Cow and Boy Classics by Mark Leiknes for December 16, 2020

Actually, Jesus wasn’t born on 25 December (or its equivalent). In the third century, which is when Christians started to think about celebrating the birth of the anointed one, 25 December was the winter solstice (thanks to Julian Calendar slippage). An important event for the Emperor Aurelian and the “Sol Invictus” set. And there was some numerology involving Easter (tricky because it’s a movable feast). If there’s anything to the business about shepherds keeping watch over their flocks (Luke), we would be talking April or so, and in fact that was a competing date, once. But all the birth/childhood matter in the gospels—the only two that have anything at all—is strongly legendary and provably counterfactual in detail. E.g., the business about a Roman census requiring the Holy Family to travel to Bethlehem is a complete fiction.