By Martyn Iles

At this time of year, some people seem to delight in undermining a most wonderful and proper celebration by making the claim that Christmas is of pagan origin.

It’s false, and it sows discord where there should be joy.

It turns out there are three main working theories regarding the date of Christmas.

The first is that December 25 was chosen because it falls exactly 9 months after the Annunciation to Mary (ie Christ’s conception), believed by the early church to have occurred on March 25. This is a strong theory.

The second theory is that December 25 was chosen because it was the day on which the sun god, Sol Invictus, was celebrated, due to the winter solstice.

There is only one source (written by a Christian) for the idea that Sol Invictus was celebrated on December 25. It also happens to be the earliest known source for December 25 as Christmas Day.

Therefore, we have no way of knowing which came first – celebrating the cult of Sol Invictus or celebrating Christ.

*If* Sol Invictus came first, then, to flog some neat terminology from John Dickson, the celebration of the ‘invincible sun’ may have been deliberately overwhelmed by Christians preferring to celebrate the invincible Son [of God].

That would mean Christmas used Christians to relegate a pagan celebration to the dustbin of history, elevating the celebration of Christ to global, centuries-long prominence.

I think that is rather pleasing.

The final possibility is pure coincidence… And given that every day of the year stands for something, somewhere in the world… if not several things… especially in Ancient Rome… that is not at all far-fetched.

That’s the most boring theory, but very possible.

Other theories, like Saturnalia (actually on December 17) are bogus, as is the notion that many modern Christmas traditions stem from ancient paganism – like gift giving – because they are mostly not more than 250 years old.

There is nothing “pagan” about celebrating Christ at Christmas.

The truth about the origin of Christmas is that Christians wanted to celebrate the coming of the eternal Son of God to save His people from their sins.

Full stop.

What a marvellous thing to celebrate. How awesome that it spread around the world.

So, celebrate, worship, spread the good news far and wide, and ignore the haters.