Holidays and Birthdays: Pagan, or Redeemed?

"And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." Matthew 2:11

Matthew 2:11
Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas, Easter, or birthdays, holding that these customs have pagan roots and are displeasing to God. Is the avoidance of such days a mark of pure worship? Or does it mistake the origin of a custom for its present meaning — and miss the freedom of a faith that has always taken what the world made and turned it toward Christ?
I invite your engagement with me on these questions. You may leave comments below, but please be sure to read our policy on commenting before doing so.

Watchtower View

The Watchtower teaches that Christmas and Easter derive from pagan festivals and solar worship, that the date of December 25 was borrowed from sun-god celebrations, and that birthday parties are cast in a bad light by the only two birthdays noted in Scripture (Pharaoh's and Herod's), both linked to death. To keep worship pure, Witnesses abstain from all such observances.

Catholic View

The Catholic instinct has never been to flee what is pagan but to redeem it — to plant the cross where an altar once stood. That a date or custom once belonged to sun-worship no more taints the celebration of Christ's birth than the Latin names of the planets taint the days of our week. What matters is what a thing means now, and to whom it is offered. The Magi themselves, the first Gentiles to seek Christ, came bearing gifts and fell down to worship him; the shepherds rejoiced; heaven itself sang at a birth. To honor the Incarnation with gladness is not paganism but its defeat.

Summary

The origin of a custom does not fix its meaning forever. Christians have always taken the raw material of a culture — its dates, its music, its gift-giving — and turned it toward the worship of God. The question is not “where did this once come from?” but “whom do I honor by it now?” Celebrating the birth of the Savior, or his resurrection, is the farthest thing from idolatry.