What is the history of Christmas?

No one knows what day Jesus was born, or even exactly what year, but in 336 A.D., the Western Church, based in Rome, chose December 25 to celebrate as Christmas, meaning "Christ's Mass." The Eastern Church chose January 6. The day was named Epiphany, meaning "appearance." Eventually the period from December 25 to January 6 became known as the Twelve Days of Christmas.

There was an ancient pagan festival of lights at the winter solstice (Dec. 21-22) to celebrate the days beginning to get longer rather than shorter. During the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., many pagans were converted to Christianity, often by force, and the pagan and Christian traditions became intermingled because they occurred at the same time of year. The lights and feasting of Christmas may have originated from the pagan traditions.

During the 1600's, some Puritan groups considered Christmas a pagan celebration because it included non-religious elements such as decorating and feasting. As a result, Christmas was outlawed, for a time, in England and parts of the English colonies in America.

However, the pagan origin of some of the traditions does not make Christmas a pagan holiday. Those of us who celebrate Christmas in the spirit of worshipping Christ are not glorifying paganism nor demeaning Christianity. At the same time many of our modern Christmas traditions, particularly the commercialism, drunkenness and revelry, are not in the spirit of worshipping Christ.

Religious Christians attend special church services during the Christmas season that commemorate the birth of Jesus and call us to a life of devotion and following in Christ's footsteps.

There are no references to Christmas in the Bible because the first Christmas celebration did not occur until about 250 years after the last book of the Bible was written.

The Christmas tree tradition began in Germany. German families put up a "Paradise tree" on December 24, the feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it symbolizing the bread distributed in Church for Holy Communion. The Christmas holiday followed immediately, so candles representing Christ as the "light of the world" were often added to the tree. Thus began our tradition of putting lights on Christmas trees.

Many of our traditions of Christmas celebration and the "Christmas Spirit" of giving can be traced back to the book A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Dickens' book, published in 1843, is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy curmudgeon, who has a series of visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future. These ghosts show Scrooge a series of disturbing visions that make him realize the evil and futility of his life, and he becomes a completely new person -- generous, loving and likable.