Christmas Traditions

Traditions that accompany the celebration of Christmas vary greatly from country to country, so I will only refer to our most common Western traditions here. The name itself derives from Old English “Cristes maesse”, the term used for the Feast of the Nativity. From the Middle Ages this came to be known as Christmas Day.

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) is credited with introducing the first Nativity Scenes, for which he used people and live animals to teach the humble folk of Greccio, in Italy, the timeless truths of Christmas. He found enormous inspiration from the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus and often called Jesus “the Child of Bethlehem”. Thomas of Celano, in The Second Life of St. Francis, declared:

The birthday of the Child Jesus Francis observed with inexpressible eagerness over all other feasts, saying that it was the feast of feasts, on which God, having become a tiny infant, clung to human breasts.

Historian K. S. Latouretter, in his impressive series The History of the Expansion of Christianity, said, “The Child Jesus had been forgotten in the hearts of many; but, by the working of his grace, he was brought to life again through his servant St Francis.” Francis is also credited with introducing Christmas Carols to formal church services.

Many of the customs now associated with Christmas were originally part of the winter solstice celebrations of pagan festivals. The use of greenery and lights goes back to the celebration of the Kalends of January in ancient Rome. They decorated their temples with these. Romans soldiers conquering the British Isles found Druids worshipping mistletoe and Saxons who used holly and ivy in religious ceremonies. Fir trees and yule logs were used in pagan festivals. Ancient Germans gave us the Advent wreath and began bringing trees indoors at Christmas. They would hang a cartwheel in the roof of a hall and cover it with lights and evergreen branches to remind them that the cold Northern winter would not last forever. Christmas trees have been variously known as paradise trees and redemption trees and came to be decorated with sugar-coated fruit, candies and communion wafers, representing the sweetness of the Saviour. Laurel wreaths represented the victory of Christ and holly wreaths the crown of thorns. Martin Luther may have been the first person to light a Christmas tree, putting candles on trees, citing Isaiah 60:13, “The glory of the Lebanon will come to you, the juniper, the box tree, and the cypress together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I shall make the place of My feet glorious.” It was the German Prince Albert who popularised the Christmas tree in Britain after putting one up at Windsor Castle in 1840.

Some people have argued that it is wrong to use items that have been used in pagan worship for the worship of Christ. However, it is interesting to note the number of times the Bible uses elements of myth and pagan symbols to illustrate spiritual truth. The Lord himself says, “I am like a flourishing juniper” (Hosea 14:8). In a number of places the Bible speaks of the whole of nature involved in his worship (e.g. Psalm 98:7-9; Revelation 5:13). If the whole of creation belongs to him, then let us reclaim it for him. It is interesting that the name of every weekday has a pagan origin.

Tom Smith, a London confectioner, started to develop Christmas crackers in the 1940s. Beginning as individually wrapped sweets, and then with love mottoes, he later added the “crack” after watching a log crackling in the fire. Today the Tom Smith Group produces 50 million crackers a year.

Romans observed the winter solstice by exchanging small gifts. However, the association of gift giving with Christmas, and particularly its association with Santa Claus, goes back to St Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop of Myra in Lycia in what is now Western Turkey. Though one of the most popular saints in both the Greek and Latin Churches, scarcely anything is historically certain about him. According to tradition, he was imprisoned during Diocletian’s persecutions and afterwards released, and was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, though this latter fact is doubted as he is not recorded in any of the early lists. Legend says he was especially kind to children, scholars, virgins and sailors. Numerous cities took him as their patron, as did Greece and Russia. His feast day was celebrated on 6 December and was associated with the giving of gifts. Dutch settlers brought the custom to the New World and English settlers eagerly borrowed the legends and festivities surrounding the kindly Saint Nicholas. The Dutch name for the saint, Sinterklaus, changed into the English, Santa Claus, around 1870.  The Elizabethan character, Father Christmas, a jolly old man imagined to provide the Christmas feast, eventually merged with Santa.

 Sir Henry Cole was a publisher and innovator who founded London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and was influential in setting up the Royal College of Music, the Albert Hall and even public lavatories. He sent out the first Christmas cards in 1843. At first they were handmade and very expensive, and did not become popular till later in the century.