when was christmas first celebrated

Christmas was first recorded as a church celebration on December 25 in the year 336, in Rome, during the time of the Roman Empire.

Core fact

• The earliest known record mentions a Christmas feast on 25 December 336 in Rome, listed in a 4th‑century Roman document that notes “Christ born in Bethlehem of Judea” on that date.

• This is why historians usually say that Christmas was first celebrated (as an official church feast) in Rome in 336, even though Christian communities worshipped and remembered Jesus’ birth earlier without a fixed universal date.

Why that date?

• By the 4th century, Roman Christians had settled on December 25, partly linked to calculations that placed Jesus’ conception on March 25, nine months earlier.

• The choice also overlapped with existing mid‑winter festivals in the Roman world, which helped the new Christian feast fit into the existing festive season.

Quick forum-style takeaway

In historical terms, when people ask “when was Christmas first celebrated,” the best short answer is: Rome, December 25, 336 CE —the date of the first clearly recorded Christmas feast in Christian history.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.