Christmas does not have a pagan origin. The very notion of celebrating a festival to commemorate the birth of the Christ Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was neither copied from pagans nor inspired by pagans. This notion of celebrating the birth of Jesus organically sprang up from devoted believers without any pagan influence.
The celebration of the birth of Jesus was inspired by the Bible. The birth of Jesus Christ itself was depicted in the Bible as an event worth celebrating and the events surrounding the birth were indeed a celebration.
When the angels in heaven learned that Jesus the Savior of mankind had been born, and yet no man knew about it, they went out to inform people, the shepherds, to celebrate. Mark the angel’s word; he spoke with joy and his word was a call to celebration. He said,
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Then many other angels join the angel that announced Jesus’ birth to celebrate joyously and their celebration happened in the full view of the shepherds; it is written – 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:13-14
Heaven – the angels – set in motion a celebration in response to the birth of Jesus. The shepherds who received the angel’s announcement celebrated too, and went on their way to visit Jesus. This celestial celebration of the birth of Jesus would later inspire devoted believers to instate an annual festival for the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
The world is willing to accept, believe, and propagate anything that discredits Christmas as a Christian festival. One of the widely accepted notions by Christians and unbelievers alike is that the early Christians chose 25th December for Christmas so as to appropriate a pagan festival called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or to mark the winter solstice, or to continue celebrating pagan festivals under the guise of remembering Jesus’ birth. In other words, there is a popular belief that pagan winter festivals celebrated on and around 25th December caused Christians to fix Christmas on 25th December.
The pagan Romans started celebrating Dies Natalis Solis Invicti from AD 274 onward in Rome. However, the celebration of Christmas dates back to AD 129. According to the book Chronographiai written by Sextus Julius Africanus, we learn that long before AD 274, in the second and early part of the third century, the Christians already propose that Jesus was conceived on Match 25th, which was later celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation, and He was born on December 25th, which is celebrated as Christmas.
December 25th was an important date to Christians and probably the celebration of Christmas had unofficially started in the second century on a small scale before it was widely accepted by Christendom. Pagan religion did not play any part in the origin of Christmas. However, over the centuries, Christmas traditions, i.e. what we do in celebrating Christmas, have continued to evolve and adapt, incorporating elements from various cultures around the world.