Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. On this special day, kids receive presents, families spend time together, and meals are eaten with the ones we love the most. Christmas dates back to many centuries ago with a rich history of the tale of Santa Claus, decorating and Christmas caroling.
Christmas was first celebrated by early Europeans, who celebrated the light and new birth in the darkest days.The end of the year for the Europeans had become the perfect time to celebrate because it was the time they had fresh meat and drinks. In Germany, during mid-winter many people honored the god Oden. Rome started celebrating in winter to honor Saturn, the god of agriculture.
In the first years of Christianity, Jesus’s birth was not celebrated. In the 4th century, officials decided to consider Jesus’s birthday as a holiday. Church officials decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25th. Celebrating holidays at the same time as other places made Christmas more popular around the world.
Decorating for the holidays has been tradition for centuries. The decoration of Christmas trees first started in Rome, they used trees to celebrate their winter holidays. The trees were accessorized with pine cones, berries and nuts. Later on, people started decorating with candles and homemade ornaments. In the 15th century, the Germans adopted the christmas tree and started putting an angel at the top of the tree.
Christmas Caroling is a custom throughout the world. Christmas caroling are songs sung by a group of people during the holidays.Caroling was first started in the 14th century. Pagan songs were sung at winter celebrations, while people danced around stone circles. Later on, carols were sung in churches and were officially associated with Christmas.
Santa Claus has been around for many years and many children look forward to waking up to gifts and the marks left behind by Santa.The legend of Santa Claus started hundreds of years ago with a man named St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was admired by many for giving away his inherited wealth and traveled around helping the poor and sick. Over the years, he became popular across the world and was known as a protector to kids.
In the 18th century St. Nicholas was introduced to American culture. The name Santa Claus evolved from the name Sinter Klaas which was a shortened name of St. Nicholas. An annual meeting on December 6th was held to honor St. Nicolas’ death. In 1809, Washington Irving spread stories of Sinter Klaas or Santa Claus. As Clause’s popularity grew people started describing with a blue tree, corned hat, red waistcoat, and yellow boots.
A tradition of Santa Claus is to bring presents for all the good children across the world. Clement Clarke Moore created many poems about Santa Claus, telling how Santa flew from house to house delivering presents with his 8 reindeer. According to Moore’s poem “An Account of a visit from St. Nicholas” Santa left presents for deserving children who had been good all year. In his poems drawings of Santa were shown with his red suit, full white beard and sack full of presents for kids. This image of Santa briskly became the new icon of America and many other places across the world.
Christmas is one of the holidays that bring people together with all the traditions that date back to many years ago. People look forward to Christmas every year, especially young children eager to see Santa Claus. Decorating and caroling are traditions that still happen and bring people together. Christmas has a long history that will continue to be passed down to future generations.
