Christian and Jewish worshipers of the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, the G-d of Jacob – the One True G-d of all creation – are urged in Proverbs/Mishle 23:23:  “Buy the Truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.”  Buy, sell;  get – all used in this Scripture as action verbs.  If we truly desire to have an intimate knowledge of and personal relationship with the Holy One of Israel, we must actively and resolutely set our feet upon a Path of righteousness that is firmly rooted in His Truths, His Wisdom, His Discipline, and His Understanding – in other words, in His Reality.  Such a pursuit demands of each individual who embarks upon this Path a careful, honest and consistent evaluation of his or her principles, attitudes, and deeds. Principles speak of the fundamental truths that are the collective motivating force behind one’s  thoughts and actions.  Attitudes relate to a person’s disposition and focus.  Deeds are the defining markers that influence one’s way of life – they are the product of personal performance when encountering the many challenges, opportunities and pitfalls that await us here on earth. 

In exploring the origins of the Christendom holiday of Christmas, it becomes apparent that many of G-d’s little lambs have unwittingly strayed from the Path of righteousness in that they have been taught by blind guides to observe a widely endeared tradition of Man that is deeply rooted in far-reaching ancient mystical, occult and pagan practices and beliefs.  Yeshua’s opinion about blind guides who nullify the Word of G-d for the sake of their traditions is recorded in Mark 7:9: “You have a fine way of setting aside the Commands of G-d in order to observe your own traditions! ”  Although the rebuke was directed toward the hypocritical spiritual leadership in Judaism of Yeshua’s time, who were professing commitment to G-d while practicing and promoting destructive man-made teachings, nevertheless, it also applies to the blind guides of Christendom, who have erroneously taught their flock that it is kosher to abandon G-d’s Holy Festivals in favor of heathen ones. 

On a final note: The subjects of the evolution of Christmas and the ancient mystical, occult and pagan customs and symbols associated with the holiday can and do fill the library shelves and internet sites with voluminous scholarly and non-scholarly material that would take years to fully research.  This paper is not intended to be a scholarly dissertation regarding Christmas; hence, this writer’s scope of research, though considerable, has by no means been exhaustive.  Rather, the following material is presented in order to fully equip the brethren with meaningful, accurate and concise information regarding the altogether heathen origins of Christmas; and its associated customs and symbols. 

This labor of love should be sufficient enough to sound the alarm for those who have ears to hear that this is definitely not the Way to walk ye in.

The origins of Christmas:

Dead winter.   The earth is atop her axis, whirling your hemisphere to a position farthest away from the sun, which has descended to its lowest arc above the horizon.  Darkness encroaches upon your light, leaving only a sliver of daytime.  The earth’s veil, your local druids, witches and mystics caution, is at its thinnest point in your area, thus enabling spirits, demons, imps, trolls and elves from the outer-world and from within the belly of the earth to penetrate the domain of humanity and lurk about your neighborhood.  Your Winter Solstice has arrived – that longest, coldest, dreariest, eeriest night on your calendar. 

Since antiquity, Winter Solstice, occurring anywhere between December 20th and 22nd, has been greeted with reverential fear and exhilaration by people the world over.  This period is now commonly referred to as Yuletide, which is a season that lasts for 12 nights after the actual Winter Solstice.  During this span of time, one year is said to draw to a close when the sun makes its final descent, and another year is ushered in when the sun “regenerates” itself and in ascending fashion, embarks upon a new cycle.  This has historically been an especially important time of year for agriculturally based societies because it marks a turning point when the cold season has reached its peak of strength and fury, and its potency begins to wane and eventually gives way to the warmth of the spring season, when crops are grown. 

The Winter Solstice period also provides an opportunity for pagans of all sorts to aggrandize and immortalize their most loved and feared deities.  Because heathen tradition teaches that certain mighty deities take on the attributes of other powerful deities, it is suitable for some of these pagans to assert that all of the gods associated particularly with Yuletide are  “re-born” sun gods; hence, such deities are also fully capable of self-rejuvenation.

In keeping with this heathen concept of rebirth and immortality, ancient communities paid tribute to the Yuletide gods and goddesses in an effort to gain their favor so that their communities and households would be provided with a year of abundant food, fertile women, good mates, and other such corporeal necessities.  This was a time where the higher spirits were consulted by community soothsayers who would divine hidden knowledge regarding important matters that impacted the community, such as the upcoming year’s crops.  The lesser mischievous spirits were invited in or warded off from the homesteads; depending on each family’s disposition toward them. 

Present-day heathens still pay tribute to their pantheon of gods and goddesses during the Yuletide season, and, as in ancient times, this is the perfect occasion for them to speak with dead ancestors, divine the future, cast spells, tell ghost stories, and ward off that which creeps about in the dark.

