December 25. How was that date picked?

For those of you who have followed Light on the Rock for a while, you know that it’s clear Jesus the Messiah was not born on December 25. How on earth did a cold winter day get picked as the supposed birthdate for the son of God to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem?

This blog will cause some to attack me for taking the joy out of Christmas. After all this is supposed to be the happiest and most glorious time of the year, right? And yet suicide rates jump up in this season. And the whole country focuses more on gifts and shopping than on Jesus Christ. I hope you see me for who I am, one who teaches the Bible truths, whether always popular or not.

I encourage you to go to our Search bar and type in “Christmas” and start reading some of the many blogs and sermons I’ve submitted on Christmas – it’s true origin, how God views it, can Christ be put back into Christmas, what the various parts of Christmas came from (Christmas tree, yule log, etc.) and so much more. But most of all, what God says about our involvement or not in Christmas.

The Bible nowhere gives us the specific date of the birth of Jesus, though it gives a lot of clues as to probable dates or approximate dates. For sure it wasn’t in late December. And other than in Matthew and Luke, nowhere else in all the Bible are any details given about His birth. And yet in modern Christianity, Christmas is the most holy holiday. How could that be and yet the Bible ignores its celebration.

Here are a couple scriptural clues showing the birth of Christ wasn’t even possible in December:

1.  The SHEPHERDS were in the fields that night with their flocks.

January and December are typically the two rainiest months in Israel and the coldest. The roads in Jesus’ day would have been wet, muddy and there would have been a lot of rain. Some years, believe it or not, it can even snow a little in late December, though rare. The last major snowstorm in Bethlehem was Dec 2013. But between June – September, there is virtually no rain. By October, rains are starting up again and the shepherds don’t stay out in the fields by night, and certainly not in December when it’s rainy, cold and miserable. Even today – Dec 11, 2025 – it’s in the high 40’s F, around 9 Centigrade.

Luke 2:8-9  “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.”

So Shepherds bring in their flocks sometime in October usually, when rains being to slightly start up again. They’re not out there in November--March at all due to all the rain. It’s certainly too wet, cold and dangerous for the sheep to still be outside in December. There were definitely NO “shepherds living out in the fields” still in late December, back then – or even now.

I have another blog you might find interesting about the very likely spot Jesus was born, and it was not at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

2.  THERE WAS A REGISTRATION ordered by the Emperor. NO WAY would he have ordered this to be done in the cold, rainy month of December. Emperor Augustus knew better than to do that.

Luke 2:1-5   “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.”

3. A third point would be Zecharias’ scheduled time to serve as priest from the course of Abijah. Their son John the Baptizer was 6 months older than Jesus. This makes a December birth for Christ impossible (which would have been 6 months after John the baptist’s birth). I discuss the dates and timing of all that in other presentations.

And again, remember, a Dec 25 date is stated nowhere in scripture! For that matter there is no mention in scripture of the apostles or early believers ever celebrating the birthdate of the Messiah. Not a one.

So logically, the birth of Jesus could not have been in December. And it wasn’t. So how did we end up with December 25 being the accepted date of Jesus’ birth?

We have to look to Rome and other pagan areas in the times of the apostles and the early church for the answer. Rome famously had wild festivities in early-to-late December called the Saturnalia. It was in honor of Saturn, a pagan god. In these wild festivities, there were orgies, gift giving, wild celebrations. The Romans loved it. There was a reversing of all the roles. Masters served their slaves. Immorality ran rampant. But on the surface, it was seen as such a happy time, a time for family get-togethers, dinner parties – but all to honor Saturn.

            But by Dec 21, the sun had waned a lot and it was the longest night of the year. As the days grew longer, they worshiped the sun, as did many other cultures. By December 25, it was very clear “the Unconquered  sun”  (Sol Invictus in Latin) was back, and starting to provide longer days. That was cause for great celebration. The cold dead winter was coming back to life with the light of the SUN. So the sun played a big part in this too.

When “Christianity” became the official religion under emperor Constantine, they had to find a way to bring the large masses of humanity into the Catholic church. So they practiced “syncretism” – combining aspects of other religions into their religion. They still do that today. So Catholicism in the Philippines, for example, where I grew up, incorporated some of the local “flavor” of that culture into that church.

Over time, the “church” adopted the December festivities and pagan customs of YULE – from the Norse culture, Germanic peoples and Anglo-Saxons. So from them we got the yule log, the mistletoe customs, the wreaths on the doors, the lights and the Christmas tree. The evergreens were popular because it symbolized life’s victory over death and darkness. But it all stemmed from paganism. NONE of that can be found in God’s word.

