Christmas Traditions, Quotes and Lore

The common abbreviation for Christmas to Xmas is derived from the Greek alphabet. X is letter Chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name in the Greek alphabet.

Christmas Carols were banned by Oliver Cromwell, in England between 1649 and 1660. Cromwell thought that Christmas should be a very solemn day so he banned carols and parties. The only celebration was by a sermon and a prayer service.

In 1643, the British Parliament officially abolishes the celebration of Christmas.

The Puritans in America tried to make Thanksgiving Day the most important annual festival instead of Christmas.

Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.

St Francis of Assisi introduced Christmas Carols to formal church services.

Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome (125-136 AD) declared that public Church services should be held to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Savior." In 320 AD, Pope Julius I and other religious leaders specified 25 December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.

26 December was traditionally known as St Stephen's Day, but is more commonly known as Boxing Day. This expression came about because money was collected in alms-boxes placed in churches during the festive season. This money was then distributed during to the poor and needy after Christmas.

The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.

In 1836, Alabama is the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

In 1843, the first Christmas card was printed in England for Sir Henry Cole. He was busy man who wanted to save time his own Christmas letters, but was also interested in encouraging the expansion of the postal system. 1000 copies of the card were sold at one shilling each. It was not until the 1860s that the production of cards accelerated, with cheaper printing methods. Then in 1870, the Post Office introduced a half penny stamp for sending cards.

In 1856, President Franklin Pierce decorates the first White House Christmas tree.

In 1907, Oklahoma became the last USA state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

At midnight on Christmas Eve 1914 firing from the German trenches suddenly stopped. A German brass band began playing Christmas carols. Early, Christmas morning, the German soldiers came out of their trenches, approaching the allied lines, calling "Merry Christmas". At first the allied soldiers thought it was a trick, but they soon climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers. The truce lasted a few days, and the men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings, sang carols and songs. They even played a game of Soccer.

In 1937, the first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria.

In 1974, the Australian city of Darwin is devestated late on Christmas Eve and in the early hours of the morning by Cyclone Tracy.

In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family.

6 December is St Nicholas's Day - the first of the gift giving days, especially in Holland and Belgium.

Some priests in Australia advise you to say "Happy Christmas", not "Merry Christmas", because Merry has connotations of getting drunk - which brings its own problems. One should say "Happy" instead.

The actual gift givers are different in various countries:

Spain and South America: The Three Kings

Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch)

England: Father Christmas

France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas)

Russia: In some parts - Babouschka (a grandmotherly figure)

Other parts it is Grandfather Frost.

Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus)

She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles.

Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse

Holland: St Nicholas.

Every year since 1947 the people in Oslo have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster. The gift is an expression of goodwill and gratitude for Britain's help to Norway in the 1939-1945 war.

The first American Christmas carol was written in 1649 by a minister named John de Brebeur and is called "Jesus is Born".

Mexicans call the poinsettia "Flower of the Holy Night" - the Holy Night is the Mexican way of saying "Christmas Eve".

Tom Smith who owned a sweet shop in London was the originator of the cracker. In the 1840s Tom found that people like sugar almonds, but while he was in France he discovered a variety of sweets wrapped up in a twist of paper. These bonbons were popular, so Tom decided to copy them. When Tom noticed that young men were buying them to give to their sweethearts he began to place "love mottoes" on small slips of paper inside the sweet wrapping.

In 1846 Tom's thoughts turned towards Christmas - instead of sweets he thought he would place toys and novelties inside the twisted wrapping. He experimented with this and the idea of producing a wrapping that could be pulled apart - just like the cracker as we know it today.

The word carol is derived from the old French word caroler which derives from the Latin choraula. This itself was derived from the Greek choraules.

Births on 25 December:

W C Field (1946)
Alice Cooper (1945)
Princess Alexandra (1936)
Paul Borget (1935)
Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889)

Deaths on 25 December:

Conrad Hilton (1979)
Humphrey Bogart (1957)
Dorothy Wordsworth (1855)
Sir Isaac Newton (1727)

The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's White Christmas.

In Switzerland during the Reformation, all instrumental and choral music was banned from churches. In Germany, disapproval of carols resulted in some being converted into hymns.

Tinsel on the Christmas Tree is attributed to a woman whose husband died. She was left to bring up a large family of children herself. She was left to do everything working so hard and she was determined to make a happy time for them at Christmas. She prepared a Christmas Tree to surprise them on Christmas Day. Unfortunately spiders visited the tree, and crawled from branch to branch, making webs all over it. The Christ Child saw the tree and knew she would be devastated to find this on Christmas morning. He changed the spiders' webs to shining silver.

The first church the Dutch built in New York City was named in St Nicholas' honor -St Nicholas Church.

Many Christmas customs are carry-overs from pre-Christian celebrations. Hanging gifts on trees is supposed to stem from tree worship of the Druids, and the belief that the tree was the giver of all good things. The Druids are also partly responsible for the use of mistletoe at Christmastime. They regarded the mistletoe as sacred, made certain that it never touched the ground, and dedicated it to the Goddess of Love, which explains the kissing that goes on under it. Originally, when a boy kissed a girl, he plucked a berry from the cluster and presented it to her. When the berries were gone, so were the kisses.

"To have good health throughout the next year, eat an apple on Christmas Eve."

"Eat plum pudding on Christmas and avoid losing a friend before next Christmas."

"On Chrismas Eve all animals can speak. However, it is bad luck to test this superstition."

"The child born on Christmas Day will have a special fortune."

