16 Pagan Christmas Traditions that People Mistakenly Credit to Christianity

10. Holly was the symbol of the Pagan ‘King of Winter’- not the Blood of Christ.

With its spiked, glossy green leaves and bright red berries, Holly was a mainstay of medieval Christmas garlands and remains a perennial symbol of Christmas. To justify its association with the nativity, Christians devised stories that linked the use of holly to Christ. In one legend, a young shepherd boy made the newborn savior the gift of a small holly crown. However, after he placed his somewhat prickly present on the baby’s head, the child felt ashamed at his simplicity and so began to cry. His tears caught on the holly leaves- and when Jesus touched them, they turned into scarlet berries.

In a slightly more grizzly legend, Holly becomes the crown of thorns, with the redness of its berries due to Christ’s blood. This story explains the color of holly berries- but has nothing to do with Christmas. In fact, holly was the symbol of another, pagan king; the holly king who at midwinter battled with the oak king of the fading summer season- and won. Despite being a symbol of winter, the vibrant red and green of holly was also a potent symbol of life, as vivid colors stood out in the darkness of the midwinter season.

9. Ivy was the partnership plant of Holly. However, it was the symbol of death, not life.

At Christmas, Holly and Ivy are synonymous with each other. They regularly appeared together in churchwardens accounts for Christmas decorations from the middle ages onwards and in the nineteenth century were immortalized in the favorite carol “The Holly and the Ivy.” However, the meanings of these two Christmas favorites could not be more different. For, although ivy, like holly, was one of the rare plants that grew in winter, and in Christian symbolism stood as the Virgin Mary, the plant also stood for death, rather than life.

In carols older than “The Holly and the Ivy” Ivy was depicted as sad and female while the holly was vibrant and male. ” Holy and hys mery men, they dawnseyn and they syng, Ivy and hur maydyns, they wepen and they wryng, ” lamented an ancient carol recorded in Hone’s 1823 Ancient Mysteries Described. The qualities of life and death and warmth and cold as epitomized by these rhymes seem to suggest holly and ivy together were an ancient epitome of the fight for survival in the midst of the cold and darkness of winter.

8. Mistletoe was an ancient symbol of peace, reconciliation- and love.

Mistletoe was another plant, which, like holly, fruited in the depths of winter and so became regarded as a symbol of life. So profoundly embedded into Christmas was mistletoe that, even when prohibited, it was hard to dislodge from the Christian celebrations. An unnamed English botanist in the 1650s recorded how, despite Puritan prohibitions against Christmas mistletoe, it was carried many miles to set up in houses around Christmastime when it is adorned with a white glistening berry.

Historians can only date the practice of kissing under the mistletoe to the eighteenth century. However, links between mistletoe and romance are rooted in ancient history. Pliny the Elder in his Natural History records how druids harvested mistletoe from oak trees to brew antidotes to poison- and to aid fertility. Mistletoe was also sacred to the Norse goddess Frigga, the goddess of love. Norse warriors meeting opposing tribes to discuss peace would always lay down their arms under a bough of mistletoe. So even though mistletoe was a most pagan plant, its connotations of peace and love made it the perfect fit for the central Christian message of Christmas.

7. The Yule Log was lit to celebrate the rebirth of the Sun- and to keep fires burning while people partied.

Today, people enjoy Yule logs at Christmas as a chocolate dessert. However, in the times before Christmas trees and when an open fire was the only form of heat in winter, a Yule Log burning in the hearth was the centerpiece of the Christmas festivities. Robert Herrick, writing in England in the 1620s or ’30s described how gangs of young men introduced the Yule log to the house with great ceremony. It was hauled indoors, accompanied by song and toasted as the master of the house lit it with a piece of the previous year’s log as kindling.

None of this sounds very Christian- because it wasn’t. Some believed the Yule log was a hangover from Anglo Saxon fire ceremonies held at the Winter Solstice. However, the custom of the Yule log wasn’t exclusively Germanic- because it was found all over Europe. No one can say for sure what the symbolism of the Yule log was. Its light and the time of its burning at midwinter suggest it celebrated the returning power of the sun. Its ashes were also usually scattered across the fields, indicating it was believed to protect and enhance fertility for the year ahead. However, the Yule log could also have had a more prosaic purpose. For its sheer size made sure it would burn all day- meaning no one would have to rebuild the fire during the midwinter festivities.

