Why Bill O’Reilly’s defense of Christmas is secretly un-Christian
BY DANNY KENNY — Fox News talk-show personality Bill O’Reilly thinks the Holidays just won’t be the same
without The Tree, Santa, the gifts of appreciation, the mistletoe and holly, etc. These are the things he claims
are threatened with extinction by the so-called ‘War on Christmas.’
But I guess he doesn’t realize that these traditions he’s apparently missing from his Irish Catholic childhood are
thoroughly pagan in origin, some dating back 4,000 years. Which begs the question: So, Bill, what in the name
of Jesus are Yule celebrating?
My fellow loud-mouthed Irishman famously asks,
“Do they know it’s Christmas time (at all)?” But I’m
starting to wonder if O’Reilly does? Like many Irish-
Americans, I think he has a misty-eyed view of the
Ould Country.
So be careful what you wish for, Bill. I remember
when I was an angelic little altar boy back home, me
Mammy threatened me by saying, “If you don’t get
up that road to Mass you’ll grow up to be a proper
bloody Pagan!”
At the time I — and perhaps, she — had no real idea
what that meant, but it sounded really bad and
certainly put the fear of God into both of us . . . until 20 years or so later, when she proudly attended my Pagan
Wedding as guest of honor (May her God Bless her)!
As a young fella I always loved Christmas, and back then my Mam always made a great Christmas for us kids .
. . ‘just like the ones ‘e used to know.’ (All
together now . . . I feel a traditional
Christmas song coming. Okay enough
already! That’s why we pay carol singers to
goaway!)
But if a tree, gifts, a fat bloke with a white
beard and kissing under the mistletoe
sounds like your idea of an idyllic Christmas
— minus “Bada Bing Crosby” (who was
famously Catholic) — I bear glad tidings
you’re a Pagan!
The addition of Christ to the celebration of the winter solstice did not occur until 300 years after Christ died. In
fact some devout Christian sects like the Puritans, forbade their members from celebrating Christmas, because
it was considered a pagan holiday. So what is the history behind these traditions?
Here are 12 reasons why ON THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS, THE PAGANS GAVE TO ME:
1. The Date
2. The Virgin birth
3. The Tree
4. The Gifts
5. Santa
6. The primary colors: red, white and green
7. The Mistletoe
8. The lights and the witches balls (tree ornaments)
9. The Star or Fairy at the top of the tree
10. The Robin
11. Yule log
12. The twelve days of Christmas
The date and the Virgin birth:
YULE, circa Dec 22nd, was when Pagans celebrated (and still do) the rebirth of the God from the Virgin
Goddess (sound familiar?). Even the term “virgin” is mis-leading, as it originally did not mean a woman who
hadn’t had sex, but applied to priestesses during Rome’s pre-Christian period.
These women were not bound by secular law, were free to take all the lovers they chose and were beholden to
no man. “Yule,” a Nordic word, literally means wheel. In other words, it’s not a type of wood, as in Yule log; it
symbolized the turning of the year from darkness into light.
The tree and The Gifts:
As I said above, the Christmas tree is derived from several solstice traditions.
The tradition of giving gifts came from Saturnalia, a New Years Festival of Pagan Rome; gifts were given in
honour of loved ones who died during the previous year. They would exchange good-luck gifts called Stenae
(lucky fruits). They also would have a big feast just like we do today.
Santa and the red, white and green:
The Pagan Holly King is the sacrificial Pagan God who becomes the Goddess’s consort at Yule, and dies with
the fading light of Winter Solstice (to be reborn 3 days later as The Oak King). His image is informed by the
symbolic pagan woodsman colors: red, white, green and black. They were adopted by Santa, a.k.a St.
Nicholas, whose feast day is actually Dec 6th. But hey, if you’re a kid getting pressies who cares?
The mistletoe, the lights and the Witches balls
Mistletoe, holly and pine were all fertility symbols used by Pagans and Druids, and had been part of Yule
celebrations for 1,000′s of years.
Mistletoe was used in an ancient Druid custom at the winter solstice because it was considered a divine plant
and symbolized love and peace. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is Druid in origin.
