Church Sheds Objection to Dec. 25 as Jesus’ Birth Date

The mainstream of the Churches of Christ, a 1.5-million-member fellowship of congregations with roots in 19th-Century rural America, has gradually shed its longstanding objection to observing the birthday of Jesus on Dec. 25, according to a Pepperdine University scholar.

“Years ago, you could go to church on Christmas Sunday and hear a sermon on anything but Christmas,” said historian Richard Hughes, a professor of religion at the university, which maintains loose ties with the fellowship.

In its effort to emulate the earliest Christian churches described in the New Testament, Churches of Christ leaders noted that the birthday of Jesus was not celebrated in the 1st Century and that the arbitrary choice of a Dec. 25 holiday was made three centuries later.

“As the Churches of Christ became more urbanized and members became better educated, the attitude has changed,” Hughes said. “Some segments still refuse, but I think that in the mainstream churches there is no hesitancy in celebrating the Christ event.”

Surprisingly, he said, even years ago, church members would acknowledge the secular side of Christmas with carol singing, decorations, trees and depictions of Santa Claus.

That put the Churches of Christ at odds with other theologically conservative denominations, which have cried, “Put Christ back into Christmas,” and have banished Santa from their festivities as a figure who diminished the religious significance of the holiday.

“I don’t think the Churches of Christ ever resisted Santa Claus; they resisted the baby Jesus,” rejecting the celebrations on historical and theological grounds, Hughes said.