The History of Christmas

No Birth Certificate, No Recorded Date

The Christian Bible does not give a calendar date, or even a season, for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Some biblical scholars have pointed to details in the nativity accounts, such as shepherds keeping watch over flocks at night, as evidence against a winter birth, since flocks were more commonly kept in open fields during warmer months in that region. Whatever the actual season was, the early Christian church did not settle on and publicly mark December 25 until roughly three centuries after the events the holiday commemorates.

When Was Christmas First Celebrated?

The earliest surviving written record of December 25 being marked as the date of Christ's birth is the Chronography of 354, a Roman almanac whose contents are believed to date to 336 CE. That makes 336 CE the earliest documented celebration historians can point to with real confidence, even though the tradition may have started informally somewhat earlier.

The Two Leading Theories for the December 25 Date

Historians have not settled on a single, universally agreed explanation, but two theories dominate the discussion, and they are not mutually exclusive.

• The Roman winter festival theory: December 25 already had major significance in the Roman world as Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun", tied to the winter solstice. Choosing the same date for Christ's nativity gave the new Christian holiday a familiar existing place on the calendar, at a time when the church was actively competing with established Roman religious practice.
• The computation theory: several early Christian writers, including Tertullian in the early 3rd century, calculated a date for Jesus's death (linked to the Jewish Passover) and then, following an ancient belief that prophets died on the same date as their conception, worked out March 25 as the date of conception. Nine months forward from March 25 lands on December 25.

Why Do Some Orthodox Churches Celebrate in January?

This is a calendar difference, not a date disagreement. Several Orthodox Christian churches, including the Russian, Georgian, and Serbian Orthodox churches, still use the older Julian calendar for religious feast days, while the rest of the world uses the newer Gregorian calendar for civil dates. The Julian calendar has drifted 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar over the centuries, so a Julian-calendar December 25 currently falls on January 7 measured on the Gregorian calendar. Other Orthodox churches, including the Greek and Romanian Orthodox churches, adopted the Gregorian calendar for fixed feast days in the 1920s and celebrate on December 25 alongside Western churches. See the full date table for how this plays out year by year.

How the Modern Christmas Tree Tradition Started

Decorated evergreen trees as a winter tradition existed in parts of Germany for centuries before Christmas trees became widespread elsewhere. The tradition became genuinely global after Britain's Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, were depicted with a decorated tree in an 1848 illustration that was widely reprinted, first in Britain and then, with the royal figures redrawn as an ordinary American family, in the United States. Within a few decades the decorated indoor tree had gone from a mostly German custom to a mainstream expectation across much of the Christian world.

Santa Claus: From Saint Nicholas to a Modern Icon

The gift-giving figure familiar today traces back through several distinct steps. Saint Nicholas of Myra, a 4th-century bishop known for secret gift-giving, is the historical root. Dutch settlers in New York carried a version of him, Sinterklaas, into American folklore. Washington Irving's satirical writing in the early 1800s and the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (commonly known by its first line, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") shaped the modern image: a jolly, gift-bringing figure who travels by sleigh. The now-familiar red-and-white suit was popularized much later, through 19th and early 20th century illustration and advertising, not invented by any single company.

Charles Dickens and the Victorian Christmas

Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol did more than almost any other single work to link Christmas with charity, family gatherings, and a specific warm, generous atmosphere that still shapes how the holiday is written about and marketed today. Dickens was writing during a period when industrialization had genuinely disrupted older communal winter customs in Britain, and his story is often credited with helping revive public enthusiasm for the holiday at a moment when its popularity had been declining.

When Christmas Became a Full Commercial Season

By the early 20th century, mass-produced greeting cards, department store advertising, and later radio and television had stretched what was once a single-day religious feast into a full shopping season lasting weeks. That commercial expansion is a genuinely separate historical thread from the religious origin of the date, even though both are now inseparable in how most people experience the holiday. For where the day itself sits on the calendar today, and how that date breaks down for public holidays, see the Christmas date page, or head back to the live countdown and greetings on the homepage (the countdown and the calendar download both run entirely in your browser, no account required, see the privacy policy for details).