What's That About Christmas?

So there you are sitting at the table ready to tuck into that Christmas dinner and someone asks, "Why do we celebrate Christmas then?" The turkey immediately gets stuck in your throat and that cat, the one you didn't even know you had, jumps out of nowhere and grabs your tongue! Now what? Have no fear help is at hand! Let's have a look at the origins of Christmas.

Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. If you've been a part of any nativity plays at school, then you'll probably know this. The story begins with Joseph & Mary trying to find a room at an inn in Bethlehem. There were no rooms to be found and Mary had, no not a little lamb, but the baby Jesus, who was born in a stable. I never got to play Mary at school. Nope, I was a talker, so I always got the narrator's job! All well and good until the year they made me dress up as a Christmas tree, star and all!

Jesus Christ was born on December 25, and (Christ)mas day is Jesus's birthday. Since about 400 AD, Christians have celebrated this day with a religious festival known as mass. Simple huh? From Christ and mass, we got Christmas. This religious festival centres around Jesus, but I bet more of you know about Santa Claus than Jesus?

Well Santa Claus was based on a real person too, none other than Saint Nicholas. Nicholas lived a long time ago in the 4th century AD and he was a kind, religious man who liked to give people money in secret. He didn't want the attention of people and so he would do some strange things in order to give them money without their knowledge. It is said that one time he climbed onto a roof and dropped money down the chimney, now we know why he comes down the chimney!

Actually, many of our Christmas traditions come from England and have since been adopted by other countries. Christmas cards for instance were first sent in 1840 when the postal service began.
Stockings, another tradition, were originally placed by our chimneys to catch the coins that St. Nicholas dropped down for us - he sure liked those chimneys didn't he? We now usually hang our stockings anywhere, don't forget though that naughty children get nothing but a lump of coal!

One tradition that has slipped a little is hanging greenery such as holly and ivy, and this also has a story to it. Dating back to well before the Christian age, this winter tradition was to remind people that spring really wasn't that far away. Some compare the sharp holly leaves to the crown of thorns that Jesus was made to wear when he was crucified. The red berries of the holly are seen to be his drops of blood.

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