[Dr. Eckleburg]

You err again, Kawaii.

Calvin looked askance at the celebration of Christmas in his day because of the corrupting of that celebration by Roman Catholicism (see I. VanDellen and M. Monsma, The Church Order Commentary, Zondervan, 1941, p. 273).

He did not, however, flatly forbid it as a transgression of the second commandment.

As I noted in my review of Wulfert de Greef's The Writings of John Calvin: An Introductory Guide (Baker, 1993), Calvin went along with the Geneva church's observance of the four great feast days that did not fall on a Sunday, including Christmas.

When the Council decided to abolish these observances, Calvin wrote a correspondent that, if he had been asked for advice, he would not have supported this decision (see de Greef, The Writings of John Calvin, p. 57). -- David S. Cason

[kawaii]

you’re splitting hairs about why he was against it; facts are he was against it, just as he was against folks saying the virgin mary had subsequent children...

[Claud]

Calvin went along with the Geneva church's observance of the four great feast days that did not fall on a Sunday, including Christmas.

The other three being? Easter, Pentecost....?

[HarleyD]

In going through Calvin's writings, the only reference I can see as to why Calvin was against Christmas is because of its association to pagan holidays:

“The Saturnalia, and several other festivals, were celebrated on the calends of January; Christmas was fixed at the same epoch. The Luporcalia, a pretended festival of purification, took place during the calends of February; the Christiau purification (Candlemas) was celebrated on the 2d of February. The festival of Augustus, celebrated on the calends of August, was replaced by that of St. Peter in vinculis, established on the 1st of that month. The inhabitants of the country, ever anxious about the safety of their crops, obstinately retained the celebration of the Ambarvalia; St. Mamert established in the middle of the fifth century the Rogations, which in their form differ very little from the Ambarvalia. On comparing the Christian calendar with the Pagan one, it is impossible not to be struck by the great concordance between the two. Now, can we consider this concordance as the effect of chance? It is principally in the usages peculiar only to some churches that we may trace the spirit of concessions with which Christianity was animated during the first centuries of its establishment. Thus, at Catania, where the Pagans were celebrating the festival of Ceres after harvest, the church of that place consented to delay to that time the festival of the Visitation, which is celebrated everywhere else on the 2d July. Aprile Cronologia Universale di icilia. I would recommend to those who wish to study this subject the work of Marangoni, a very interesting work, though its author (whose object was to convince the Protestants who attacked the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church on account of these concessions) tried to break the evident connection which exists between certain Christian and Pagan festivals.

Calvin raises a fair and scholarly objection to Christmas being tied to pagan holidays. I might add that every Christmas we see a number of legitimate articles on FR in regards to this matter; that Christmas, Easter, etc are really pagan holidays repackaged. But, as we can see by virtually Calvin's only statement on the matter, this hardly sounds like a virtual condemnation in the celebration of Christmas.