The jolly old gent is actually three traditions in one. The original is St. Nicholas, a Catholic bishop in Myra of Asia Minor during the first half of the fourth century. A supposedly generous individual, he became the patron saint of a number of countries and cities, as well as merchants, bakers, mariners, and children. To this last he developed into a giver of gifts on the eve of his feast day, December 6, among the Dutch and Flemish. The Dutch called it the Feast of Sinterklaas (a form of Sint Nikolaas), hence the anglicized corruption, “Santa Claus.”
When the Pennsylvania Dutch came to America in the eighteenth century they brought with them the custom of Christkindl. This Christ Child supposedly brought gifts for children on Christmas eve, riding a mule loaded with presents, His name was changed by the English settlers to Kriss Kringle. The notion of his North Pole home was contrived through Scandinavian or Russian tales about north-dwelling wizards.
When we tell our children lies about the existence of fantasies like Santa Claus, we introduce them at an early, impressionable age to the art of deception.
Today's biggest Christmas rite is the giving of gifts. True to tradition, the practice of giftgiving also rests with the ancient heathens. The Romans gave gifts to one another at the Saturnalia merrymaking (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Virtually every Christmas custom is connected with some man-made rite or tradition that has little or nothing to do with the Bible.
Mistletoe is a Druidic survival that was thought to cure everything from epilepsy to infertility, the wax berries of this parasite thought to be a sex stimulant. Holly's green leaves and red berries were respected in medieval times as protection against witchcraft and the evil eye; a good luck charm for men.
Wreaths with their round shape symbolize the returning sun at the winter solstice; made of laurel, they depict the sun's comeback victory over darkness and death (Nimrod reincarnates to Tammuz).
Christmas candles trace to the burning yule log and the reincarnation of Nimrod.
Ham is eaten because Tammuz (Adonis) was thought to have been killed by a boar. In his memory, pagans sacrificed and ate swine at the Saturnalia.
Christmas cookies trace back to the cakes that were made to the Queen of Heaven or Semiramis (Jer. 44:19). Round ones were made for the Saturnalia and Brumalia to symbolize the returning sun.
Christmas has evolved on a faulty Foundation. First, from its inception in the fourth century, it has been surrounded by controversy. For example, there was the question of Jesus’ birthday. Since the bible does not specify either the day or the month of Christ's birth, a variety of dates have been suggested. In the third century, one group of Egyptian theologians placed it on May 20, while others favored earlier dates, such as March 28, April 2, or April 19. By the 18th century, Jesus' birth had been associated with every month of the year!
December 25 was assigned by the Catholic Church as Jesus’ birthday, because “early christians wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the birthday of the unconquered sun ” (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Because of the idolatrous practices associated with Roman festivals, early christians did not share in them. By the middle of the fourth century, the grumbling subsided, as more and more counterfeit Christians crept into the fold. This led to compromises with the Roman world. Commenting on this, the book The Paganism in Our Christianity states: “It was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.” The willingness of the so-called Christians to adopt pagan celebrations now brought a measure of acceptance within the community. Before long, Christians came to have as many annual festivals as the pagans themselves. Not surprisingly, Christmas was foremost among them.
The Catholic church adopted the viewpoint that it was fitting to perpetuate a joyous festival in honor of Jesus’ birthday. Accordingly, in 567C.E., the council of Tours “proclaimed the 12 days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia for School and Home)
Christmas soon absorbed many features from the profane harvest festivals of northern Europe. Merrymaking remained more commom than piety as revelers indulged in gluttonous eating and drinking. Rather than speak out against the loose conduct, the church endorsed it. In 601 C.E. Pope Gregory I wrote to Mellitus, his missionary in England, telling him “not to stop such ancient pagan festivities, but to adapt them to the rites of the church, only changing the reason for them from a heathen to a Christian impulse.” Thus reports Arthur Wegall, who once was inspector general of antiquities for the Egyptian government.
During the middle ages, reform-minded individuals felt the need to speak out against such excesses. They sent out numerous decrees against “the abuses of Christmas merriment.” Dr. Penne Restad, in her book Christmas in America—A History, says: “Some clergy stressed that fallen humankind needed a season of abandon and excess, as long as it was carried on under the umbrella of christian supervision.” This only added to the confusion. It hardly mattered, though, for pagan customs were already so closely fused with Christmas that most people were unwilling to give them up. Writer Tristram coffin put it this way: “People at large were doing just what they had always done and paying little attention to the debates of the moralist.”
By the time Europeans began settling the New World, (America) Christmas was a well known holiday. Still, Christmas did not fine favor in the colonies. Puritan reformers viewed the celebration as pagan and banned it in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681. After the ban was lifted, the celebration of Christmas increased throughout the colonies, particularly south of New England. In view of the holiday’s past, however, it is not surprising that some were more concerned with having a good time than with honoring Jesus. One Christmas custom that was especially disruptive was that of wassailing. Rowdy bands of young men would enter the homes of wealthy neighbors and demand free food and drink in a trick-or-treat fashion. If the householder refused, he was usually cursed, and occasionally his house was vandalized. The Catholic Encyclopedia plainly states: “pagan customs....gravitated to Christmas.”
Clearly, the facts about modern Christmas are not very flattering. It is largely a manufactured holiday with much evidence pointing to a degraded past.
