In fact there is no record of the birth of Christ from whom Christianity was born.  Gospel writers never saw him. Mark who was the earliest writer of Gospel wrote it after 65 years of crucifixion.

But Christians have agreed to celebrate the birth of Christ, the son of God as 25th December.  No statements of witnesses or records are available to fix the date of Christ which led them to celebrate in different months before a date was fixed in 350 AD. Pope Julius 1 declared December 25 to celebrate the birth day of Jesus Christ in 350 AD.

What made the Pope Julius 1 declare so?

Until that time a week long Pagan festival was going on between December 17 and 25.  Pagan festival Saturnalia was celebrated in the honor of God Saturn on December 25 the concluding day of the festival.  It was replaced by the Pope by declaring it as the birth day of Christ.

A religion needs an occasion to bring the people together.  Festivity is aimed at bringing merry time to the people of a religion in addition to renewing the religious feeling among them.

The declaration of Christ’s birth day on 25th December has further gained strength with the declaration of a holiday on that date by Emperor Justinian in 529 AD.  Some of the defenders of the Christian faith tried to bring authenticity to the belief that Christ was born on December 25.
But it was not required.  A belief is an unwritten agreement among the followers of a faith.  Faith is the important thing and no proof can make any changes in it. In some of the sentimental following a search in to it does not help any.

A father is a father as a child believes.  If one goes deep in to the reason why and how he became his father and look for the proof the sentimental bond will disappear to give room to a scientific approach to make a theory or to discover something other than the relation.

A festival is to be followed with faith main objective of which is to spend with merriment with which the basic laws of the religion on which it is built will be remembered.  The sermons given by the founder of the religion and other priests will come to the mind. Only a date, a picture and an occasion makes it possible.  That is December 25!

Happy Christmas to all!

-SriJa