Who put Christ into Christmas?  

"The good things which December brought are past. Now it's only another year to Christmas! It's the clear up after Christmas. There cards, which gave so much pleasure, are littering the floor and the decorated Christmas tree stands sadly in the corner reminding us of the parties and fun. Oh, I almost forgot, Jesus was born on Christmas Day, it's his birthday we were supposed to be celebrating.!"

This is how someone might reflect on the festivities of Christmas, the perfect festival to mark Christ's birth, observed throughout the world by millions of people, both Christian and non-Christian.

Yet Jesus could never have imagined that his birth would be celebrated in this way and neither could he have envisaged that he would be worshipped as God. He would surely have been horrified by the idea.

'And a certain ruler asked him (Jesus), saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good, save one that is God.
(Bible Luke 18:18)

No one knows exactly when Jesus was born but his birth was assigned the date of winter solstice, December the 25th in the Julian calendar, because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Inviciti -Birthday of the invincible sun.

For the first three centuries there is no record of Christ's birthday being celebrated, but since then, various dates have been assigned to commemorate it.

Even now the Christian people are not in complete agreement whether to celebrate it or not.

Pagan rituals clearly had influence on early Christianity, and through time new customs have been introduced into the religion.

The Bible predicted and forbade the decorcation of trees: " Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a free out of the forest, the work of the hands of a workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and hammers, that it not move not.... " (Jeremiah 10:2-5).