"Long before the
fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a
festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the
year, in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of
heaven. It may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen,
and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity,
the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ adopted the
same festival. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism
halfway was very early developed; and we find Tertullian,
even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency
of the disciples of Christ in this respect, and contrasting it with the
strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition"
- Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, p.
93
“December 25 was the
date of the Roman pagan festival inaugurated in 274 as the
birthday of the unconquered sun which at the winter solstice
begins again to show an increase in light. Sometime before 336 the Church in
Rome, unable to stamp out this pagan festival, spiritualized
it as the Feast of the Nativity of the Sun of Righteousness.”
- New International Dictionary of the
Christian Church, p. 223