Through all of these pagan Yuletide traditions, Man is somehow suppose to be properly equipped to cope with this  gloomy season of uncertainty.  

Seventeen hundred years ago, upon this unholy soil, Christmas took root.

Rabbi Paul taught, as recorded in Romans 11: 16: “If part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.”   In like manner, if part of the dough offered as firstfruits is unholy, then the whole batch is unholy, and if the root is unholy, so are the branches.

Christmas is primarily rooted in two major Winter Solstice heathen festivals: the Yule-feast of the Norsemen, who were the medieval Scandinavians, and Saturnalia of the Romans.

The Winter Solstice Yule-feast that was widely celebrated by the Norsemen and other North Germanic peoples, was also popularized by the Druids.  They refer to this Winter Solstice festival as Alban Arthan.  The Druids were originally a highly influential religious order of primarily priests and soothsayers of the ancient Celtic Britain, Ireland and Gaul, which is now mainly France and Belgium.  The intensely ritualistic Druid religious observances to this day take place inside “sacred” circles in the hills, forests, oak groves, and springs, where adherents to this tradition worship a pantheon of three dozen gods and goddesses, and offer up to them animal – and, in ancient times, human – sacrifices.  In this setting, the Alban Arthan ceremony is celebrated.  Holly, an important ritual tree, is sacred to the Druids and is coveted for its supposed magical powers.  It plays a prominent role in the Druid Yule-tide festival, most especially because this is considered to be a potent time of year, were Druids open themselves up to the supernatural realm in search of creative powers.  The white berries of the mistletoe are distributed during the Alban Arthan ceremony, as it is said to represent the atom-seed of light, which descends from the “inspired realms” to be incarnated in the mother earth.

These elements from the Yule-feast were combined with the Roman Saturnalia, the festival of Saturn, considered to be the Latin agricultural god of seed-time, misrule, and the arts, to form the basis for Christmas. 

Saturnalia began during the latter part of December, and was celebrated as the beginning of the New Year.  It was a time of great merriment, frivolousness, and wild street celebrations.  All business transactions ceased and schools closed.  It was considered impious to engage in war during this time.  During the course of the celebrations, children would rule the households and slaves would be waited on at a special banquet by their masters, all to celebrate the equality of human beings, which was said to have existed during the reign of Saturn.  Parties and masquerades were fashionable, and festival participants would strut about with pileus – brimless caps of sorts – on their heads.  Public gambling was condoned, as was card-playing.  The lord of the Saturnalia would preside over these winter revels.  Strands of lamps were brightly displayed, as were candles, in an effort to chase away the spirits of darkness.  These lights also symbolized the sun’s light and the new solar year, which brought hope for renewal.  Rooms and halls were decked with boughs of holly and ivy, the latter being a practice derived from an ancient custom of gathering green branches during the winter solstice as part of the magical rites of ceremonial observances to ensure the rebirth of crops and other vegetation during springtime.  During the festival, the Romans would hand out gifts of holly, candles, and lamps, as they believed these repelled evil spirits, and other small gifts were given with the intent of bringing good luck, prosperity and happiness to the recipients.  Toward the end of the festival, when the sun was on its return, the world was considered renewed.

Papal Rome preserved many relics of heathen Rome, and in the seventh century, Pope Gregory sent the Roman monk Augustine on a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons.  The pope instructed Augustine to accommodate the heathens by aligning the Christian worship ceremonies as much as possible with the pagan rituals and observances.  This was done so as not to startle the heathens with what would have otherwise been an abrupt transition.  In particular, the pope advised Augustine to allow the new converts at Christmas time to kill and eat a great number of oxen to the glory of G-d, instead of to Satan, as they were accustomed to doing.  Hence, the Christian clergy endeavored to intertwine idolatry with Christianity, and they allowed some of the heathen practices of the Anglo-Saxons to make their way into the Christmastide festivities.

Medieval peasant Christians celebrated Christmastide for 12 days, and held tightly to many of the pagan traditions that the midwinter holiday absorbed throughout the centuries, oftentimes honoring both the heathen and the Christian observances side-by-side.  Displaying strands of lights, decking the halls with boughs of holly, gift-giving, and partying are but a few of the heathen traditions that to this day remain entrenched in the Christmas festivities.  These Christians added a few of their own time-honored traditions, as well.  An English custom became popular in 1066, where a lord of Misrule was appointed to reign during the Christmastide period and preside over the games, sports, dances, and merrymaking – a custom derived from the ancient lord of the Saturnalia.   France had its own special Christmas concepts, among them the Feast of Fools, an unholy tradition that transgressed the most solemn rites of the Church.  Priests wearing masks and dressed as women would dance in the choir and sing obscene chants.  Laymen would disguise themselves as monks and would mingle with the clergy.  The altar was turned into a tavern where deacons gambled and ate pork.  The censers would be emptied of their incense and replaced with bits of old shoes, filling the worship hall with a foul odor.   During this period of the Middle Ages, Christmas caroling was introduced, as was the nativity drama. 

