Charles Haddon Spurgeon On The Celebration Of Christmas
From a sermon delivered on the Lord's Day
December 24, 1871
"We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons.
Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical
arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not
believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said
or sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we
find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as
the birthday of the Saviour; and consequently, its
observance is a superstition, because [it's] not of divine
authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of
our Saviour's birth, although there is no possibility of
discovering when it occurred."
"It was not till the middle of the third century that any
part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and
it was not till very long after the Western church had set
the example, that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is
not known, therefore superstition has fixed it."
"Where is the method in the madness of the superstitious?
Probably the fact is that the holy days were arranged to fit
in with the heathen festivals."
"We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year
of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on
which the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of
December. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give
God thanks for the gift of His dear Son."