The History of Christmas &

Christmas Traditions
By: Rhonda Chisholm
 Table Of Contents
What is Christmas? Why Use Holly?

Why Such A Big Deal? Why 12 Days of X’mas

Who Is Santa? Other Traditions

Why Exchange Gifts? Christmas Songs

Who Is Rudolph? Credits

 What is Christmas?
• It is the celebration of the birth of
Jesus Christ.
• It is celebrated on December 25 each
year. The first celebration was in Rome
in 336 AD.
• It is both a holiday and a Holy Day
• The word Christmas comes from the
words Cristes Maesse or Christ’s Mass.
Why is Christmas Such a Big Deal?

There are two main reasons:

• There are 1.8 million Christians in the
world.
• The weeks leading up to Christmas is
the biggest shopping weeks of the
year.
 Who Is This Santa Claus Person?
• The first well-known gift-giver, St. Nicholas lived in
Turkey about 300A.D
• He was orphaned and later became a
priest.
• He gave to the needy, especially children.
• He later became a bishop - hence the hat, long gown,
white beard and red cape.
• When the Church started to celebrate Christmas, St.
Nick was incorporated into the season.
Why Do People Exchange Gifts?
• The tradition started with the gifts that the
wisemen brought to Jesus.
• After seeing Jesus with his mother, they
opened up their treasures of gold and of
incense and myrrh.
• However, no one was in the habit of giving
elaborate gifts until late 1800’s.
• The Santa Claus story (descibed above)
combined with a retail phenomenon has made
gift giving the central focus of the Chrismas
tradition.
 Who is Rudolph?
• The whole story of Rudolph appeared in 1939.
• It was written by Robert Ward who worked in
the advertising department at a retail chain.
• His original name was Rollo, but executives did
not like it so it was changed.
• The name was choosen by the author’s
young daughter.
• Gene Autry turned the poem
into a song in 1949.
Why Do We have Holly Draped
Over The Mantel & Staircase?
• The church banned the traditional use
of mistletoe.
• As a substitute it suggested holly.
• The sharply pointed leaves were to
symbolize the thorns in Christ’s crown.
• The red berries symbolize the drops
of his blood.
 Why 12 Days of Christmas?

• The 12 days between Dec. 25 th & Jan. 6th

• Jan. 6th represents the day Jesus was baptized
and the day he was visited by the wisemen.
• In the past, the tradition was to give gifts
throughout the twelve days instead of all on one
day.
 Other Traditions
• Stockings - date back to time of original St.
Nicholas around 300 A.D.
• Christmas Tree - German tradition started in
700A.D.
• Christmas Cards - started in England in 1843
and America in 1846.
• Pointsettias - in 1828 Joel Pointset imported
the plant to America from Mexico.
 Christmas Songs
There is a set of
songs that are played
continuously during
the christmas season.
To play the Christmas
Song Game , click on
Click the wreath Santa
to see a list of
X’mas Songs
 Credits
• Christmas Song Game
• How Stuff Works
• History of Santa
• Web Graphics Click on Candy
Cane to go to
• ClipArt Table of
• AAA ClipArt Contents