December 25th Is Not Christ's Birthday

Do you know why the date of Dec 25th was chosen to be Christ's birthday? Jewish tradition is that all prophets are conceived and die on the same day. There is ZERO evidence of this but since Christ died on Passover, we have a presupposed fallacy that He must have been conceived on Passover (late April). This has served as a foundation for eager minds to try and prove, spuriously, the date of Christ's birth. April to December is only 8 months BTW which I supposed could be possible.

Using the story about the angel visiting Zechariah to tell him he is going to conceive a child, early bishops "over-curiously" (words of Clement of Alexandria c. 190AD) try to guess the date of Christ's birth. They say they can trace the time back to exactly when Zechariah was serving in the temple and establish that as the conception time of John the Baptist (more speculation but I guess there *could* be something to that). Since the Bible tells us that Yahshua was supposedly born 6 months after John they then trace the date of Christ's birth to either Dec 25th or Jan 6th. One thing they missed is that God doesn't have to fulfill His promises right away. Who is to say that John was conceived soon after the angel visited Zechariah? Luke says, "Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived." That's not very specific. Also note that Mary received a visit from Gabriel when John was in the womb somewhere between 5 and 6 months (again not very specific). There is nothing indicating Christ was conceived right then and there either. He may have been conceived a month or two later. So considering all these things, any attempt at nailing down even a somewhat accurate timing is very, very dubious. Besides, there were shepherds watching their flocks in the open fields at Christ's birth. That doesn't sound like winter*(see edit below).

Another important question to ask is why there were bishops going to such great lengths to calculate the date of Christ's birth 150+ years after His death? If it was important, surely the apostles, who were very close to Him, would have written it down or something? So many questions surround this date and I can't get past asking, "Why stretch so hard to make it fit?" There IS an answer to that question. You have to know your history really well in order to understand it though. Are you willing to look into it or are you going to be lazy and just go with the flow?

Charles Spurgeon on Christmas:
“We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First because we do not believe in any mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English: Secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior’s birth, although there in no possibility of discovering when it occurred. It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the birth of our Lord; and it was not till long after the western Church had set the example, that the eastern adopted it. Because the day is not known. Probably the fact is that the “holy” days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert that if there be any day in the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which our Savior was born it is the 25th of December. Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.” —C. H. Spurgeon Dec. 24, 1871 (Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, p. 697)

“No evidence remains about the exact date of the birth of Christ. The December 25 date was chosen as much for practical reasons as for theological ones. Throughout the Roman Empire, various festivals were held in conjunction with the winter solstice. In Rome, the Feast of the Unconquerable Sun celebrated the beginning of the return of the sun. When Christianity became the religion of the Empire, the church either had to suppress the festivals or transform them. The winter solstice seemed an appropriate time to celebrate Christ’s birth. Thus, the festival of the sun became a festival of the Son” (Holman Bible Dictionary, entry for Christmas)

EDIT:
I do have to correct myself on one thing. Evidently, sheep do often stay outside in the winter months. Here is a blog about it:
http://www.livingwithgotlands.com/2015/02/how-can-sheep-survive-bitter-cold-weather/
Now shepherds were actually living in the fields with their flocks but since the temperature in Bethlehem only gets down to about 35 degrees at worst it is not unreasonable to expect this. I stand corrected on that particular fact, however it does not retract from the mountain of other facts presented on this subject here or anywhere else.