The lights represented the birth of the new God and the return of the light on the shortest day of the year; the
lights on a Christmas tree is a carry-over from candles and fires lit by Pagans in symbolic rituals to lure back the
waning Sun.
Witches balls are hollow glass ornaments popular in parts of Europe in the 18th century, but their origin is much
older. They were designed to ward off evil spirits and ill wishes that were directed at your family. Hanging these
balls in windows was thought to tantalize spirits because of their colors, and trap them inside of the bulb when
they touched it, forever holding the marauding spirit hostage.
The Star or fairy on the tree and the Christmas robin
Again, this is not a Christian creation. The Star of David, the Jewish six-pointed star we put on top of the tree,
symbolizes the perfect union between male and female. The inverted triangle represents the feminine
(Shekinah); the upturned phallic triangle represents the male (Yahweh). In Pagan Ireland, as in many places
around the world, we love Fairies because our people looked to them to grant a Christmas wish.
The Robin
In Irish Celtic folklore and mythology, The Robin (seen on many a Christmas card) symbolically kills the wren to
signify the return of light. A contemporary reminder of this is the wren boys, who disguise themselves with straw,
and dance and play musi. These characters still appear in Irish bars, from Shannon to San Francisco, on
December 26th, St. Stephens Day.
The Yule log and The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration, besides the hanging of
ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival was called Yuletide, and again, celebrated the return of the
sun. One of their traditions was the Yule log. Traditionally made from oak, three holes house candles of red,
white and black.
Three is the symbol of the triple Goddess. She represents the three phases of womanhood: maiden, mother
and crone: White for the maiden, red for the mother and black for the crone.
The log was the center of the trunk of a tree that was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to
burn for twelve days. From this comes the twelve days of Christmas, immortalized in song and Bill
Shakespeare’s very Pagan Twelfth Night. The festival of Twelfth Night is part of the Roman Saturnalia, the
Feast of Fools and there can be little doubt that the license that marked this occasion had its origin in very
ancient pagan customs. As Christianity spread across Europe, some of the old traditions took centuries to die
out but the feast of the Epiphany on January 6 retained a Saturnalian flavor for many centuries.
Now that we’ve got all that outta the way! How about a nice mince pie and a festive glass of eggnog before you
head off to Midnight Mass?
Hope Y’all have a cool Yule now, ya hear!
10 Remarkable Origins
of Common Christmas
Traditions
JON PERRY DECEMBER 15, 2012
It’s the Christmas season again, and before we get sick of the eggnog, fruitcake, and
Christmas music played ad nauseum, we get to enjoy it for a couple weeks. But have
you ever wondered where some of our weird Christmas traditions come from? I mean,
we tell our kids that a fat man is coming into our house at night; we bring in trees in to
shed all over the carpet; and we kiss under parasitic plants – all in the holiday spirit.
How the hell are these even related to Jesus, whose birthday we’re supposed to be
celebrating?
Well, sit back, pull in some eggnog and gingerbread, and take a ride on the 10-entry,
Listverse sleigh!
10
Christmas
Christmas, as most of us know, is the Christian tradition honoring the birth of Christ –
though it is not celebrated solely as such in our modern society. To us, Christmas
represents a time of joy, gift-giving, and family. Christmas as we know it evolved out
of the Roman tradition of Saturnalia, a festival honoring their god of agriculture,
Saturn, on the winter solstice.
Due to the already-rampant celebration taking place on the date and the revering of
light and the sun, it was a natural development to celebrate the birth of Christ on the
same date. Many Roman writers give references to the date of December 25th and
Christianity between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and it is believed that the holiday was
widely celebrated by Christians by the turn of the 4th century. Though Christmas is
celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ, we don’t know the exact date, or even the year
of his birth.
9
Gift Giving
It is sometimes said that the tradition of gift-giving started with the 3 wise men, who
visited Jesus and gave him gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold. If you want to start
a Christmas tradition, I suppose the first Christmas would be a good date to start. As
with many other entries on this list though, the true origin of gift-giving lies in Pagan
beliefs.
