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Step into the ancient world of 336 AD and witness the very first Christmas celebration! 🌟 Join us on a historical journey as we explore the traditions, customs, and the magical essence of...
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23. Okt. 2020 · Learn how December 25, 336 became the first recorded date of Christmas in history. Discover the origins and traditions of this holiday and how it evolved over time.
Learn how Christmas was first celebrated in 336 AD by Western Christians and how it spread to other cultures and religions. Find out the origin of the date, the name and the traditions of Christmas.
Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336. Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian, the early Church Fathers John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome attested to December 25 as the date of ...
- Overview
- When was Jesus Christ born?
- Medieval Christmas feasts
- Germany’s influence on Christmas
- The U.S. falls in love with Christmas
- How St. Nicholas became Santa Claus
- The origins of other Christmas customs
- An increasingly secular holiday
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People around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. Here’s why—and the history of its iconic symbols from Christmas trees to Santa Claus.
There's no more recognizable Christmas symbol than Santa Claus—a jolly bearded man who also goes by Saint Nick. Santa is based on St. Nicholas, a third-century Greek bishop associated with December gift-giving. In this Russian icon, St. Nicholas is surrounded by scenes from his life.
Christmas is both merry and bright—but how did it become so popular? Laden with tradition and brimming with festivity, the Christian holiday, observed in most of the world on December 25, celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.
In modern times, it has become an increasingly secularized holiday marked by a season of good cheer and festive family fun, punctuated by traditions culled from a variety of cultures. Here’s how Christmas came to be, and what’s behind some of its most cherished customs.
Left: Charlemagne was crowned Christian emperor of the west in St Peter's Cathedral, Rome, on Christmas Day, A.D. 800. By that time, the Christian church had begun to celebrate Christmas on December 25—although historians disagree on how the church settled on that date.
Art Resource
Right: The month of December and the feast of Christmas are detailed on the side of a stone pillar that was carved in the 12th century in Souvigny, France.
A Dagli Orti / NPL - DeA Picture Library, Bridgeman Images
The Christian gospels do not mention the date of Jesus’ birth, known as the Nativity. They do tell the story of his humble birth.
According to the gospels, Jesus’ mother, Mary, was a virgin selected by God to bear his only son. After learning Mary was pregnant, her fiancé, a carpenter named Joseph, wanted to cancel their engagement. But an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid. The newlyweds then made an arduous journey to Bethlehem to participate in a mandatory census. (How the Advent season evolved as a countdown to Christmas.)
Over time, Christmas gained popularity—and new traditions. In medieval England, Christmas was a 12-day festival involving all kinds of revelry, from plays to wild feasts to pageants celebrating Jesus’ birth. Music, gift giving, and decorations all became the norm.
The most extravagant feasts were celebrated by monarchs such as Henry III, whose guests gorged themselves on 600 oxen at one 13th-century Christmas feast. Universities would crown a “Christmas King” or “King of the Beans” who “ruled” his peers during the holiday season, and even the most modest celebrations included hymns and carols.
Left: A 1984 Christmas letter says "Merry Christmas" in German. The Christmas tree isn't the only tradition whose origins can be traced to Germany—nutcrackers and Advent calendars were also originally part of the typical German Christmas.
Ute Franz-Scarciglia, Art Resource
Right: A young woman stands with puppets and a Christmas tree in artist Friedrich Stahl's illustrated cover for German magazine Moderne Kunst.
Friedrich Stahl/De Agostini Picture Library, Bridgeman Images
England did not have a monopoly on Christmas. Celebrants all over the world incorporated customs from their wintertime festivals into the holiday—perhaps none more so than the Germans.
Germany is credited for giving birth to one universal symbol, the Christmas tree, which evolved from the pagan tradition of decorating with tree branches. Germans called their version, an indoor pine tree adorned with candles and presents, a Tannenbaum. The tradition took flight in the 19th century, when the British royal family, who had German roots, put up a Christmas tree and started a global trend. (The surprising history of Christmas trees.)
Like in England, American Puritans banned Christmas, in Massachusetts in 1659, only lifting the ban in 1681. In the United States, Christmas was not celebrated with much gusto until the Civil War, which reinforced for many the importance of home and family. In 1870, after the war’s end, Congress made Christmas the nation’s first federal holiday.
Meanwhile, as immigrants flooded into the U.S. in the latter half of the 19th century, they brought their own traditions with them. As Christmas historian William D. Crump writes in The Christmas Encyclopedia, this created “a kind of Christmas melting pot, with assimilation of various cultures into a more uniform and widely celebrated holiday at home with the family.”
Left: A family Christmas card shows a bough of holly and its signature red berries, a common symbol of the season. Exchanging cards is a Christmas tradition for many families, partially influenced by Hallmark Cards.
Right: The cover of this Christmas card depicts an iconic Christmas scene: Santa Claus climbing down a chimney to deliver gifts as a team of reindeer await on the rooftop with his sleigh.
Bridgeman Images
One of those cultural icons that immigrants brought with them would become a distinctly American celebrity—Santa Claus.
One of the most popular figures of a modern Christmas is Santa Claus, the round-bellied, white-bearded patriarch who takes a reindeer-driven sleigh to deliver presents to good children the world over. The character is based on St. Nicholas, a third-century Greek bishop who became associated with December gift-giving. (How St. Nicholas became known as Santa Claus.)
Santa came to the U.S. with German and Dutch immigrants in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was popularized in stories by American authors such as Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore—whose poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” is perhaps better known by its opening words, “Twas the night before Christmas.”
Light has always been a part of winter festivals, with their signature long, dark nights. Electric Christmas lights are a modern spin-off of the old-fashioned candles that Germans placed on their trees. Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb, is credited as the inventor of the first strand of lights. In 1882 his business partner, Edward H. Johnson, created the first Christmas tree illuminated with colored lights.
American innovation also shaped the always popular tradition of exchanging gifts on Christmas. In the 20th century, commercial gift wrap replaced brown-paper wrapping when Rollie B. Hall, whose brother had founded Hallmark Cards, used stylized French envelope liners after running out of tissue paper at his store. Hallmark had a hand in the modern Christmas card, too, riffing on the late 19th-century’s small printed cardboard cards to create a larger one with a book-like format perfect for personalized sentiments.
Though Christmas has religious origins, it’s become a secular—and increasingly commercialized—holiday. That’s sparked concern for centuries, says historian Lisa Jacobson. “People have complained about the excessive commercialization of Christmas ever since its [modern] incarnation in the mid-19th century,” she tells the University of California Santa Barbara’s The Current. “I don’t think that ambivalence has ever entirely disappeared.” (See how Christmas is celebrated around the world.)
Those who fear the holiday has strayed from its religious roots have a point. In 2019, more than nine in ten Americans polled by Gallup said they celebrate Christmas—but just 35 percent said they saw the holiday as “strongly religious.” But with its mishmash of pagan and religious traditions, the holiday offers something—whether holy or not—for everyone who celebrates it.
Learn how Christmas became a popular holiday on December 25, and what's behind some of its most cherished customs. Discover the origins of Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, the Advent calendar, and more.
24. Dez. 2012 · Learn how church officials in the fourth century chose December 25 as the date for Jesus' birth, possibly to coincide with pagan festivals. Find out how Christmas became a federal holiday in the United States in 1870.
Learn how Christmas was first celebrated on December 25th in 336 by the Roman Emperor Constantine, and why it may be related to the Winter Solstice, Yalda, Saturnalia and other festivals. Discover the different theories and sources about the date of Jesus' birth and the origin of the name 'Christmas'.