So the Catholic church under the name of Christianity just accepted and adopted the pagan December Saturnalia festivities and officially made the birthdate of Christ as Dec 25, though the Bible nowhere tells us to worship on Dec 25, or to honor his birthdate, or to have festivities to each other than to Christ even… it’s just not there in scripture!

TRUE believers did NOT adopt this paganism, but the Catholic church did. They brought Saturnalia worship and festivities into their church. All the pagans who loved the Saturnalia wild times got to keep it all, just as long as they called them by the Catholic terms now – Christmas. Sun worship was relabeled also to Malachi 4:2’s “the Sun of righteousness.”  But that doesn’t make it OK now. It in fact, makes it all worse! Later, the Christmas tree was explained as the evergreen picturing Jesus. No it doesn’t.

There’s MUCH more that can be said about the background of Santa Claus and his reindeer that also reaches back into paganism, but I’m giving a high overview today. There’s NOTHING holy or righteous about this holiday. Nothing about it pleases God. He does NOT want us mixing His true beliefs with doctrines of demons as Paul says in 1 Cor. 10:21-22. Please read it.

The gift giving continued – this time under the guise of celebrating Christ’s birth and when he supposedly received gifts (though who gives gifts to God at Christmas?). I said supposedly because in fact the gifts of the magi came much later, after Joseph and Mary had moved into a house and Christ was a young child by then. It’s all clearly stated in Matthew 2:10-11.

And people try to excuse keeping a pagan holiday by saying they are not worshiping anyone but Jesus. His label may be on the pagan days, but God made it clear how angry He was with Israel when they made the gold calf and then tried to call what they were doing a feast day, a holy day, to the LORD. Nonsense. That just made God even more upset, to put His holy name on  to a gold calf they were worshiping (Read Exodus 32:1-7). God hated that!

Jesus Christ was never in Christmas. So we can’t put Christ back into something he never was a part of, and something so pagan.

SO that, in a nutshell, is how we got December 25. It has NOTHING to do with Jesus Christ. Add to this the fact there are so many lies associated with Christmas – such as Santa Claus, Rudolph and the flying reindeer, and all of that.

How can believers teach their children LIES? How can any of us LIE to our children about Santa and his elves and flying reindeer? It’s all lies. God has no part in lies. He even says all liars will have their part in the lake of fire! See Revelation 21:8.

If God is letting you “see” all this for the first time, tackle the problem immediately. Don’t put it off. Get rid of your Christmas trappings even right now. Throw the Christmas tree and all the ornaments away. Come out of pagan Babylon. “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her plagues!” ( Rev. 18:4).

We never participate in ANY of this. We don’t listen to Christmas songs, though many admittedly have pretty tunes. We don’t give or receive Christmas gifts. We don’t put up a Christmas tree. No wreaths on our door. No Christmas decorations on the house. We don’t go caroling. We do none of it. We don’t say “Merry Christmas” to anyone, ever. Got it. “ Come OUT of her, my people” TOTALLY, COMPLETELY.

Do your own research. You’ll find that for a time under Oliver Cromwell, England even forbad celebrating Christmas in any form. The Puritans who came to America also did not allow anything Christmas, for they saw how pagan it was – then a Christian label placed on it. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert popularized the Christmas tree and soon everyone wanted one. Charles Dickens’ stories also popularized many aspects of Christmas as kept today.

WE keep GOD’S true holy days like the Feast of Pentecost and Feast of Tabernacles, where we have a joyous time for 8 days, and celebrate God on his days and his ways.

I suggest you study as many of my sermons and blogs about Christmas as you can find. Just type “Christmas” into the Search bar at the top right of the website home page. You’ll find a lot more you can study.

But you know what would also be very effective for you? Research it yourself on Google or ChatGPT! Ask about the origins of Christmas celebrations. Look up Saturnalia and Yule customs yourself. And then pray a lot about this. Ask God to show you what HE wants you to do. Remember it is not those who say “Lord, Lord” who will be in the kingdom, but those who do the will of God the Father (Matthew 7:21-23). So seek his will and ask God to give you the courage to do the right thing, to obey God’s will, regardless of what persecution that might initially bring.

Here's exactly what the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, says to us, says to you:

Matthew 7:21-23   "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'  23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

Have courage to seek the will of God our Father.