Origins of Christmas

Today we are explaining the origins of Christmas traditions. We all know why we celebrate Christmas today. But if you haven’t figured it out by now, Jesus was in fact not born on December 25th. See, no one really knows exactly when he came to Earth as an exact time or date was not documented in the Bible. In fact, his birth was not really a cause for celebration until the Catholic church decided to make it a thing. Is it too early for an Explore Fact? Not all Christians celebrate Christmas in December. In fact, the Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 6 and 7. The reason for this is that they use the Julian calendar, put in place in 46 B.C. by Julius Caesar, which during the 20th and 21st centuries is 13 days behind in comparison to the widely used Gregorian calendar. Even the way they celebrate it is different. Orthodox Christians usually fast on January 6 until the first star appears in the night sky, symbolizing the birth of Christ. They also have a feast although traditionally it does not contain meat or alcohol.

As with most holidays of the Christian nature, December 25th was a date on which pagan holidays were celebrated and that was a huge no-no for the expanding Catholic church. At least that’s one of the reasons that has been proposed by historians.

See the date matches up with several pagan festivities which include:

The end of Saturnalia, the Roman celebration of Saturn, the god of agriculture. the Persian celebrations of Mithra, the god of light and Yuletide or Yule, a Germanic celebration that marks the winter solstice. Both Yule and Saturnalia celebration traditions can be linked to modern Christmas customs. For example, during Saturnalia people would exchange gifts, have big “role reversal” banquets in which masters served their slaves and they’d also decorate their temples with fir trees. Yule on the other hand also celebrated with a large feast in which they would eat and drink.

Another tradition we adopted from pagan celebrations is one that has helped further romantic storylines
in Hollywood movies and helped pop singers pull at the heart-strings of their fans. Kissing under the mistletoe. That plant is holly, which also has a role in Christmas tradition but more on that later. 

For the Druids, the Norse, the Greek and many others, the mistletoe was a divine plant. The Celtic Druids believed that its evergreen nature meant it was a symbol of life and fertility. The Greeks used it to treat menstrual cramps. The Nordic people even have stories surrounding the powers of the plant. 

See the Puritans hadn’t forgotten the pagan origins of Christmas traditions and they were not too happy with those who celebrated it. So, during the 17th Century, the Puritans saw their chance. They had seized power in England after the execution of King Charles I and in 1647 they enacted a law that banned Christmas celebrations. The Puritans of New England followed suit. However, many colonists tried to keep the Christmas spirit alive and by 1681 the ban was no more. By 1860, 14 states had declared Christmas a state holiday, a decade later, President Ulysses Grant had declared Christmas a federal holiday.

Now, that we’ve given you a crash course on the history behind the holiday, let’s get to modern tropes and traditions related to it.

First off, Father Christmas! Or Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas there are many versions of the jolly old bearded Christmas man. When did we come up with him? Well, we didn’t exactly “come up” with him, and he is also not a caricature invented by Coca Cola as many people seem to believe (but we will get into that later). Santa Claus was indeed a real person.

Saint Nicholas was born around 280 AD. He was the bishop of Myra, a small town in modern Turkey and was known for his kind heart and generosity. He was said to be particularly caring towards poor children. In fact, he was known as the patron saint of children and a selfless gift-giver.

There are many stories recounting Saint Nicholas’s good deeds. One such story says that Saint Nick saved three young girls from prostitution by sneakily throwing bags of coins into their house so that their poor father could use the money as their dowry. His good deeds would go on to earn him the title of “saint” as well as his own holiday: December 6th. It was on this day that children would receive gifts in the name of the great gift-giver himself. Parents also saw this as a great excuse to keep their children in line: "Be a good Christian child and you’ll get gifts from Saint Nick". But then came the Protestant Reformation and saints weren’t looking too good in northern Europe, so many dropped these celebrations. This was a problem though, people still wanted a gift-giving holiday, and of course a bearded old man they could use as leverage for their children’s behavior. That's when Santa Claus came in the picture.

Countries across Europe began coming up with their own versions of Saint Nick. There’s Sinterklaas, who’s mainly popular in the Netherlands.

In other regions, people mixed local lore to create their own Santa. Slavic countries have Ded Moroz or Father Frost and in Italy it wasn’t an old man that came down the chimney with gifts, but an old woman called la Befana who shimmies down to drop off gifts.

Evil demons aside, we can all agree that today, Santa Claus is known as the white-bearded, fat, jolly man who “ho ho ho’s” on his sleigh and dresses up in red and white robes. Speaking of colors red, white and green.

Who decided red white and green would be the colors of Christmas?

That’s one answer to the mystery of Christmas colors: Holly. According to Arielle Eckstut, the co-author of The Secret Language of Color, this flowering plant is responsible for the red and green obsession surrounding Christmas decor.

There are several reasons for this. Druids, Celts, and Romans used it during pagan celebrations for good luck, but then, you guessed it! Enter the Catholic Romans and they decided it was their thing. The red of the berries came to symbolize the Jesus shed during his crucifixion and its sharp leaves represent his thorn crown. Then comes Coca-Cola. Now, many people like throwing this fun fact every Christmas about how Coca-Cola “invented” Santa Claus and how the red plump Santa wearing red was all a conjecture for advertisement. Well, no, and yes, but no.

Throughout the 18th and early 19th Century, Santa Claus could be seen wearing red, blue and green in advertisements and he was already being portrayed as a jolly old man, maybe less fat than the Coca-Cola Santa but you get the idea.

The reason we believe Coca-Cola “invented” Santa Claus is due to a 1931 ad campaign designed by Haddon Sundblom, an American artist with Finnish and Swedish roots who was tasked to link Father Christmas to the sugary beverage. Needless to say he did a great job. He matched the bright red color of his robe to that of the classic Coca Cola logo and boom! An icon was born. Since then, it’s a version of Coca Cola’s Santa Claus that we see taking mall photos with kids in winter.

Christmas trees:

As we mentioned at the start, celebrations like Saturnalia already featured evergreen plants as decoration. Many other cultures like the Celts and Vikings would also use these plants as ornaments during the winter season. However, the modern version of the Christmas tree is often credited to the Germans. It is said that it was Martin Luther who first decorated his evergreen tree with candles.

Christmas caroling:

It's Pagan origins! During the Winter Solstice, some early European civilizations would gather to dance and sing. Then came the Christians and, as they did, replaced these songs with religious Hymns that celebrate the birth of Christ. Actually, there’s an interesting factoid about one of the most famous carols.

Christmas Songs:

You’ve probably heard the song “Jingle Bells” First off, when this song was first written by organist James Lord Pierpont in 1857.

The song wouldn’t become associated with Christmas until the 1860s and 1870s when some choirs began adding it to their list of Christmas tunes.
Also, Jingle Bells was the first song to be broadcast from space. In the winter of 1965, the crew of Gemini 6 played the beloved jingle for Mission Control down on Earth using a harmonica they had smuggled onto the spacecraft.