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Why was December 25th chosen as the day to celebrate Jesus' birth?

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I have edited the question to remove the part that was a duplicate of the second question Peter linked to above. – Flimzy Dec 30 '11 at 18:39
Thanks Flimzy, but I think the questions where distinct. – user1054 Dec 30 '11 at 21:31
Because it was just a feast day originally, it was later modified to be a celebration of his birth which we now consider his birthday. – user1054 Dec 30 '11 at 21:36

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

This is a good recent blog post covering Pope Benedict's thoughts on the matter.

The key is the date set for the annunciation (March 25th):

  1. Traditionally held to be the first day of creation
  2. Traditionally held to be the date when Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac after a 3 day journey to Mount Moriah
  3. Extrapolated to be the date of Jesus' annunciation (when the Angel Gabriel came to Mary)
  4. Futher extrapolated to be the date of Jesus' crucifixion (on the Lunar calendar at least) to parallel Abraham's attempted sacrifice and align with the passover.

Therefore, as vsz says wikipedia says, but should say louder, add 9 months, et voila you've got December 25th.

As for the age of the feast as celebrated by Christ's Church, said blog post also notes St. Pope Leo the Great mentioning the feast of the Nativity of Jesus in the winter:

But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery. (St Leo Magnus, Sermo 26)

I'm not going to say that only stupid people think that Christmas is an attempt to quash pagan solstice shenanigans, but I will say that people ought to think long and hard before believing the Discovery channel over thousands of years of tradition.

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Thank you for the edit. Additionally, though, the question is not "are there thousands of years of tradition" - but rather, what are the origins of the tradition. The fact that it is old is neither in doubt, nor relevant to the question. – Marc Gravell♦ Dec 30 '11 at 17:08
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That (and the other 2 linked to it) was a fascinating blog post, thanks. It is slightly dampened by the fact that this view is far from universal within Christianty - but well worth a read, cheers. – Marc Gravell♦ Dec 30 '11 at 17:29
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I'm no expert on the Jewish calendar, but isn't March 25 just a little bit too early to be holding Passover, and thus to be the time of the Crucifixion? – Mason Wheeler♦ Dec 31 '11 at 13:24
@Mason, if Catholics determined when Passover was it wouldn't be. I'm not sure it's possible to conflate the two systems, Passover happens on the same day of the Jewish calendar every year, Easter starts on a different day of the Liturgical calendar every year. – Peter Turner Jan 3 '12 at 14:49
up vote 7 down vote

The exact day for the birth of Jesus is not known. You can find a lot of info on Wikipedia, with references. The most interesting for this question might be:

The precise day of Jesus' birth, which some historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. In the early-to-mid 4th century, Western Christianity first placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted also in the East. Theories advanced to explain that choice include that it falls exactly nine months after the Christian celebration of the Annunciation, or that it was selected to coincide with either the date of the Roman winter solstice or of an ancient pagan winter festival in order to stamp out these celebrations and replace them with a Christian one. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas)

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welcome to Christianity.SE! If you are going to do a copy/paste from another source, please be sure to provide all references from that source - as it is, this answer needs a LOT of cleanup before it can be accepted – warren Dec 30 '11 at 14:34
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@warren: You are right. I edited it to contain a link to the article itself, where all the references can be found. I assume this is more convenient to the QA, and might point him to be able to search more effectively for such common questions himself. – vsz Dec 30 '11 at 14:39
up vote 1 down vote

One reason could be that Christ is the light of the world, and the winter solstice is generally in early december, so Christ brings more light to the world. After the solstice, the day grows longer and longer.

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Are you totally speculating here or do you have something you can cite that shows that some Christian group actually took that into account when picking a date to celebrate? We would welcome this answer if you can support it according to our guidelines, but this is not a discussion board to brain storm for ideas or get feedback on speculation. – Caleb♦ Jan 1 '12 at 22:40

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