Does Christmas have pagan origins?

In my last post, I discussed some disagreements I have with Jozef Naumowicz's recent book on the origins of the Christmas holiday, The Origin Of The Feast Of The Nativity In The Patristic Perspective (Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang GmbH, 2024). I now want to quote some portions of his book that I'm more in agreement with, where he argues that paganism didn't have any significant influence on the origins of Christmas. I can't quote every relevant part of the book here, but I'll cite some significant parts of it.

He makes the point that if the Christians of the fourth century were influenced by paganism in terms of adopting it or wanting to compete with it, there were dates more significant than December 25 that they could have chosen:

It is worth noting that the Fasti Philocali [Roman documents of the middle of the fourth century] gave several other celebrations in honor of the Sun during the year (the largest was on October 22 out of 36 circus races), as well as other Roman feasts which could have aroused the Church’s anxiety more. If it was a question of replacing a pagan feast, there would be larger and more pompous celebrations against which the Church would like to warn her faithful. Therefore, the Chronograph felt no need to justify the celebration of the birth of Christ, nor does this document allow us to formulate the thesis that the Christian celebration was introduced solely or mainly to oppose pagan celebrations....

One can make a statement that if the creation of the Nativity was mainly about replacing the pagan celebration or their uprooting, then it would be necessary to place this new Christian feast on January 1 instead of December 25. Although it did not have the notion of “the birth” in its name, it suited the correlation of the birth of Jesus because it opened the calendar and liturgical year. In the process of choosing December 25 as the festival of the birth of Jesus, much more important was the symbolism of the victory of light associated with the winter solstice and a convenient harmonization of this date with the entire celebration of the liturgical year rather than the desire to replace the ancient celebrations. (approximate Kindle locations 2847, 4082)

Regarding the use of language and concepts related to the sun:

Comparisons between Christ and the Sun appeared in all sermons and other Nativity scripts for a simple reason: such a language was used by the Bible when it spoke of the Savior’s coming to earth [e.g., Isaiah 9:2, Malachi 4:2]. There is no basis for the claim that the main reason for using such comparisons was the celebration of the birth of the Sun celebrated on December 25 in Rome. If this were the case, those images would only appear in the sermons preached on December 25. Meanwhile, they also appeared in homilies preached in other seasons, and even in the Nativity scriptures they did not always refer to the winter feasts, but to spring Easter....

The homilies of Gregory of Nyssa and Jerome on the Nativity of Christ are an example of using the metaphor of the Sun of justice and the development of symbolism of the sun, light, and solstice in the context of the biblical, liturgical, and cosmological issues. In their speeches, one did not feel any apologetic subtext in relation to the pagan cults. There was no trace of polemics with the Roman cult of the Invincible Sun, or any concept of “replacing” some solar cult with Nativity. The metaphors used only serve to express the truth about the Incarnation and to approximate the sense and value of the Nativity....

The two authors of the oldest Nativity sermons quoted the Malachi 4: 2 expression because of its significant meaning, without any reference to the winter solstice. Besides, in these sermons, they preferred theological or historical explanations and not the allegorical ones.

There is one more proof that the metaphor of the Sun of righteousness did not always have to be connected with the context of the winter solstice nor the pagan solar cult. It appeared in sermons preached on the occasion of various feasts throughout the year. It was often quoted in sermons for Easter, preached in the spring. It fitted with the reflection on Jesus’s resurrection connected with the spring sunny season of the year following the dark winter. Therefore Athanasius of Alexandria began his first festal letter for Easter 329: “the Sun of Righteousness, causing His divine beams to rise upon us, proclaims beforehand the time of the feast [of Easter], in which, obeying Him, we ought to celebrate it.” (3522, 3557, 3569)

Again, these are just some portions of a lot of good material on these issues in Naumowicz's book. If you're interested in these subjects, the book is worth getting, despite its problems in other contexts.

For further discussion of issues related to paganism and Christmas, including some topics not addressed in Naumowicz's book, see the relevant posts in our archives, like here.