Why is Christmas celebrated on Dec 25?

[Shawnee_b]

So we can have presents, turkey and stuff?

 

[my2¢]

Two weeks ago while listening to a podcast I subscribe to, I learned that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas.

On this occasion, the Witnesses tried to convince Mimi that Christmas was not a legitimate holiday for Christians to celebrate. The Bible didn’t tell us anything about when Jesus was born, and Dec. 25th was actually an adaptation, they argued, of an old pagan ritual. Believing they were sharing some new information with her that would convince her to stop practicing pagan religions, they were surprised to hear her say she knew that.

“Oh yes,” she said. “Saturnalia, the celebration of the lengthening of the days. Because we really don’t know what time of year Jesus was born, and we had to pick something, what better time of year to do that than when we celebrate the return of the light.”
Into the Mystic: The Light that Shines​