In ancient Rome the god Saturn was worshipped, and along with this idolatry the winter solstice was highly regarded. A week long winter festival called Saturnalia was celebrated by them in honor of the re-appearance of the sun in the northern hemisphere. The final day of this festival, Brumalia, fell on December 25. This was regarded as the day of the invincible sun. During these festivals there was much gaiety, feasting, and even the exchanging of gifts, very similar to the manner in which Christmas is celebrated today. Yet all of these customs existed many years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and as we can see they were all in honor of pagan gods.
Surely, the activities involved in these ancient Roman festivals give us a good example of what obviously predominated the celebration of Tammuz's birth anciently. Thus we see that the date, December 25, was celebrated anciently by the Romans and other pagans who knew nothing about Jesus Christ. To them this date had nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Christ. December 25 was a day of pagan origin in honor of the sun god.
This day does not really honor Christ's birth. The real origins are the birth of Nimrod (Baal). Since Christ's time the Roman church converted a pagan holiday into a Christian holiday — just like they did all of the other holidays. It was a deliberate attempt to get away from God's Holy Days which were called Jewish days. Note the clever transference. The real New Year's day became April Fool's day. The Passover became Good Friday. Unleavened Bread became Holy Week and the resurrection — not even commanded to be observed — became Easter, a day originally observed in honor of Nimrod and Semiramis.
Then Christ’s birth, another day without Biblical justification, became Christmas — a day originally observed in honor of the birth of Nimrod. The original mother and child was not Mary and Christ but rather Semiramis and Nimrod many centuries before Christ's birth. This day was not celebrated by the early church! Not observed in the Christian community until the 4th century and made official by the Roman Church “in the 5th century to be celebrated on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol” (The Encyclopedia Americana).
The day set apart by Semiramis in memory of the new birth of Nimrod, her husband who had been slain by Shem, is familiar to everyone. What day is this? CHRISTMAS!
Through her mysteries her dead husband was said to have been miraculously conceived of Semiramis and to have returned in the form of Horus (Semiramis' illegitimate son). It was the BIRTHDAY OF THE UNCONQUERED SUN! (Gieseler's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii, p. 42). She claimed Shem had not vanquished Nimrod even though he had slain him.
In Egypt, the son of Isis (Semiramis), the Babylonian queen of heaven, was supposedly born at the approximate time of the winter solstice (Wilkinson's Egyptians, vol. iv, p. 405). The winter solstice then was December 25th, the place marking the beginning of the days becoming longer and longer. TO PAGAN SUN-WORSHIPPERS IT MEANT THAT THEIR GOD — THE SUN — WAS NOT GOING TO DIE AFTER ALL, BUT WAS BECOMING STRONGER AND STRONGER.
The Sabeans of Arabia regarded the 24th day of December as the birthday of their pagan Lord (Stanley's History of Philosophy, p. 1066, col. 1). The Saxons observed December the 25th. Hislop, p. 96 states: “It was an essential principle of the Babylonian system, that the Sun or Baal was the only God. When, therefore, Tammuz was worshipped as god incarnate,” (after he had supposedly taken the human form, as Christ did centuries later) “that implied he was an incarnation of the Sun.”
Here again, then, we see why observing the BIRTHDAY of Tammuz is Sun-worship! In observing THIS DAY, PEOPLE OF OUR TIME ACTUALLY PAY HOMAGE TO THE SUN, WHILE THEY THINK THEY ARE HONORING CHRIST'S BIRTHDAY.
The apostate Church followed the now famous advice of Pope Gregory I, that by all means they should meet the pagans halfway and so bring them into the Church (Bower’s 'Lives of Popes', vol.ii, p.523).
About the sixth century A.D., emissaries were sent over Europe, with an eye to gathering the pagans into its fold. Remember, the apostate Church was formed by a union of pagans and professing Christians (Consult Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i, chap. 15). These emissaries or investigators found that celebration of the winter solstice was very popular.
To gain numbers to the church was the thing! This meant both professing Christians and pagans must be satisfied. The pagans wanted this festival. The Christians would not tolerate a name suggestive of its real meaning. So a Christian name was put on this pagan festival. This is exactly the way our pagan Christmas came into Christianity and why there are so many pagan festivals observed in the churches today. Christmas, of course, does not belong to the Christians.
Put the Christ back in Christmas', we're always told. Christ was never really in Christmas. In fact, when you celebrate Christmas by eating too much, drinking too much, feeling up the boss' wife at the office party, driving the porcelain bus and/or spending a fortune on presents almost, but not quite, entirely unsuitable for the person to whom you gave them, you come rather closer to the real spirit of Christmas.
Rome's Saturnalia was a curious mixture of ancient fertility rite and social event. Romans decorated their doorposts with holly and kissed under the mistletoe. Shops and businesses closed and people greeted one another in the street with shouts of Io Saturnalia! On one day of the twelve, masters waited on their slaves at table while, in the legions, officers served the ranks. A rose was hung from the ceiling in banqueting rooms, and anything said or done sub rosa went no further than the front door. The government - in both Rome and the provinces - often laid on free public feasts. The emperor Domitian held one such feast in the colosseum. The festival of Saturnalia was a time, too, for family dinners, for parties, for amours, for socialising, for wishing others well.
Christmas is a venerable pagan festival, on permanent loan (or should we saystolen) from Ancient Rome.