Exploring Some Christmas Origins

Added: 09/22/2007

Ever wonder where the idea of cutting down a tree and putting it in your living room at Christmas time came from? How about the notion that a fat guy in a red suit is a good thing for giving out presents to kids? There are so many traditions that we follow at Christmas time but do you know the origins of some of these popular holiday traditions? Some of the stories are very interesting indeed.

Christmas origins of some of the more familiar and beloved holiday traditions make for some interesting reading and can also give you a better feel for how the traditions we celebrate today came together. Our current celebration of the Christmas season and our own Christmas origins are a compilation of the different cultures that settled the United States over the years. Each culture brought its own Christmas origins to the new world and would add their tradition to the growing list of traditions that already existed. Christmas itself was not celebrated in the new world until around 1820’s and it was actually losing interest all over the world until stories such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1843 started to revive the notion of celebrating the holiday of Christmas. So many of the Christmas origins to the traditions that we have now may have had their very beginnings hundreds of years ago, but the form that they take now may be only 100 years old or so. Christmas always seems like such an old and established holiday so it is very odd to think that what we do now is no older than our grand parents.

The one Christmas tradition that has Christmas origins based on traditions that are hundreds of years old is the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is probably the oldest surviving Christmas tradition and it was started in the middle 1500’s in Germany. The first Christmas trees were decorated by the town children with fruits and cheeses and were usually displayed in a public place. Bringing the trees inside and putting candles on them for lights did not start to take hold until the 18th century and even then it was mainly a city thing with the tradition still not catching on in the rural areas yet. Over time the Christmas tree started to find its way into the homes of royalty and nobles from Germany to Russia and then in the 1800’s the Christmas tree was brought to the nobles and royalty of England. It was in England that the notion of putting gifts under the Christmas tree started and it was also in England that more people started putting Christmas trees up in their homes. By the late 1800’s the Christmas tree made its way to America where it quickly evolved into the symbol we are familiar with today. In Boston it is rumored that the first candy canes were put on Christmas trees and from there the Christmas tree quickly became the center piece to the American Christmas. As Americans continued to commercialize the Christmas tree it became more and more commonplace until it has reached the icon status it is enjoying today.

The Santa Claus that we all know today is a very American twist on an old world creation. There really was a Saint Nicholas that was known for being kind to children and gave gifts but the fat man in the red suit that we know today was born in a poem about his annual visit. A Visit From St. Nicholas was responsible for molding the form of Santa Claus that we all know now. Often credited as being written by Clement Clarke Moore but never really proven to be, it was first published in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823. The first appearance of this poem was printed without any author credit but its vivid description of Santa Claus soon became the blueprint that Santa Claus would follow from then on. From there Santa Claus went on to sell soda first for the White Rock Beverage Company in the 1920’s and then for Coca Cola in the 1950’s. Coca Cola is credited with giving Santa Claus his modern day look and that look has not changed ever since.

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