Is Christmas a holiday with pagan origins? Is it wrong to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th? And what about putting up a Christmas tree? Is that a direct violation of Jeremiah 10?

As a Jewish follower of Jesus (commonly called a « Messianic Jew »), I do not relate to the Christmas season the way many Christians do, especially those who were raised in a home where Christmas was celebrated. Yet I do not have a problem with the Christian celebration of Christmas as long as the spirit of the celebration is right. If Jesus is being adored and his birth is being commemorated, the date of that commemoration is not a concern to me.

It is true that there is no biblical holiday that marks the birth of Jesus, nor is there a command given to celebrate it at a later time. But that doesn’t mean it was wrong for the later Church to develop the Christmas tradition.