6. Candles were lit to imitate the sun and Ward off Evil

Whether they are burned in churches or homes, in the times before electricity, candles were essential if an expensive way of ensuring adequate light in the darker months. Today, candles are still very much an emblem of Christmas and many people still light them as scented, atmospheric decorations-even though they are no longer strictly needed. However, in earlier times and other traditions, candles had an additional significance during Christmas and the midwinter season. Christians customarily lit candles in their windows to symbolically guide Jesus as he went from house to house on Christmas Eve. This candle lighting, however, was borrowed from earlier traditions.

Roman pagans used candles as miniature representatives of the reborn sun. The late fourth-century Christian writer Scriptor Syrus described the custom of the “kindled lights” that people used as part of the festivities for the rebirth of the sun around midwinter. Candles were also part of the Saturnalia when the Romans lit long wax tapers and gave them to guests as gifts or as offerings to Saturn. However, Christianity may not have borrowed all its candle lighting traditions from paganism. Many of the first Christians were Jewish, and midwinter is the time of the eight-day long Jewish festival of Hanukkah when celebrants light a candle every day.

5. The Giving of Gifts at Christmas has nothing to do with the Three Wise Men

Today, the giving of gifts is central to Christmas- and big business to boot. Although this over commerciality is often lamented by those who feel it detracts from the central message of the festival, presents have always been a part of the Christian celebrations-even if people didn’t give them on Christmas day. Up until the 1800s, it was customary to present gifts on New Years Day, close to Epiphany, when the magi presentation the infant Christ with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those who could afford it used it as an excuse for giving lavish presents, while others gave donations of food and clothing to the poor St Nicholas’s Eve.

However, once again, pagans and present giving at midwinter went hand in hand. On December 23, the Romans held the festival of the Sigillaria, a day when particular markets were set up to sell sigilla, the pottery figures that along with wax candles were made as offerings to Saturn. As time went on, the Saturnalia celebrations absorbed the Sigillaria, and instead, Sigillaria markets became a place to buy Saturnalia gifts for loved ones and patrons. As of today, these gifts gradually became more and more opulent- and expensive, with many Romans spending more than they could afford.

4. The Lord of Misrule was a Popular Figure in the Middle Ages. However, he was a blatant hangover from Saturnalia.

During the Middle Ages, the Lord of Misrule was the King of Christmas. Whether in a manor house or the royal court, the Lord of Misrule dictated all feasts, dances, masquerades, and processions of mummers and musicians. Throughout the festivities, he sat crowned at the head of the table where he received the mock homage of his fellow revelers. Although people sometimes referred to the Lord as the Abbot of misrule’ no one pretended he was part of the Christian traditions of Christmas. For the Lord of Misrule was a blatant leftover from the Roman feast of Saturnalia.

A principal part of the Saturnalia festivities was the overturning of the social norm. Men dressed as women and visa versa. Slaves also received a holiday and swapped places with their owners who waited on them for the day. One of the salves of each household was appointed the Lord of the Feast. The Lord of the Feast acted as a personification of Saturn and as such was responsible for ensuring that everyone ate and drank too much and behaved foolishly. For one day, Rome went back to a golden age of idleness and plenty. It was a custom that was so deeply rooted; the Christian Christmas had to absorb it.

3. Father Christmas or Santa Claus Started Life as a Pagan God

Next to Jesus Christ, Father Christmas takes center stage of the Christmas celebrations. Today, he is celebrated as the central gift giver but in times gone by; he was a distillation of the spirit of Christmas. Christian tradition gives the original Father Christmas a saintly origin. He is St Nicholas, a benign and kindly Christian saint who in the fourth century was the Bishop of Myra in modern Turkey. As bishop, Nicholas gave out gifts to the poor and needy. This charitable act was recalled by the giving of gifts on December 6^th, St Nicholas Day. The church commemorated the Bishop with the medieval custom of the boy bishop who was elected to reign over Christmas until December 28^th.

However, there are plenty of pagan candidates for the original Father Christmas. The figure of Saturn himself is one, as is the god Odin who was reputed to drive a sleigh drawn by reindeers. The tradition of leaving mince pies and a glass of milk for Santa Claus also has its roots in the Scandinavian custom of making sacrifices to mark the coming of spring. Some of the other candidates are females, such as La Befana, the kindly Italian witch who delivered presents by broomstick or Frau Holle who gave women gifts at the winter solstice. Any or all of these pagan characters influenced the image of Father Christmas we have today.

