is December 25 the real date of Jesus' birth?

More than likely, Dec 25 was not the actual date of Christ's birth. History during that time does verify that there was indeed a census was taken in Judea during the reign of Herod. Reading Luke 2 one gets a very clear picture of the lay of the land at that time and it was in fact cold. There was not stoves, but fireplaces if anything to heat a space. With the animals in the barn there would have been some heat. The Dec 25 date was chosen because of a Roman Holiday surrounding the Winter Solstice. The name came from the Catholic Christ's Mass. The date of birth is not recorded in the Bible. It is my belief that it is not important to know exactly when Christ was born, but that he was born.

No it's not. Nobody knew what the exact date is, but they hinted that it could be April, before Passover, as the shepherds were lying in the fields guarding the sheeps which are supposed to be sacrificial lambs for the passover. I once was told : That In the olden times, Israel were under the authority of the Roman, (or was it greek) ? 25th of December was a big festive day to honor the day of one of their goddess, and everybody should bow and worship her before the light up trees, or they will be killed. So the christian thought of a way that enables them to bow and worship but not become sinful in the eyes of God. They agreed that on that same day thy would make it into the birthday of Jesus Christ, so if the guards come to check, yes, they are bowed down in worship, (but not because of the pagan goddess, but honoring Jesus for his birthday). After many years, everybody agreed to continue it (The Vatican too). For me personally, I don't quite care which date He was born, I'm just so very thankful that He is born to save us.

I'm glad christian holidays are celebrated on or around pre christian holydays, especially as deep down all indigenous faiths started out as a searching for the light and for God.. seems right days honoring Jesus should be celebrated on those days.. In primitive days most indigenous religions got pretty, well, primitive -it was the reason Yahweh(God) wanted Canaan completely,er, well, gone, in Israel's very old, Old Testament days.. Christianity kind of smothered all of this, and even if the pre christian faith (paganism) is coming back into the world and is on the rise, at least it's not as it was in those primitive days.. so all in all I consider replacing the old days a good thing..