Today, we see a Christmas that has grown into a world renown commercial giant.  As it were, the spirit of giving took off just a little too well.  What was once an ancient gift-giving custom of the Romans has since turned into a global Yule-tide marketing blitz for manufactures and merchants alike.  Modern-day Christmas celebrants for the most part shrug off the dominating commercial aspect of the holiday because the tradition is widely believed to have been sanctified by the Biblical Record of the Magi who brought gifts to the infant Messiah.  Christmas has continued to flourish into such a paganized and commercialized holiday, it is no wonder that modern-day Druids, wiccans, and other heathens incorporate it into their own occult observances and rituals.  Indeed, as the wise King Solomon once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

 

Caroling: Carolers would go from house to house to sing during Christmas time, expecting rewards, usually in the form of alcohol.  Alcohol was of the utmost importance, as drunkenness and gluttony were the prevailing pleasures during Christmastide, and the two vices would rival each other for dominance during the festivities.  One of the most popular drinks was mulled wines and the wassail cup, the name of which was derived from the Anglo-Saxton term meaning: “hale or be whole.”  The custom of drinking during Christmastide dates back to the 4th Century A.D., and was addressed by Bishop Gregory Nazianzen, who cautioned against such temporal trappings that had been incorporated into the holiday.  He urged Christians to celebrate the festival “after a heavenly and not an earthly manner.”  Yet, the tradition of drinking to the excess continued to be dearly upheld.  The earliest existing carol known to antiquaries is in the Anglo-Norman language, and it speaks of the period drinking customs of the 12th century A.D., which by then had been deeply rooted into Christmas celebrations.  The carol was thought to be sung by the wandering minstrels who visited the castles of the Norman nobility during Christmas time.  The carol is as follows:

“To English ale, and Gascon wine,

And French, doth Christmas much incline –

And Anjou’s too;

He makes his neighbour freely drink,

So that in sleep his head doth sink

Often by day. 

May joys flow from G-d above,

To all those who Christmas love. 

Lords, by Christmas and the host

Of this mansion hear my toast –

Drink it well –

Each must drain his cup of wine

And I the first will toss off mine:

Thus I advise,

Here then I bid you all Wassail,         

Cursed be he who will not say Drinkhail.”

Christmas tree: Christmas trees are traditionally pine and fir evergreens.  The first modern-day Christmas trees were introduced by British royalty.  Queen Caroline erected a tree at a Christmas celebration in 1821, and Prince Albert provided one during a children’s party 20 years later in the court of Queen Victoria, as was custom from his native Germany.  The royal families universally popularized the tree in its association of Christmas. 

The pine tree is considered to be one of seven chieftain trees of the Irish.   The Druids use its needles mixed with other ingredients to purify the home and its branches to sanctify outdoor ritual sites.  Druids carry the nuts and cones as fertility charms.  In other cults, pine trees or boughs would be brought indoors at midwinter to provide warmth for the faeries and woodland spirits that considered such trees home until the gloomy season passed and they could return to their forest habitat.

To dream of fir meant that suffering would visit the dreamer, although it was considered possible to prevent nightmares by laying a fir branch at the foot of one’s bed.  A partially burned fir branch was said to protect against lightning, and a bough situated over the door of a barn was suppose to prevent thieves and witches from stealing grain.  It was ancient German custom for girls to dance around a fir tree, and by doing so, they believed they imprisoned an imp, which would then have to give them whatever they wished for.  For Druids, the tall, slender fir tree that is grown on the upper slopes of mountainous regions symbolizes high views and long sights with clear prophetic vision.

Yule log: The Yule log was a very large log of freshly cut Ash or Oak that was cut down and carried into the house with great ceremony.  Carvings were engraved into them to bring protection and good fortune to the home and its inhabitants.  Wishes were made over the log, and then on Christmas Eve, the head of the household would place it on a large hearth.  Mulled wine would be poured over the log, and it would be sprinkled with oil and salt, and prayers would then be recited over it.  In some families, left over splinters from the previous year’s Yule log, which had been placed throughout the house and made into pendants for protection throughout the year, would now be used to light the new log.  The cinders of the log, it was believed, would protect the household from thunder and lightening, and from Satan’s dark forces.  The entire ritual of selecting the right kind of wood, lighting the log in a particular way, and allowing it to burn for a specified time – usually no less than 12 hours and preferably until dawn – varied from region to region.

