“Even if Christmas started out as pagan—and I’m not entirely convinced it was, but even if it was… why wouldn’t we redeem it and make it about Jesus?”
That question gets asked a lot. And on the surface, it sounds reasonable—maybe even spiritual. But before we answer whether something should be redeemed, we need to ask a more foundational question:
What does redemption actually mean in Scripture?
Because biblically speaking, redemption is not just rebranding. It’s not slapping holy language on top of something questionable and calling it sanctified. Redemption is a defined, God-initiated act involving ownership, authority, and transformation.
So before we talk about redeeming Christmas, let’s slow down and examine the claims beneath the question.
Was Yahshua (Jesus) Really Born in December?
Scripture gives us several clues that make a December birth for Yahshua highly unlikely.
Luke tells us His birth took place during a Roman census (Luke 2:1–3). That detail matters, because a census required widespread travel—often over long distances—to ancestral towns. Roman administrations generally avoided conducting large-scale travel initiatives during the winter months, when rain, cold, and poor road conditions made travel dangerous.
Luke also notes that shepherds were “abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). In Judea, shepherds did not typically remain in open fields during the cold, rainy winter season. This detail strongly suggests a much warmer time of year.
Taken together, the biblical data points away from a December birth.
So why do so many believers celebrate Messiah’s birth on December 25?
For most, it isn’t because of anything biblical—it’s because tradition is communal. It’s the date everyone else is observing.
Which brings us to the next question.
Are the Roots of December 25th Pagan?
I’ll keep this section tight, but the short answer is this: yes, December 25 sits in historically pagan territory.
I’ve gone much deeper on this in my YT video last year, reacting to Michael Knowles, which I’ll link here for those who want the extended version.
That video addresses many of the common counterarguments—particularly those arising from Catholic tradition, where the practice of Christianizing pagan festivals largely developed.
Here’s the sweetened condensed version. 🐮
For over 1,600 years, the Roman world—and later Christendom—operated under the Julian calendar. Under that system, December 25 fell within the winter solstice season. That season was already saturated with pagan festivals centered on the sun, the turning of the year, and cosmic renewal.
Scholars may debate specific festival names (Yule, Mithris, Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, and more) or exact timelines, but the broader historical reality is well established: Ancient pagan cultures, including those dating back to the Iron Age (roughly 1200 BC), celebrated the winter solstice and/or the surrounding season. Worship of the sun, moon, and stars were deeply embedded in ancient religious systems.
While ancient cultures did not think in terms of a modern standardized calendar date, several later Roman-era festivals associated with preexisting solstice worship were eventually observed around what we now call December 25th, under the Julian calendar.
In short, December 25th was chosen within an already pagan-loaded season—not because Scripture revealed Messiah’s birthdate (quite the contrary), but because it allowed an existing, culturally significant time of year to be rebranded. The date did not originate from biblical instruction, prophetic timing, or apostolic practice. It emerged from later church decisions made within a Roman context already steeped in solstice symbolism.
But Can’t We Redeem It?
This is usually where the conversation turns.
“Okay, maybe the roots are…messy—but that’s not what it is today. We’ve redeemed it for Jesus.”
So let’s ask the real question:
What does redemption actually mean in Scripture?
Biblically speaking, redemption is not a human idea—it’s a divine act. To redeem means to buy back, rescue, or reclaim something that already belongs to God but has been lost, enslaved, or corrupted. Redemption always moves in one direction: God redeeming His people, not people redeeming their own inventions.
Redemption in Scripture consistently involves three elements:
- Ownership – God redeems what already belongs to Him
- Authority – Redemption is initiated and defined by God
- Transformation – What is redeemed is brought back into covenantal alignment, not merely renamed
Scripture never presents redemption as humans taking a practice they invented—or adopted from surrounding cultures—and then asking God to sanctify it after the fact.
Which leads to an uncomfortable question:
Where do we see God instructing His people to take pagan festivals and repurpose them for His worship?
Not once.
Not in Torah.
Not in the prophets.
Not in the life of Messiah.
Not in the apostles.
So why do we assume we get to do what Scripture never models?
When “Redeeming” Went Wrong
There is a moment in Scripture where God’s people attempted something very similar.
The golden calf.
Many people assume the problem with the golden calf was that Israel abandoned Yahuah (The Lord) to worship other gods. But Scripture actually tells a more precise—and more sobering—story.
The Israelites did not declare a feast to Ra, Apis, or a foreign deity. They explicitly named Yahuah.
“And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These are your elohiym, O Yisra’el, which brought you up out of the land of Mitsrayim (Egypt). And when Aharon saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aharon made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to Yahuah (the Lord).”
—She’moth (Exodus) 32:4–5
They took imagery and worship patterns learned in Egypt, formed a festival around it, and then dedicated it to God Himself.
And God was not pleased. In fact, he was furious.
God never asked for it. He never commanded it. He never approved it. Yahuah defines how He is to be worshiped—and His instructions never include mixture.
So when we say, “But it’s about Jesus now,” we should pause and ask:
Does that argument actually hold weight biblically?
Questions Worth Sitting With
If good intentions were enough, why did the golden calf bring judgment?
If dedication alone made something holy, why wasn’t that festival accepted?
If God did not allow His people to creatively rework pagan worship then, why do we assume He’s fine with it now?
And why does Scripture give us appointed times to meet with God—known in Hebrew as moedim—yet we feel the need to replace the set-apart days He asked for, in favor of man-made traditions he never mentioned?
Final Thoughts
I’m not saying all traditions are bad.
But Scripture is clear that mixture is.
Tradition becomes a problem when it overrides God’s commands, adds to His instructions, or replaces what He has already established (Matthew 15:3–9).
And that’s exactly what happened with Christmas.
If we want set-apart days to honor God, He has already given them to us. His feasts—the same ones Yahshua (Jesus) celebrated and the apostles continued to observe after His death and resurrection—these are the appointed times Scripture calls holy. (See my post of feast days in the NT here)
I don’t believe Christmas should be redeemed, because God never claimed it. And if we were to truly “redeem” the day—bringing it back under God’s authority—it would simply return to being an ordinary day. Not a set-apart one.
The Flocking Farm 
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