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Doctrine changes · Claim record

From 1927-28 the organisation taught that Christmas dishonours God, and since then Witnesses have not celebrated it; the same period produced rulings against Easter, Valentine's Day, birthdays and New Year's Day.

Claim ID claim-doctrine-chg-christmas-forbiddenConcerns 12 December 1928Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 12 December 1928 Verified

From 1927-28 the organisation taught that Christmas dishonours God, and since then Witnesses have not celebrated it; the same period produced rulings against Easter, Valentine's Day, birthdays and New Year's Day. God’s Kingdom Rules!, 2014The Watchtower, 15 May 1995

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation frames the change as obedience: “How do I view the direction we receive from headquarters? Do I gratefully accept it and apply what I learn?”

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

God’s Kingdom Rules!, “The King Refines His People Spiritually”

2014 · p.102 · chap. 10, par. 8 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Yet, the Bible Students did not at the time clearly see the need to stop celebrating Christmas. It continued to be celebrated even by members of the Brooklyn Bethel family. After 1926, however, things began to change.”

The chapter quotes Zion’s Watch Tower of December 1881 acknowledging the pagan roots of Christmas, then records that the headquarters staff went on keeping it until 1926, and prints a photograph captioned “The last time Christmas was celebrated at Brooklyn Bethel, 1926”.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Document opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; the wording was read in full and the page number taken from the library's own page markers.

Notes. The chapter attributes the decisive change to “The Origin of Christmas” in The Golden Age of 14 December 1927 and a radio discourse published in The Golden Age of 12 December 1928.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-d-kr-2014-ch10-christmas

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Part 1—Flashes of Light—Great and Small”

15 May 1995 · p.19 · par. 13 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Shortly thereafter, a flash of light caused the Bible Students to stop celebrating Christmas. Before that time Christmas had always been celebrated by the Bible Students worldwide, and its celebration at Brooklyn headquarters was a very festive occasion.”

The retrospective states plainly that Christmas had been celebrated by the movement worldwide, including at its own headquarters, until the change in the late 1920s.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Document opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; the wording was read in full and the page number taken from the library's own page markers.

Notes. The accompanying footnote extends the reasoning to birthdays. Footnote page numbers are not cited here because the library prints footnotes after the last page marker.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-d-w-1995-0515-p1-christmas

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-doctrine-chg-christmas-forbidden/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.