ToolsπŸ‡°πŸ‡· KO

Days Until Christmas

A live countdown to December 25

Until Christmas
-
Christmas by year
YearDay of week
Related tools
🎊 New Year CountdownπŸ“… D-Day CalculatorπŸŽ‚ Age CalculatorπŸ—“οΈ Business Days
FAQ
Why is Christmas on December 25?
The Bible gives no date for the nativity. December 25 first appears in a Roman almanac from 336, and before that the early church commemorated the birth alongside Epiphany on January 6. Two explanations are usually offered for how the date settled.
Is it linked to the winter solstice festivals?
This is the best known explanation. Rome held Saturnalia around the solstice, and in 274 the emperor Aurelian fixed a festival of the sun god on December 25. As Christianity spread through the empire, the nativity is thought to have taken over an existing festival date.
Is there another explanation?
Some early writers dated the Annunciation to March 25 and simply counted nine months forward. That calculation appears in third-century texts, which is earlier than the sun god festival, so a number of historians treat the two explanations as overlapping rather than competing.
Why do some churches celebrate on January 7?
The Russian, Serbian and Georgian Orthodox churches still follow the Julian calendar, which now runs thirteen days behind the Gregorian one. Their December 25 falls on January 7 in common use, so the date is the same and only the calendar differs.
Why show weekend days remaining?
Shopping and gatherings mostly happen at weekends. Thirty days left sounds generous, but it usually contains only eight or nine weekend days.
Ad (AdSense)

Counting down to December 25

The countdown reads your device clock and updates every second. Once December 25 has passed it rolls forward automatically to next year.

How the date was chosen

No gospel records the day of the nativity, and the earliest churches placed far more weight on the resurrection. Where a birth was marked at all, it was folded into Epiphany on January 6. The first surviving reference to December 25 is a Roman almanac compiled in 336.

Two accounts of the origin circulate together. One points to the Roman solstice festivals and the sun god feast fixed on December 25 in 274, onto which the nativity was later mapped. The other notes that several third-century writers dated the Annunciation to March 25 and counted nine months forward, a calculation that predates the sun god feast. Many historians treat both currents as contributing rather than choosing between them.

Different dates in different places

Churches that kept the Julian calendar are now thirteen days behind the Gregorian one, so their December 25 lands on January 7. The Armenian church marks the nativity on January 6, following older practice.

Share