During Saturnalia, children would often be given gifts of wax dolls – an act with a
rather macabre history itself; the dolls were used to represent human sacrifices that
Rome had given to Saturn in the past as payment for good harvests. Boughs of certain
trees and other plant matter were also a common gifts during Saturnalia, and were
used to represent bounty and good harvests.
8
X-mas
While some rather ignorant groups in the Americas believe that the abbreviation “x-
mas” is an attempt by the “dirty liberals” to “keep the Christ out of Christmas”, the
true origins have a strong basis in Christianity. In the abbreviation, the X stands for
the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of the Greek word for Christ. Jesus’ name has also
been abbreviated as XP, a combination of the first and second letters of the Greek
word for Christ. From XP comes the labarum, a holy symbol in Orthodox Christianity
that represents Jesus.
The term X-mas has been used since the 16th century, though it gained prominent
usage in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the modern world, X has been taken to be
used as an abbreviation for any word with Christ or the “krys” sound in it, even in
words which have no etymological connection. Chrysanthemum, for example, is
sometime shortened to “xant” on florist’s signs, and crystal has sometimes been
abbreviated as “xtal”.
7
Stockings
Many people know of Saint Nicholas being the basis of Santa Claus, but the practice
of stocking-stuffing can be traced back to his charitable donations in the 4th century.
Nicholas believed that childhood should be savored and enjoyed – but in a time where
boys and girls younger than 10 had to work to support their families, this wasn’t
always possible.
He therefore gave what he could in homemade food, clothes, and furniture. The
bishop even gave out oranges, which would have been very rare and expensive in
Lycia, where he lived. The problem became where to leave these gifts so that the
children would find them. According to legends, he then saw girls’ stockings hanging
above the fireplace, and ol’ Saint Nick (to paraphrase) thought “Why the hell not?”.
From then on, children would hang stockings up hoping that Saint Nicholas would
visit them that night.
Beyond St. Nick, the practice can be traced back to Scandinavian countries that still
held their Pagan beliefs. Children would leave their shoes full of carrots, straw, or
other similar foods for Odin’s mythic horse, Sleipnir. When Sleipnir ate the food,
Odin would leave candy or other treats in their place.
6
Wreaths
Since classical antiquity, the wreath has been used as a symbol of power and strength.
In Rome and Greece, kings and emperors often wore laurel wreathes as crowns – a
practice they themselves borrowed from the Etruscans, who predated them. The
Greeks and the Romans connected the laurel wreath to their sun god, Apollo, and
considered the crown to embody his values.
Harvest wreathes – the predecessors to our modern decorations – were used in rituals
for good harvests, and predate even written history. Ancient European animists often
used evergreen in their wreathes to symbolize strength and fortitude, as an evergreen
will live through even the harshest of winters. As for the connection to Christianity,
since wreathes symbolized tenacity and everlasting life, they were often used in
funerals of important people, specifically in the burials of saints and martyrs.
5
Christmas Tree
The modern Christmas tree differs greatly from its roots; today, we decorate an
everlasting, artificial construct with bright lights and dazzling ornaments, while
traditionally, the tree was of course, real and more importantly, decorated with edibles
such as apples and nuts. The tradition, as with that of the wreath, started with the
elements symbolized by evergreens in pre-Christian winter festivals: immortality and
fortitude.
The evergreen was also known to have represented the same values to a variety of
cultures, including the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. The worship of trees was
also very common in European druidism and paganism. In Christian tradition, trees
were often put up in December to serve the dual purpose of warding off the devil and
allowing a perch for whatever birds still remained. Evergreen trees decorated with
apples and wafers were also used in Christmas Eve plays during the Middle Ages to
represent the tree from which Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit. As for decoration,
the first evidence for decorated Christmas trees comes from German craftsman guilds
during the Renaissance. After the Protestant Reformation, trees enjoyed a surge of
popularity among Protestant households as counterparts to the Catholic nativity scene.
4
Caroling
Christmas carols grew out of the first Christmas hymns, which developed in 4th
century Rome. While these Latin hymns were sung in church for generations, the first
true carols developed in France, Germany, and Italy in the 13th century. These carols,
written in the vernacular language of the area they were composed, were
enthusiastically sung at community events and festivals. They were not composed
specifically as Christmas carols, but rather as conglomerate holiday songs that were
sung at many separate festivals and celebrations.