"Wearing new shoes on Christmas Day will bring bad luck."

In Ireland it is believed the gates of Heaven open at midnight on Christmas Eve. Those who die then go straight to Heaven.

If you refuse a mince pie at Christmas dinner, you will have bad luck for the coming day.

If you eat a raw egg before eating anything else on Christmas morning, you will be able to carry heavy weights.

"Snow on Christmas means Easter will be green."

"Good luck will come to the home where a fire is kept burning throughout the Christmas season.

"Place shoes by side on Christmas Eve to prevent a quarreling family."

"A clear star-filled sky on Christmas Eve will bring good crops in the summer."

"A blowing wind on Christmas Day brings good luck."

In Greece, some people burn their old shoes during the Christmas season to prevent misfortunes in the coming year.

In the Swedish countryside, from cock crow to daybreak on Christmas morning the trolls (wicked elves) roam about.

In Devonshire, England, a girl raps at the henhouse door on Christmas Eve. If a rooster crows, she will marry within the year.

You will have as many happy months in the coming year, as the number of houses you eat mince pies in during Christmastime.

"Shout 'Christmas Gift' to the first person knocking on your door on Christmas Day and expect to receive a gift from the visitor.

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." - Charles Dickens.

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! -
~Longfellow

"He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree." - Sunshine Magazine.

"You might as well do your Christmas hinting early." - Anon.

"No Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood." - Francis P. Church

A three-year-old gave this reaction to her Christmas dinner. "I don't like the turkey, but I like the bread he ate."

There was the little boy who approached Santa in a department store with a long list of requests. He wanted a bicycle and a sled, a chemical set, a cowboy suit, a set of trains, a baseball glove and roller skates.
"That's a pretty long list," Santa said sternly. "I'll have to check in my book and see if you were a good boy."
"No, no," the youngster said quickly. "Never Mind checking. I'll just take the roller skates."

"'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring-not even a mouse:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there." - Clement C. Moore

St Nicholas was born in 280 AD, in Patara, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor. He became the gift giver of Myra. His gifts were given late at night, so that the gift giver's identity would remain a secret. St Nicholas was eventually named the patron saint of children, sailors, Russia and Greece.

St Nicholas was a Christian priest, who later became a bishop. He was a rich person, and traveled the country helping people, giving gifts of money and other presents. St Nicholas did not like to be seen when he gave away presents, so the children of the day were told to go to sleep quickly or he would not come! Nothing has changed and Santa Claus will not arrive this Christmas unless the children go to sleep early.

A famous story about St Nicholas, is about a poor man who had no money to give to his three daughters on their wedding day. St Nick dropped bags of gold into the stockings which the girls had left to dry by the fire. The sisters found the gold and ever since, children have hung up stockings on Christmas Eve hoping that they will be filled with presents by Christmas morning.

Despite being quite young Nicholas had earned a reputation for kindliness and wisdom. In the year 303, the Roman emperor Diocletian commanded all the citizens of the Roman Empire, which included Asia Minor, to worship him as a god.

Christians believed in one god and one god alone, so their conscience would not allow them to obey the Emperor's order. Angered by their stubbornness, Diocletian warned the Christians that they would be imprisoned. The Emperor carried out the threat and St Nicholas who resisted too was also imprisoned. For more than five years, St Nicholas was confined to a small cell. He suffered from cold, hunger, and thirst, but he never wavered in his beliefs. In 313, when Diocletian resigned, and Constantine came to power Nicholas was released, and he returned to his post as Bishop of Myra. He continued his good works and became even wiser and more understanding by the time of his death on December 6, 343.

In the eyes of the Catholics, a saint is someone who has lived such a holy life that, after dying and going to heaven, he or she is still able to help people on earth. They often become patron to different groups of people - one such was children and many legends sprang up to explain his presence.

By 450, churches in Asia Minor and Greece were being named in honor of him. By 800, he was officially recognized as the a saint by the Eastern Catholic Church.

In the 1200s, December sixth began to be celebrated as Bishop Nicholas Day in France.

By end of the 1400s, St Nicholas was the third most beloved religious figure, after Jesus and Mary. There were more than 2000 chapels and monasteries named after him.

In the 1500s people in England stopped worshiping St Nicholas and favored more another gift giving figure Father Christmas. Over the centuries, St Nicholas' popularity grew, and many people in Europe made up new stories that showed his concern for children. The name Santa Claus was derived from the Dutch Sinter Klass pronunciation of St Nicholas. Early Dutch settlers in New York (once called New Amsterdam) brought their traditions of St Nicholas. As children from other countries tried to pronounce Sinter Klass, this soon became Santa Klass, which was settled as Santa Claus. The old bishop's cloak with mitre, jeweled gloves and crozier were soon replaced with his red suit and clothing seen in other modern images.

Christmas Trees are always evergreen trees, because the evergreen tree is the "tree of life". It stays green all winter, and give us the feeling of hope. In ancient cultures before Christ was born used to bring them into their homes. Some evergreens, can even produce flowers and fruit during the Winter, seemed magical to these people. People in Estonia and Latvia used to dress Christmas trees with artificial roses, then set them on fire. They hoped to encourage an early Spring.

In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family. This tradition then spread through to popular culture in Britain and the rest of the English speaking world.

Other famous Christmas greenery includes:

* Holly, with large bright berries is the most popular Christmas plant. It was once believed that it was a protection against witches and the evil eye.

* Rosemary, is traditionally associated with rememberance and friendship.

* Others include: poinsettia, the Christmas Rose, the yew and the bay.