The history of Christmas: Why celebrate Jesus and Santa on the same day?

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Transcript

00:00Did you know Christmas didn't actually start as a celebration of Jesus' birthday?

00:04Picture this, it was the first few centuries of Christianity.

00:07People were following the teachings of Jesus, but no one was celebrating his birth because

00:11no one knew when it happened.

00:12The Bible never gives a date, and early Christian communities didn't treat birthdays as major

00:16religious events, so the holidays simply didn't exist yet.

00:19Now jump to ancient Rome.

00:21It was late December and the city was throwing huge pagan festivals.

00:25Saturnalina brought feasting, gift giving, and public celebrations, and the festival

00:29of Sol Invictus on December 25th marked the rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice,

00:34a date already tied to renewal and light.

00:36So, church leaders made a strategic move.

00:38They placed the celebration of Jesus' birth on December 25th, not because of historical evidence,

00:43but because aligning with existing festivals made it way easier for newly converted Romans to adopt