FACT-CHECKING HOLIDAY MYTHS
While nearly everybody enjoys Christmas — the joy, the music, the decorations, the food and giving gifts — not many people realize that several of the facts they’ve come to believe about this time of year aren’t true. History is funny that way: When someone comes up with a legend that sounds great and makes sense, people tend to believe the legend. Here’s a look at several of holiday season facts that may differ from what you’ve observed beneath the myth-letoe.
“Jingle Bells” wasn’t intended to be a Christmas song.
James Lord Pierpont, left, composed the song he titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” in Savannah, Georgia, in 1857. It wasn’t renamed “Jingle Bells” until it was republished two years later. Pierpont was writing about the annual sleigh races held in the town where he grew up — Medford, Massachusetts — at Thanksgiving. For what it’s worth, Medford also claims to be the birthplace of the song. Note, however, that none of the lyrics — even of the rarely-sung later verses — mention Christmas or December.
Most likely, Jesus wasn’t born on Dec. 25.
Nothing in the Bible tells us the month or the date on which Jesus was born. The only clue in the Bible: Shepards were “abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” But very little grew in fields in Bethlehem in December that sheep could eat, so shepherds would have kept their flock indoors. In the fourth century, the church began celebrating the birth of Christ at the winter solstice, to take the focus away from pagan winter solstice celebrations that were widely observed at the time.
Maybe Mary rode into Bethlehem on a donkey. But maybe she didn’t.
The image we’ve all grown up with is of a very pregnant Mary riding the 65 or so miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem on the back of a donkey while Joseph walked alongside. It’s a wonderful image. But nothing in the only written account of this journey — in the second chapter of Luke — tells us this. Also, Joseph and Mary had traveled to Bethlehem to take part in a census. But in those days, censuses were typically held in September or October, before the weather turned cold.
Maybe Jesus was born in a stable. But maybe he wasn’t.
The Bible says that Mary gave birth, wrapped him in swaddling cloths “and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” A manger is a feeding trough for animals, so somehow, this evolved into the legend of Mary giving birth in a stable and then the three of them receiving visitors there. But nothing in the Bible specifically says they were in a stable. In fact, families in those days often lived upstairs and kept their animals — and their mangers — downstairs, but indoors.
The wise men didn’t visit right away. Nor were they kings.
The Bible says “magi” traveled from the East, followed a star and brought gifts. But the Bible says they arrived when Jesus was a young child — not necessarily an infant — and that they found him at home. It may have been a year or more after Jesus’ birth. “Magi” are wise men — not necessarily kings. The Bible doesn’t specify there were three of them. That’s been inferred from the number of gifts the Bible says they brought. Much of the legend of the “Three Kings” comes from a mosaic created in Italy in the 6th century.
For 22 years, it was illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts.
We think of the first American settlers as “pilgrims,” but, more precisely, they were protestants who wanted to distance themselves from the Catholic church and from the Reformation Church of England. Not only did they not celebrate Christmas — there was no scriptural basis for a celebration, they said — but they also made laws preventing anyone else from doing so. Between 1659 and 1681, anyone celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts could be arrested and fined. Christmas wouldn’t become a federal holiday in the U.S. until 1870.
There’s no such thing as a White House “War on Christmas.”
The whole “War on Christmas” thing kicked off on Dec. 18, 2005, when actor, game show host and political activist Ben Stein appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning” and ranted about how Christians were persecuted in America. This led to escalating — and false — accusations over the years. One notable one: a claim that President Barack Obama had ordered staffers to call Christmas trees “holiday trees.” That wasn’t true in 2009, nor was it true in 2011 or when it was dragged up again in 2021 regarding Joe Biden.