Why do we celebrate Christmas? give gifts?

Why do we celebrate Jesus' birth and give gifts at Christmas. I would like an example as my friend who is a Jehovah's Witness says the Bible tells us not to celebrate birth?

• Answer:

  Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas because of origin of the holiday and it's customs. First, let me clarify something. There is no scripture in the Bible that says specifically not to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Possibly your friend simply did not know how to explain it to you, so he likely said that to provide a quick answer. But I will explain the reasoning behind our personal decisions about Christmas. The fact is, Jesus was not born on December 25. The Bible does not say when he was born, and scholars have tried for years to figure it out, but there is simply no way to discern the date of Jesus' birth from the Bible. However, it does give enough information about the circumstances of his birth that we know he was not born in the winter. Actually the evidence seems to point to Fall, possibly in September or October. For one thing, we know his cousin John was about 6 months older than Jesus, and John was born around Passover time, which is in late March/early April. Count forward 6 months from John's birth, and you end up around late September/early October. But the fact that Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25 is not, in itself, the reason we don't celebrate Christmas. We don't celebrate it because, in reality, Christmas is a renamed pagan holiday called Saturnalia. Look this up in any encyclopedia and you will find that the Saturnalia was the celebration of the birth of the sun god, and it included the exchanging of gifts, decorating of homes, and general merry-making. The pagan worshippers believed that their sun god was born on December 25, and this was the most important holiday to them. This festival lasted for about one week and came to a climax on December 25. Saturnalia was a holiday that was already in existence when Jesus was on earth. The early Catholic Church, about 400 years after Jesus' death, in an attempt to convert pagans to their church, adopted the holiday of Saturnalia and changed it's name to "Christ's Mass." The problem is, the Bible strictly forbids this. The Bible informs us that one cannot take something unclean or unholy, and make it holy. It tells us that God will not accept our worship if we try to do that. (Matthew 15:7-9; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Exodus 23:32; Isaiah 52:11) So, because of the origin of Christmas, we do not view it as a Christian celebration, and do not feel that it pleases God, no matter what name it goes by. Therefore, Jehovah's Witnesses choose not to celebrate Christmas.