Recap
If Purim and Hanukkah show us that man-made celebrations can glorify God, then what about a holiday with supposed “pagan roots”? For many believers, this is the second primary objection to celebrating Christmas, and it often carries more emotional weight than the first. At first glance, the claim sounds serious: If Christmas has any connection to pagan worship, shouldn’t Christians avoid it? Before we accept or reject that idea, we need to slow down, take a breath, and look honestly at what the evidence actually shows.
What Parts of Christmas Are Said to Have Pagan Origins?
When people warn that Christmas is “pagan,” they usually point to a familiar list of traditions. Whether the claim comes from Hebrew Roots teachers, Torah-Observant Christianity circles, or older Seventh-day Adventist materials, the same items appear again and again.¹
Here are the most commonly cited examples:
- December 25th — said to be borrowed from sun-god festivals²
- The Christmas tree — claimed to originate from tree worship or fertility rites³
- Ornaments — said to represent sun symbols or male anatomy⁴
- Yule practices — linked to Norse paganism⁵
- Santa Claus — claimed to be based on the Norse god Odin⁶
- Gift-giving — said to come from Saturnalia⁷
- Holly, mistletoe, and greenery — supposedly tied to fertility rituals⁸
Because these seven traditions form the backbone of nearly every modern “Christmas is pagan” argument, we need to evaluate them fairly. But even if—for the sake of argument—we assumed every one of these claims was absolutely true, an important question still remains:
Does a past misuse of something automatically make it off-limits for the worship of Christ?
Answering that requires taking a step back and asking a deeper, far more important question.
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Before They Were Pagan… Who Made Them?
Suppose I asked you what the colors red, green, and white, an evergreen tree, mistletoe, a star, and gold all have in common. You might say:
- “They’re all elements of Christmas.”
or - “They’re all tied to pagan symbolism.”
However, either answer misses the biggest truth of all.
Before they were used in pagan rituals…
Before they were used in Christmas celebrations…
Before anyone assigned symbolic meaning to them…
They were created by God.
Every color, plant, star, and material comes from His hand. At the end of creation, God looked at the world—including trees, evergreens, stars, and precious metals—and declared it all **“very good.”**⁹
Creation was not pagan.
Creation was not corrupt.
Creation was not dangerous.
It was good.
But then Genesis 3 happened.
After the fall, people began to do exactly what Paul describes in Romans 1—they **worshipped creation instead of the Creator.**¹⁰ Not only did people worship creation, but they also took the things God made and used them to honor false gods, practice superstition, and create rituals with meanings God never intended.
Consequently, that leads us to a crucial question:
If Something Has Been Misused for Idolatry, Can It Be Redeemed?
The answer from Scripture is unmistakably yes.
God routinely takes things that were used—or misused—in pagan religions and redeems them for His glory.¹¹ Here are just a few examples:
1. Sacrifices
Animal sacrifices predated Israel by millennia.¹²
Yet God commanded Israel to offer sacrifices to Him.
2. Circumcision
Circumcision existed in Egypt and other Near Eastern cultures long before Israel.¹³
Nevertheless, God took this cultural practice and made it the sign of His covenant.
3. The Temple
Temples, priests, and holy places were universal in the ancient world.
Even so, God established His own temple with priests, altars, incense, and holy objects.
4. The Rainbow
The rainbow appears in ancient Near Eastern cult symbolism after the flood.¹⁴
Yet God uses it as the sign of His covenant with Noah.
5. The Bronze Serpent
A serpent was a common pagan healing emblem.¹⁵
However, God used a bronze serpent to heal Israel (Numbers 21) and later used it to foreshadow Christ (John 3:14-15).
6. Days and Months With Pagan Names
After the exile, Israel adopted Babylonian month names—many honoring pagan deities (e.g., Tammuz).¹⁶
Still, God never condemned them for using these neutral cultural terms.
7. Meat Offered to Idols
Paul explicitly allows Christians to eat meat sacrificed to idols as long as they are not participating in idolatry.
“We know that an idol is nothing.” — 1 Corinthians 8:4
“Eat whatever is sold in the market…” — 1 Corinthians 10:25
If meat from a pagan altar can be redeemed…
then certainly a tree in your living room can too.
