History of Common Christmas Traditions
Many Christmas traditions have come into being over the years. Most of us simply accept these traditions without a second thought, but each of them is rooted in the past, and most have evolved over time. If you've ever wondered why we celebrate the holidays the way we do, this is the place to learn more about where some of the age-old traditions began, and to create or discover your own personal Christmas traditions.
As a kid, my favorite tradition was going to bed and "hearing" Santa arrive (as my Dad jingled some bells outside my window). And of course, like so many girls and boys, I always wrote a letter to Santa. Times have changed, and there are so many things parents can do to tickle their kids' fancies when it comes to the magical world of Santa.
Now, instead of just having your kids write letters to Santa, you can make sure Santa writes back! Or let your kids get a magical phone call from Santa, or leave Santa's Boot prints throughout your home, or show proof that Santa visited with an entire Santa evidence kit, because your child's magical belief in Santa only happens once in a lifetime!
Mistletoe How did this little bough of greenery become a symbol of love at Christmas time?
Christmas Tree How did the noble pine tree become a Christmas tradition?
Ornaments Those bright, shiny decorations we put on our Christmas trees - why do we do that?
Santa Claus Jolly Ol' Saint Nick with his red suit and white beard wasn't always depicted the way he is today.
Christmas movies and holiday music are favorite traditions for many families. We can always count on Christmas cartoons and family dramas to be shown on prime-time TV each year. Many favorites were block-buster movies that never make it to TV, so you might want to purchase these for your Christmas movie collection. And who can resist those old collections of crooners singing our holiday favorites? Be sure to have a few on hand to listen to as you sip your eggnog.
Other traditions include the Yule Log, the Pointsettia, Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols.
The word "Christmas" is often abbreviated to "Xmas", the "X" being an uppercase Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of "Christos" in Greek. The abbreviation is widely but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to the name of Christ.
The History Channel presented a wonderful series on the History of Christmas Traditions. You can begin their video journey by watching this video:
Someone has also done a video oration of much of this content on Christmas traditions. It's fun to hear it read out loud. Check it out sometime. Oration of Christmas Traditions by Ryoko
Create Your Own Personal Christmas Traditions
The Christmas holidays are steeped in familiar, old traditions. Decorating our homes, trimming the tree, exchanging gifts, hanging mistletoe and many other traditions are staples of the season. And while these old traditions can create warm memories, you may be missing out on something special. This Christmas season, take some time to consider creating your own special family tradition. Perhaps a glimpse into my own family's unique tradition will inspire you to discover one as well.
My Family's Personal Christmas Tradition
Many years ago, my mother became addicted to garage-saleing. She would wake up bright and early every Friday and Saturday morning (year-round), retrieve the newspaper from the driveway, and circle all of the garage sales near her neighborhood that were listed in the classified section. Then, with a group of 2-3 lifelong friends, she would begin her quest for that perfect 'gift' that someone else was discarding. She rarely paid more than 50 cents for an item. The gifts were usually slighlty worn, even a little broken. (In fact, many times a perfect item would end up broken by the time she got it home. She was a little clumsy). But by the end of each shopping trip, she would arrive home with 10-20 items, that she would proudly display to my father. He, of course, would usually groan, because he always knew that she would be asking him to mend the broken pieces, or re-paint an old item. Needless to say, by the end of a year, my mother had managed to accumulate hundreds of 'special gifts', but had spent very little money doing so.
A few days before Christmas, it would then be my job to help her wrap all of these gifts. She generally bought as many Christmas bags as she could find (at garage sales of course), so the task was made somewhat simpler. All I had to do was throw the gift into the bag, and mark it with a recipient's name. How did I know who was to receive which gift? Well, Mom kept a running list throughout the year which identified which item was reserved for which member of the family. Of course, she often mis-labeled things, so the male members of our family occasionally received nice lingerie, while the female members would receive a new hunting cap!
But really, this was the point of the whole tradition. Our family has a wonderful sense of humor. Opening up 100's of crazy, ridiculous gifts each year was so much more fun than opening up one or two 'real' gifts. The standard question when one of us would open a gift would be, "Ummm...what is this???". There were many times when we never could figure out what the gift was supposed to be.
A favorite thing to do was to trade gifts. If I received an ugly, strange gift, I would barter with someone else for one of their strange gifts. The entire process of opening semi-broken, often useless, but almost always funny gifts, and then trading them back and forth, is a tradition that made our family close as we shared our laughter with one another. (And believe it or not, occasionally the gifts were actually useful and just what we needed!)
Mom has passed on now, but the memories of those wonderful garage sale Christmas's will always be our most treasured memories.
Create a unique Christmas tradition in your family, and the memories will last a lifetime.
Click here to read more stories of personal Christmas traditions.
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