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Christmas
is the most widely celebrated annual holiday around the world. The word “Christmas” comes from the old English “Cristes maesse” meaning “Christ’s Mass.” Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th, although the actual birth date of Jesus is unknown. The early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the date of Christmas to be around the old Roman Saturnalia Festival, which was a traditional pagan festival celebrated between December 17-21. This was done, in part, by the Church in order to entice pagan Romans to convert to Christianity without losing their own winter celebrations. Gradually most all Christian churches accepted the date of Christmas to be December 25th. This worked because a winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures, due in part to less agricultural work needing to be done at that time, as well as celebrations of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. In most places around the world today, Christmas Day is still celebrated on December 25th and Christmas Eve on December 24th. In the United Kingdom and many other countries of the Commonwealth, Boxing Day is celebrated the following day on December 26th. In Catholic countries, the Feast of St. Stephen is also on December 26th. The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates Christmas on January 6th. Although largely considered a Christian holiday, Christmas is also observed as a cultural holiday by many non-Christians.
There are many different Christmas traditions held around the world. Germany is credited with starting the tradition of the Christmas tree in the 16th century. Devout Christians brought trees into their homes, or built pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles. In England, Prince Albert of Germany who was the husband of Queen Victoria, decorated the first Christmas tree at Windsor castle in 1841 with candles, fruits and gingerbread. Soon other English families followed suit and in the 1850s, Charles Dickens described a tree being decorated with dolls, miniature furniture, jewelry and tiny musical instruments. The first record of a Christmas tree in America was in the 1830s by German settlers in Pennsylvania. By the 1890s, Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and the Christmas tree was rising in popularity around the United States.
Santa Claus is a composite of several different customs around the world and actually has three names: St. Nicholas, Kriss Kringle and Santa Claus. During the Middle Ages, many churches were built in honor of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. St. Nicholas would ride on a donkey to deliver gifts to children and in 1860, illustrator Thomas Nast introduced the first picture of Santa Claus as we know him today. In 1809, author Washington Irving wrote a book, “A History of New York,” which included a description of Saint Nicholas riding into town on a horse. In 1812, he revised his book to describe St. Nick riding over the trees in a wagon. In 1822, dentist Clement Clarke Moore is credited with writing a poem, “The Night Before Christmas,” in which Santa Claus is portrayed as a “jolly old Elf with a miniature sleigh and eight reindeer.” Finally, around 1920, the image of Santa was standardized to be portrayed as a bearded, plump, jolly old man dressed in a red suit. The custom of gift giving on Christmas also goes back to the Roman festivals and were originally items to represent good luck emblems. The very first gifts were food, candles and small jewelry items. Gift giving at Christmas was frowned upon by the Church, but people would not part with it and it eventually came to symbolize the gift giving of the Magi and St. Nicholas. Prior to that, it was common to exchange gifts on Twelfth Night or New Year‘s Day. Finally, other customs such as caroling, feasting and the wishing of good cheer came to represent that special Christmas atmosphere known round the world today.
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