The ceremony of the Yule-log disappeared along with the large hearths, leaving only the modern-day Yule-log French pastries, the carols, and Yule-log decorative keepsakes to immortalize this superstitious tradition, which was rooted in wide-spread ancient customs that involved lighting mid-winter solstice fires indoors and performing rituals and invocations to the sun god in order to assist this deity in rekindling its ailing lamp.

  

The worship of mistletoe is associated with the cult worship of the oak tree, as the oak is said to house certain gods; while the mistletoe is said to ensure the longevity of these gods.  The Druids, considered to be the priests of the oak, would cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle, as would the Italians.  Neither group would use an iron implement for the task.  Druid priests robed in white gowns would catch the plant in a white cloth as it fell from the tree.  It was not fitting to allow mistletoe to fall to the ground, as the plant was thought to have fallen from the “inspired realm.” Bulls were sacrificed during these elaborate cutting ceremonies.  In the midsummer festivals, humans were sacrificed in conjunction with the cutting if this plant, which signaled the death of a particular god and its sacrificial substitute .  The Norse god, Balder, said to be the son of Odin, was supposedly slain by mistletoe.         

Holly and Ivy: Holly and ivy are inseparably associated with Christmas.  The two evergreens represent the female and the male, whereas the ivy, as the female, clings and twines and the holly, as the male, is prickly and firm.  The two plants, said to struggle with one another for power, were used in fertility rites and placed over the doors of households to ward off thieves and witches.  The two intertwining plants fixed over the doorways were also symbolic of the union between the two halves of divinity.

The legendary ivy is the more ancient plant, mythologically speaking.  It is connected with Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry, who is identified with a similar god of the Romans named Baccus.  Ivy is a symbol of fidelity or one’s faithfulness and loyalty.  It is said to possess magical powers, and, as such, it is used for fortune telling.  It is also believed to have protective powers over farm animals and produce.  Inside homes it was thought to safeguard the inhabitants from witchcraft.  If the ivy withered, it was a sure sign of forthcoming misfortune.  Ivy is included in many Christmas decorations because it is thought to bring good luck to women. 

Holly is associated with death and rebirth, and universally it has been coveted for its supposed magical powers.  The Druids use it in spells to bring on sleep or death.  It has been used to protect households because it was thought that it kept lighting from striking.  Its spiny leaves were said to snag and capture evil spirits before they could enter a home to do evil to its inhabitants.  The plant was believed to have power over animals, causing them to be obedient to their masters, and it is said to increase a man’s ability to attract women.  Holly is thought to protect against poison, and its red berries in particular are said to provide extra protection.  A combination of leaves and berries have been thought to safeguard its owners from the Evil Eye.  People the world over have considered it especially unlucky to injure a holly bush or tree.  The jolly, pleasure-seeking Father Christmas is oftentimes wearing a crown of holly, as he sits before a bountiful table of sumptuous foods and generous spirits. 

When the early Christians began to celebrate Yeshua’s birth erroneously in the midwinter, they persisted in holding onto the ancient custom of decorating their houses with this evergreen.  To make the transition from a pagan custom to a Christian tradition, Christians referred to the holly as the “holy tree,” a handy perversion, and linked the spiny leaves with Yeshua’s (Jesus’) Crown of Thorns, and the red berries with His shed Blood.   

Both plants have numerous myths tied to them, stemming from ancient superstitious rituals and beliefs.  It is considered unlucky to dispose of either plant before the end of Christmas festivities, now widely thought to be January 5th, as this would be likened to throwing away prosperity and even to inviting death into one’s household.

Conclusion:  

The burden is thus placed upon us, as children and disciples of G-d, to search our hearts to see if there be any unclean thing within.  We are shirking our responsibilities by depending upon our spiritual leaders to have our relationships with G-d for us.  Let us stand up for what is right according to His Reality, come what may; then we shall see Living Waters abundantly flow though the Church Body, and She will become an accurate reflection of Messiah, fully able to reach out to a dying world.

The Last Word:

I will hand this category over to James:

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”  James 4: 17:”

Sources:

Sources that Sandra Warmoth used for this December 2001 article include: 

Christmas and its Associations, a book by William Francis Dawson, 1968; Man, Myth & Magic – The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown , Editor-in-Chief Richard Cavendish, 1985; The Origins of Christmas and Easter, an exposition by Christian Churches of G-d, 1998; Mythraism – The Legacy of the Roman Empire’s Final Pagan State Religion, an essay by David Fingrut, 1993. 

Also, a collection of short articles and informational briefs derived from heathen and occult websites.  The subject matter as follows: Celtic Druidism, Druid festivals and ceremonies, Norse mythology, the cult of Odinism, the Germanic cult system of Woden, the Roman Saturnalia, history of the Winter Solstice, the origins of Christmas symbols, heathen cycles of the year, pagan holidays, days of the Wheel