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# Christmas - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture
- URL: https://mereorthodoxy.com/christmas/
- Published: 2004-12-25T09:37:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-20T21:42:30.000Z
- Description: My brother points out that today we celebrate the “Christian appropriation of paganism.” He labels it syncretism, but that’s a tad misleading. Christianity did not just adapt the pagan practices, but baptized them. The celebrations we now understand as Christmas […]
- Author: Mere Orthodoxy
- Tags: Matthew Lee Anderson, Formation

My brother [points out](http://decorabilia.blogspot.com/2004/12/grinch-comes-round.html?ref=mereorthodoxy.com) that today we celebrate the “Christian appropriation of paganism.” He labels it syncretism, but that’s a tad misleading. Christianity did not just adapt the pagan practices, but baptized them. The celebrations we now understand as Christmas gained new meanings with the introduction of the Christian tradition, a tradition so powerful (true?) that pagan elements of the traditions seem to have been broadly forgotten, only to be revived in our post-Christian age. Even the Christmas icon, Santa Claus, cannot be separated from the Christian [Saint Nicholas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint%5FNicholas?ref=mereorthodoxy.com). Call it syncretism, if you will, but don’t expect to make Christians ashamed or fearful that the celebration is somehow less meaningful or less Christian as a result. Rather, it simply points to the overwhelming power of the Christian story…