How and when did Christmas come to be? Christmas is a worldwide holiday and the annual Christian festival celebration of Christ’s birth, held on December 25 in the Western church.  

There are theories that Christ was not born on the 25th nor on December, but in general, nobody truly knew what day he was born or what year he was born, Research done by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally places the birth of Jesus at some point in early to mid-April but the date and year missing, the date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died. 

Why was December 25th chosen for Christmas? In a 2016 essay, “Five Myths about the Nativity,” Candida Moss, professor of theology at the University of Birmingham in England, points to a simpler explanation for the choice of the date. ‘’The real reason for the selection of Dec. 25 seems to have been that it is exactly nine months after March 25, the traditional date of Jesus’ crucifixion. … As Christians developed the theological idea that Jesus was conceived and crucified on the same date, they set the date of his birth nine months later.” 

So when did the celebration of Christ start to be? The early Christians did not celebrate his birth till the 4th century when the church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, possibly to weaken pagan traditions. This celebration went to the Roman times to the Victorian era and to our modern times. 

So where did Santa Claus and elves and the other beliefs such as this come from and how did it go to celebrating the birth of Christ to Santa and gifts? Well, the origin and history of a Christmas legend. The story behind Santa goes back to the third century around the time of St. Nicholas. Nicholas was born around 280 A.D. and was an influential Bishop in the early Christian church. So why is Nicholas considered Santa? Back in the 3rd century, Saint Nicholas walked the earth and became the patron saint of children. Stories about St. Nicholas slowly became associated with the Christmas season and his feast day is December 6th – further tying him to the Christmas season.  The modern character of Santa didn’t come about until much later and the stories of modern Santa began evolving as early as 1821 when an anonymous illustrated poem entitled ‘’ The Christmas Friend’’ marked a modern appearance of Santa Claus.