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Israel Often Misused Even God-Given Holidays
There is something even more striking to consider: Israel sometimes celebrated the LORD’s own feasts in ways that did not please Him.
God Himself established Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles — yet through the prophets He said:
“I hate, I despise your feasts… they have become a burden to Me.”
— Isaiah 1:13–14; cf. Amos 5:21–24
The problem was not the feasts; it was the hearts of the worshipers.
This is a crucial reminder:
- Even a holiday God commanded could be celebrated wrongly.
- The issue was never the calendar — it was always the heart.
- Motive always mattered most.
Consequently, this biblical truth brings immense clarity to the Christmas question:
If God judged Israel based on the heart, not the day, should we not evaluate Christmas the same way?
But What About Passages That Say Not to Worship God the Pagan Way?
Some cite Deuteronomy 12:29–32 or 18:9–14, where God says Israel is not to “worship the LORD your God in their way.”
Yet context matters greatly.
Deuteronomy 12:1–8 provides that context:
Israel was surrounded by nations that worshiped their gods on every hill, under every tree.
In contrast, God told Israel to worship Him in the place He chose, not in the locations or immoral behaviors of surrounding nations.
Thus, the issue was location and loyalty, not neutral objects themselves. Deuteronomy clarifies what the Israelites were to avoid.
Deuteronomy 18:9–14 lists the “detestable ways” of the nations:
- child sacrifice
- witchcraft
- divination
- sorcery
- necromancy
- mediumship
- idol worship
Notice what’s missing: trees, stars, greenery, colors, candles, and objects.
In other words, the Bible forbids copying pagan sinful practices, not avoiding neutral elements that pagans once used. Think about it: if we applied the same logic to a knife or fire that some apply to Christmas trees, we couldn’t use a knife or fire for anything, because both were used in pagan sacrifices — including sacrifices of children.
Ultimately, God’s concern was never that a tree, a fire, or another neutral object had appeared in a pagan ritual. His concern was the purity of His people’s lives and worship.¹⁷ We have immense freedom in how we honor God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
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Can Something Once Connected to Paganism Be Redeemed by Christians?
Absolutely.
In fact, the story of Scripture is the story of God redeeming what was corrupted.
The question concerning Christmas and its elements is never:
“Was this object ever used by pagans?”
Instead, the real biblical question is:
“What does this object mean to me as a follower of Jesus Christ?”
If your use of something honors Christ…
If it points your heart toward the incarnation…
If it strengthens your gratitude, worship, and joy…
Then you are not practicing idolatry.
You are practicing redemption.
And if our hearts belong to Christ, then our celebration can too.
Where We’re Going Next: How to Celebrate Christmas in a God-Honoring Way
Now that we’ve explored the historical claims and the biblical principles, we can finally address the practical question:
How can we celebrate Christmas in a way that honors Christ above all?
In the next post, we’ll look at how to guard our hearts from cultural distractions, keep Jesus at the center, and use Christmas as a season of intentional worship, generosity, and gospel reflection.
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Footnotes
- Claims gathered from Hebrew Roots Movement materials (e.g., Jim Staley, Michael Rood), Torah Observant blogs, and SDA historical literature.
- Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas (Knopf, 1996), 3–5.
- Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (1858), Ch. III, Sec. I.
- Ralph Woodrow, The Babylon Connection? (2000), 33–38 (documenting modern origins of ornament–fertility claims).
- Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford, 1996), 6–9.
- Bruce Forbes, Christmas: A Candid History (University of California Press, 2007), 52–55.
- Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas, 57–60.
- Hutton, Stations of the Sun, 214–220.
- Genesis 1:31.
- Romans 1:21–25.
- John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament (Baker Academic, 2006), 97–112.
- Samuel N. Kramer, The Sumerians (University of Chicago Press, 1963), 76–78.
- Herodotus, Histories 2.36–37; archaeological record at Saqqara (2400 B.C.).
- Carol Meyers, Discovering Eve (Oxford University Press, 1988), 85.
- Karel van der Toorn, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, entry “Nehushtan.”
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible (Baker Academic, 1990), 101–103.
- Deuteronomy 12 and 18’s restrictions focus on detestable acts—not neutral cultural objects.
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