A facebook friend posted a comment that listed a dozen or so mythological heroes, deities or saviors said to be born on December 25. This prompted me to post the following (edited a bit), which I thought would be worth sharing here:
No one knows when Jesus was born; the Gospels do not say. (If I recall, Luke speaks of the shepherds in the fields at night, which is said to happen in the spring, but there's good reason to believe that Luke's nativity story is fiction, asis the dissimilar nativity story in Matthew.) Putting the birth of Jesus on December 25 happened centuries after he was born. The basic idea is that the early Church sought to co-opt popular holidays by putting Christian holidays on those dates, in this case a celebration associated with the Solstice. So it is not at all a coincidence that Jesus was born on December 25 like those other gods.
What's interesting about the birth of Jesus in the Bible is that it is only mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, whose nativity stories (as mentioned above) are dissimilar and read like fiction. The belief in the virgin birth appears to have come several decades after the death of Jesus; it is not mentioned by St. Paul in the 12 books in the New Testament attributed to him (including the six books modern scholarship says he really wrote). Since Paul's letters are the earliest Christian writings, dating to within 30 years of Jesus's life, this is telling. (Paul wrote in the 50s CE but the Gospels of Matthew and Luke date to after 70 CE; perhaps 90-120 CE.) Paul does speak of the resurrection, which is strong indication that unlike the virgin birth, belief in the resurrection came early, within several years of the death of Jesus (if not immediately after his death).
By the way, it appears that the whole notion of a virgin birth of Jesus arose from a bit of bad Biblical translation--the verse in question being Isaiah 7:14, which in the original Hebrew reads "a young woman shall give birth" but in the Greek translation in use in the first century CE reads "a virgin shall give birth." How evangelicals or others still believe in the virgin birth is beyond me, especially given the obvious fictional aspects of the Gospel nativity stories. For example, the Magi in Matthew: these guys were Persian astrologers, who saw a sign in the sky indicating that the King of the Jews had been born. Somebody in the first century CE thought this story gave Jesus some cred, but somehow I don't think it does anymore at this late date. Unless astrology is your thing. (The Magi are a charming addition to any decent nativity creche of course.)
My rather harsh judgment about the nativity stories reflects my reading Bart Ehrman (Forged). But after posting this I recalled the old holiday season planetarium show at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry that I would see as a kid, in the early 1970s. This show was called "Star of Bethlehem" and showed several theories concerning the star that the Gospel says guided the Magi to the Christ child. These theories included the theory that the star was a supernova, and the theory that the 'star' was actually a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (in fact, a triple conjunction) that occurred several years before the birth of Jesus; this supposedly indicated to astrologers that a king was born to the Jews. These theories would now have to be regarded as beside the point; it's much simpler to acknowledge that the nativity story is just fiction. Yet I remember the show fondly, which for me brought out both the wonder of the sky and astronomy, and the joy of the Christmas season.
As it happens, in high school and college, I worked at that planetarium as a student volunteer or paid part-time staff, and I was trained to give planetarium shows. I would give a short introductory lecture about the night sky (as it would be seen on that date) then run the control panel as various slide or special effects projectors needed to be operated. The show had a recorded soundtrack and I followed along with a written script that gave the cues for each effect. Thus, I would press a button that would activate a supernova effect (a clever device involving a flashbulb and slide projector built in the planetarium shop), or raise a dimmer to bring up a twelve-projector 360-degree panorama of Bethlehem circa 1 AD. The soundtrack included narration and various sound effects and clips of music (thus theRide of the Valkeriesaccompanied the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn). The show ended with the wonderful old song "Do You Hear What I Hear" (I don't recall what version). I still loved the show, even though I was now aware that the show's creators (who are still good friends of mine) regarded it as an annual chore that they had no heart for. They customarily abbreviated the title of the show to S.O.B. (as written on the log each time we gave the show). But even though I no longer believe in the Star of Bethlehem, these memories are fond memories, and I still feel the joy and wonder that that old show evoked for me for the Christmas season.