I’ve been researching Christmas and this is just a small bit of information I have found (there is indeed much more)…

Did you know?
Jesus was more than likely not born in the winter time. Luke 2:8 records that shepherds were in the field with their flocks at the time of Jesus’ birth, but such would not be the case if it had been winter. It would have been during a warmer time of year. Many religious and secular writers confirm and believe that no one knows the birth date of Jesus.

Did you know?
The Bible never says there were three wise men? It is assumed because there were three gifts that there were three.

Did you know?
Based on the scriptures, the wise men more than likely did not come to see Jesus as a baby? Matthew 2:11 says they found him in a “house.”  If Herod’s order to kill the children from two years old and under is a help in determining the age of  Jesus, a rough guess could be that Jesus (as a “child” – Matthew 2:11) was at least a year old and maybe a little older.  The reasoning behind this is if Jesus is six months old, why kill two-year-old children?  Herod wanted to make certain Jesus was killed. Jesus was a child when the Wise men saw him.

Did you know?
The celebration of Christmas was actually started as a Catholic mass? It was called “Christes Masse” or Christ Mass (later known as Christmas).   They chose this date because the feast of the sun, or winter solstice, was a familiar Roman feast celebrating the victory of light over darkness. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

Did you know?
The disciples of the New Testament never celebrated the birth of Jesus? They remembered His death, burial and resurrection once a week (Acts 2:42, 20:7), but never His birth.  The disciples would have actually known his birth date because they were his contemporaries, but they never celebrated it or set it aside as a Holy day.  Why was the day of His birth never given in scripture, but the days of His death, burial, and resurrection (first day of the week) were?

Did you know?
Jesus was born of a virgin in the city of Bethlehem exactly as prophesied many years before Jesus was conceived in Mary, not by man, but by the Holy Spirit of God. As the apostle John reveals, Jesus existed before the Creation of the world (John 1). He is part of the Holy Trinity we know as God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

Did you know?
Christ is pleading for you to remember his sacrifice, not His birth.  The Son of God came in human form for a purpose—to die as a willing sacrifice in payment for the sins of mankind. He did this to provide eternal salvation as a free gift to all who will hear (Romams 10:17), believe (Mark 16:16), repent (Luke 13:3), confess (Acts 8:36-37), and be buried with Him in baptism for remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 1 Peter 3:21) to walk in newness of life (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 6:4).

Did you know?!

By Nikki Smith
Nikki Smith and her husband Eric worship with the Forrest Park church of Christ in Valdosta, GA where they have been members for almost four years. Eric works for the Air National Guard. Nikki is a homemaker, photographer, and maintains the New Testament Christian Resource Site. Eric and Nikki have one son, Jett who is seven years old.