Christmas With G.K. Chesterton: A 5-Day Advent DevotionalExemplo

It is the greatest glory of the Christian tradition that it has incorporated so many pagan traditions. But it is most glorious of all, to my mind, when they are popular traditions. And the best and most obvious example is the way in which Christianity did incorporate, in so far as it did incorporate, the old human and heathen conception of the Winter Feast. There are, indeed, two profound and mysterious truths to be balanced here. The first is that what was then heathen was still human; that is, it was both mystical and material; it expressed itself in sacred substances and sacramental acts; it understood the mystery of trees and waters and the holy flame. And the other, which will be a much more tactless and irritating assertion, is that while a thing is heathen it is not yet completely human. But the point here is that the pagan element in Christmas came quite natural to Christians, because it was not in fact very far from Christianity.

G.K. Chesterton, K.K.’s Weekly (1936)

In Regard to Certain Objections to the Celebration of Christmas

Though it might surprise those of us who celebrate Christmas with gleeful abandon (present company included), many Christians worldwide, including those from the Quaker and Seventh Day Adventist traditions, choose not to celebrate Christmas at all. Though Chesterton once went so far as to say that “the man who does not keep Christmas is an incomplete human being,” perhaps we might preserve an ounce of understanding for those with a different opinion on the subject. That being said, the objection by some Christians to Christmas because it is merely a Christian “spin” on a pagan holiday, that our Christmas traditions are inherited from pagan traditions, that there is nothing inherently Christian about Christmas—is a topic worthy of discussion.

For Chesterton, the fact that Christmas might indeed have borrowed something from the dark ages of paganism was not a cause for concern in and of itself. In fact, he was unequivocal in his preference for the pagan superstition of the ancient world over the rational skepticism of the modern one. Paganism, for its many faults, could not, after all, be accused (like modernity) of treating the world as a disenchanted place. At the very least, paganism recognized that the world is charged with meaning. It understood “the mystery of trees and waters and the holy flame.” This is what he means when he says that paganism “was not in fact very far from Christianity.” What he is implying, in so many words, is that it might be easier to make a Christian out of an idol-worshiping pagan than a secular humanist: that a Druid, well-versed in human sacrifice, might be closer to grasping the atoning death of Christ than a materialist with no framework for spirituality (then again, God makes even the impossible possible).

When Chesterton claims that “the greatest glory of the Christian tradition is that it has incorporated so many pagan traditions” (a statement sure to throw fuel on the fire for those Christians convinced of the heathen darkness at the root of the holiday), he does not mean that Christmas should be viewed as pagan in spirit, but rather that it has reframed and redeemed certain pagan traditions with the light of the gospel. Though historians such as Tom Holland challenge the claim that the winter celebration of Christmas (and specifically the date of December 25) originated in paganism, Christmas does share certain undeniable similarities with the aforementioned Winter Feast, not least of which is the fact that it is a feast that takes place in winter.

But there is a deeper observation here. Chesterton implies that the pagans had somehow “anticipated the supreme miracle”—a concept echoed in the writings of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. After all, why should the redeeming work of Christ not extend to human traditions? If land soaked in the blood of heathen sacrifice could be reclaimed by the kingdom of God (as in the time of ancient Israel), why should feasts and festivals not be reclaimed? As Chesterton says, “It is no controversial point against the Christians that they felt they could take up and continue such traditions among the pagans; it only shows that the Christians knew a Christian thing when they saw it.

As he wrote in an article published in 1901, “When a learned man tells me that on the 25th of December I am really astronomically worshipping the sun, I answer that I am not practicing a particular personal religion, the pleasures of which (right or wrong) are not in the least astronomical. If he says that the cult of Christmas and the cult of Apollo are the same, I answer that they are utterly different; and I ought to know, for I have held both of them. I believed in Apollo when I was quite little; and I believe in Christmas now that I am very, very big.” This season, let us attempt, however imperfectly, to join him—laying aside childish things while retaining the faith of a child. In the kingdom of God, it’s the only way to grow “very, very big.”

Reflect:

1. Meditate on Paul’s words—Christ is “the mystery hidden for ages” and “the hope of glory." How does this connect to the idea of Christmas “redeeming” pagan traditions?
2. Reflect on your own life and consider how Christ has redeemed your past.
3. How might you practice Christ-centered hope during this season?