Debunking 3 myths about the origins of Christmas

Ryan Burton King  |  Features
Date posted:  7 Dec 2024
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Debunking 3 myths about the origins of Christmas

Christmas scene in a 16th century manuscript. Source: Flickr | e-codices

Christmas. 'It's the most wonderful time of the year,' Andy Williams croons. Or, as a cast of characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop sang in The Muppet Christmas Carol, it is 'the summer of the soul in December'.

But for others, it is a season of woe, an opportunity to blow a cold frost wind over the festivities with assorted dubious claims, doubtless well-intentioned but badly thought through and poorly communicated.

Though I disagree with those of such a disposition, I have no problem if someone personally chooses not to celebrate Christmas as such, so long as they do not seek to force that decision on others. I am however concerned with whether the reasoning behind such a decision is correct. Let us consider three erroneous claims I have encountered in evangelistic and pastoral ministry.

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