Later on, the songs would become associated primarily with Christmas and sung in
numerous churches. Carols in Protestant churches were much more numerous, since
the Protestant movement encouraged the arts, especially music. The modern practice
of going door-to-door caroling likely has something to do with the root word for carol,
“carole” or “carula” which both mean a circular dance. The practice may have
developed out of the public ceremonies that created the first carols.
3
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is, as opposed to the rest of this list, an instance where a secular holiday
grew out of a religious one. In most English speaking countries, Boxing Day is
traditionally the day following Christmas in which people receive gifts from their
bosses or employers.
Today, Boxing Day is known as a shopping day similar to Black Friday. Many
important sporting events are also commonly held on the holiday. Boxing day grew
out of St. Stephen’s day, a Christian holiday that commemorates the eponymous St.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr. St. Stephen was a deacon in an early church in
Jerusalem. After an argument with members of the synagogue, he was accused of
blasphemy. While waiting for his trial, he said he had seen God the Father and Son,
though this wasn’t enough to save him – he was stoned anyway.
2
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant which perches on a tree branch and absorbs nutrients
from the trunk – hardly one of the most romantic forms of life. But it has been
inspiring people to go at it for generations. Mistletoe has a large mythological
background across many cultures.
The Greeks believed that Aeneas, the famous ancestor of the Romans carried a sprig
of mistletoe in the form of the legendary golden bough. In Eddic tradition, mistletoe
was the only thing able to kill the god Baldur, since it had not sworn an oath to leave
him alone. Amongst other pre-Christian cultures, mistletoe was believed to carry the
male essence, and by extension, romance, fertility, and vitality.
Its use as decoration stems from the fact that it was believed to protect homes from
fire and lightning. It was commonly hung at Christmas time only to remain there all
year until being replaced by another sprig next Christmas. The process by which
mistletoe became associated with kissing is currently unknown, but it was first
recorded in 16th century England as a very popular practice. Mistletoe carries a pretty
good legacy, for a parasite of a plant that causes diarrhea and stomach pain when
ingested.
1
Santa
Most people know that Santa’s origins lie in Saint Nicholas, that generous Saint who
gave presents to needy children. However, many other figures evolved into the
conglomerate we call Santa Claus.
For one, the Dutch Sinterklaas, who himself has basis with Saint Nick, was the main
inspiration for Santa Claus. He is nearly identical to Santa: he wears red and white,
knows if you’re naughty or nice, and has elf helpers referred to as Zwarte Piet.
However, the legend takes on a much darker legend when one hears that the Zwarte
Piet’s duties also include punishing naughty children with “jute bags and willow
canes”. He also differs from Santa in the facts that he wears a bishop’s hat and comes
on steam boat from Spain, rather than the North Pole.
Another large influence into Santa’s design is the British Father Christmas, a figure
developed in the 17th century as the embodiment of holiday joy and mirth. Odin also
exists as a potential pagan inspiration for Santa Claus; he lead a hunting party with
other gods on Yule, a German holiday at roughly the same time as Christmas; he rode
Sleipnir, a legendary horse with 8 legs; like Santa, he has 8 reindeer; and he would fill
children’s’ boots with candy, as mentioned earlier.
The modern Santa Claus, contrary to popular belief, was not created by Coca-Cola,
but has been in American folklore since the late 18th century. His name comes from
an Americanization of Sinterklaas, and somewhere along the way, he lost his bishop’s
hat. One could write an entire list on the origins of individual components of Santa’s
story – suffice to say that they all have interesting origins, and I would suggest further
reading.
There may be a couple levels of separation, but nearly every strange traditions we
practice around the holiday season stem from Christianity, and further than that, even
have a basis in Pagan religions and pre-Christian traditions. And really, do the
connections to Christianity even matter? Christmas is the one time of year where
everyone (or nearly so) is friendly, generous and gets along with each other, does it
matter the inspiration? As a non-Christian, I believe we can all learn something from
the Christmas spirit, regardless of race, religion, or creed.