2. New Year Celebrations were so Pagan that the Council of Tours banned them.

The first of January or New Year’s Day is as much a part of the Christmas festivities as Christmas Day itself. However, it wasn’t always the case. Most early societies- including ancient Rome originally marked the New Year with the beginnings of new life in the spring. The date changed in the Roman Empire when Julius Caesar established January as the start of the New Year. Caesar’s change made good sense. For January was the month of Janus, the god of beginnings and endings. It was also the month that the new political year opened when the new consuls took office and priests took the auspices.

January was also a quiet month agriculturally. Columella noted that farmers did not begin working the land again after the midwinter revels until January 13. However, they did use January 1^stas a day for auspiciandi causa- a practical precursor of the New Year’s resolution. January 1^st was also sacred to Janus and marked with more merrymaking, and gifts of honey, figs, pastries- and money. However, the Roman New Year was one feast the early church would not countenance. In 567AD, the Council of Tours abolished January 1^stas New Year’s Day and named it the Feast of the Circumcision instead. However, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII re-established January 1^st New Years’ day – and people have celebrated it ever since.

1. Christmas Day was the date of the Rebirth of the Sun before it was the Birthday of the Son of God.

No one knows when the birth of Jesus Christ took place. For the first two centuries of Christianity, no one cared, as early Christians focused more on the dates of the martyrdom of Christ and the saint. However, in 221AD, Sextus Julius Africanus became the first person to link the birth of Christ to December 25^thand in 354AD, the date had become inscribed on the calendar of Philocalus in Rome. Over the next two centuries, the idea spread and Christians across the eastern and western empire began to accept December 25th as Christ’s birthday.

December 25^th was chosen as the birthday of the Son of God because it was already the day of the rebirth of the sun. December 25^th was the first-day people could appreciate increased light after the ‘sun standing still’ at the winter solstice. So, they marked the day as the birthdate of sun gods such as Mithras or the Sun god Sol Invictus: the victorious sun. So, the early church chose December 25 to ‘absorb’ the festivities surrounding these deities- and refocus them on the birth of Christ. While some Christians regarded this acquisition as a victory, others such as Augustine of Hippo had to keep reminding people it was the Son of God and not the sun they were worshipping.

Where Do We Get This stuff? Here are our sources:

Nine Christmas Customs with Pagan Roots, Patti Wigington, Learn Religions, June 18, 2017

Christmas, BBC, June 22, 2009

Lord of Misrule, Encyclopedia Britannica, August 13, 2015

Christmas tree, Encyclopedia Britannica, October 15, 2018

Chambers Dictionary of Beliefs and religions, ed Mark Vernon, Chambers, 2010

Chambers Book of Days, ed R Chambers, Chambers, 2004

Christmas wreaths, Christmas Forest

Stations of the Sun: A history of the Ritual Year in Britain, Ronald Hutton, 1996

Tree worship: why are our trees so sacred? Ed Cumming, The Telegraph, December 19, 2013

The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly, in Songs of the nativity by William Henry Husk, John Camden Hotten.

Ancient mysteries described: especially the English miracle plays, founded on apocryphal New Testament story, extant among the unpublished manuscripts in the British Museum: including notices of ecclesiastical shows. William Hone, London: W. Hone, 1823

Price, S, and Kearns, E. The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion- ed. Oxford University Press, 2003

Did the Romans invent Christmas? BBC: Religion and Ethics, December 17, 2012

St Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, Encyclopedia Britannica, March 14, 2018

The Ancient Origins of New Years Celebrations, April Holloway, Ancient Origins, December 30, 2013

Did the Romans Invent Christmas? Matt Salusbury. History Today. 12 December 2009

Christmas Isn’t Christian: The Pagan Roots of The Winter Holiday. Wear Your Voice. Laurel Dickman. Dec 2, 2016

Christmas Wreaths Are a Classic Holiday Decoration with a Surprisingly Deep History. Time Magazine. KAT MOON. DECEMBER 21, 2018

10 Christian Holidays and Beliefs Steeped in Pagan Traditions. Larry Holzwarth. History Collection. July 12, 2018

Pagan Roots? 5 Surprising Facts About Christmas. Stephanie Pappas. Live Science. December 23, 2012

What Is the Significance of the Three Wise Men and Their Gifts? Robert Hampshire. Christianity. 1 December 2020

These Abysmal Christmases in History Make us Grateful for the Cringey Family Gatherings. Tim Flight. History Collection. December 25, 2018