. Tertullian does not mention it as a major feast day in the Church of Roman Africa. In 245, the theologian Origen denounced the idea of celebrating Jesus' birthday "as if he were a king pharaoh." He contended that only sinners, not saints, celebrated their birthdays.[6]"

The bible gives no indication that God would approve Christmas.
In fact it seems to say the opposite.

Exodus chapter 32
The Israelites create an image and claim it's the same God that brought them out of Egypt and dedicate the feast to there God.
God then gets mad and punishes them for this.
The same thing goes on with Christmas people make there images and claim there worshiping God with this celebration. Anyways Christmas here in the U.S has more to do with gift giving then in some other countries.People here can afford that. In Cuba Christmas wasn't allowed to recently.

Answer 3

If you take a few moments to research this subject, you will find that Christmas has no roots in true Christianity. Many Bible scholars of various religious denominations acknowledge this. With that in mind, it should not surprise you that in England, Cromwell’s Parliament decreed in 1647 that Christmas be a day of penance and then banned it outright in 1652. Parliament purposely met on December 25 every year from 1644 to 1656. According to historian Penne L. Restad, “ministers who preached on the Nativity risked imprisonment. Churchwardens faced fines for decorating their churches. By law, shops stayed open on Christmas as if it were any regular business day.” Why such drastic measures? Puritan reformers believed that the church should not create traditions that did not exist in the Scriptures. They actively preached and distributed literature denouncing Christmas celebrations.

Similar attitudes were evident in North America. Between the years 1659 and 1681, Christmas was banned in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. According to the law enacted then, Christmas was not to be observed in any form or fashion. Violators were subject to a fine. Not only were Puritans in New England uncomfortable with celebrating Christmas but some groups in the middle colonies were also. Pennsylvania Quakers were as adamant as the Puritans in their view of the celebration. One source says that “shortly after Americans had won their independence, Elizabeth Drinker, a Quaker herself, divided Philadelphians into three categories. There were Quakers, who ‘make no more account of it [Christmas] than another day,’ those who were religious, and the rest who ‘spend it in riot and dissipation.’”

Henry Ward Beecher, a renowned American preacher who was raised in an orthodox Calvinist household, knew little about Christmas until he was 30 years old. “To me Christmas was a foreign day,” wrote Beecher in 1874.

The early Baptist and Congregationalist churches also found no Scriptural grounds for celebrating Christ’s birth. One source notes that it was not until December 25, 1772, that the Baptist Church of Newport [Rhode Island] observed Christmas for the first time. This was approximately 130 years after the founding of the first Baptist church in New England.

If December 25 is not the birthday of Jesus, celebrating that date as his birthday amounts to lying. Just as you have mentioned in your letter, how can a Christian who loves truth and is commanded to be honest promote falsehood? (Ephesians 4:25) From the date itself to the Santa Claus story, Christmas has become packed with lies. Christians, however, are told at Revelation 22:15 that “everyone liking and carrying on a lie” will end up without the divine blessing of everlasting life.

Then, why do so-called Christians in the West celebrate Christmas? One of the reasons is commercialism, just as it is in your country. I read about a Baptist minister over in the United States who lamented: “If the commercial aspect were removed entirely, most folks would feel that they had not experienced Christmas. But the religious focus could be removed entirely and a large number of people would not notice the difference.”