The Story of Christmas

Christmas is a magical time of year with the lights, colours and all the food and drink. Let's not forget the presents!

by Perveen Kaur

Every year we have the same traditions. We put up a tree, decorate it with baubles and lights. Decorate our homes and shop for presents. On the day itself we exchange those presents, eat and drink too much, watch a film or two and play games.

These traditions we exhibit today though have old roots, deep in our history of civilisation and traditions.

So how did we get here?

Before Christmas

Before celebrating Christmas, we celebrated winter. In the northern hemisphere, winter has shorter days, colder weather and generally, less food was available. The winter solstice marked an important point in the annual calendar. For some people, it still does today. This is the shortest day of the year.

Different cultures developed their own traditions around this period. Evergreen plants were particularly significant because, unlike most vegetation, they remained green through the winter. Candles and fires could also have an obvious symbolic importance during the darkest part of the year.

The Romans had their own winter celebrations. One of these was Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to Saturn. It involved feasting, socialising and gift-giving, with some unusual reversals of normal social behaviour. There was also Sol Invictus, the festival of the Unconquered Sun, celebrated on 25 December during the later Roman Empire.

None of these were Christmas but we can see with these two examples alone, celebrations at this time of year stems back hundreds of years.

And then Christianity developed.

The Birth of Christmas

The New Testament doesn't give a date for Jesus's birth. In fact, the exact date isn't known. It's not completely certain as to why December 25th was chosen for Christmas.

One explanation connects the date to existing Roman winter celebrations. Another links it to an early Christian calculation based on the date of Jesus's conception and the date of his death. Whatever the precise reason, by the fourth century, evidence suggests Christians in Rome were celebrating the birth of Jesus on 25 December.

But this still wasn't the Christmas we're familiar with today.

Medieval Christmas

Christmas celebrations became increasingly elaborate during the medieval period. There was food, music, feasting, entertaining and drinking. Christmas was a religious festival, but it was also a social one.

In Medieval England, Christmas could involve several days of celebration, with wealthy households putting on enormous feasts. Meat, spices, ale and wine were all part of the festivities. There were also traditions involving performances, games and a temporary reversal of social roles.

Christmas could be noisy, chaotic and excessive. Particularly as trade began to bring new and exciting goods to Europe from around the world. Wealth generally was on the rise, as was the variety of things that could be consumed.

However for a brief period, Christmas took a different turn.

The Christmas That Disappeared

In seventeenth-century England, the Puritans took a very different view of Christmas celebrations. They objected to the drinking, feasting, gambling and general excess that had become associated with the festival.

After the English Civil War, when the monarchy was abolished, Christmas celebrations were restricted. Christmas Day itself was treated as a normal working day in parts of the period but this wasn't to last forever. The monarchy was eventually restored and Christmas returned.

This does demonstrate a crucial point about traditions though. They can change and evolve into different versions of themselves depending on societal shifts, and even the viewpoints of a few can bring huge widespread change.

The Victorian Christmas

Victorian Britain would be the period that brought the version of Christmas we know today, together.

The Christmas tree became fashionable through the actions of the monarchy. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German-born husband, helped popularise the decorated Christmas tree in Britain. An illustration of the royal family gathered around their tree was published in 1848 and helped turn the custom into a fashionable middle-class tradition.

Christmas cards appeared. Christmas crackers developed. Christmas presents became increasingly associated with the holiday. And then came Charles Dickens.

His novel, A Christmas Carol published in 1843, helped to reinforce the idea of family, generosity and the Christmas spirit. The story became part of the wider reinvention of Christmas that occurred during the Victorian Era.

Christmas Becomes Commercial

Commercialisation took Christmas to the next level. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the power of the industrial revolution and technology, brought another huge set of changes to the holiday.

Shops began heavily promoting Christmas shopping. Toys and decorations were manufactured in huge array specifically for the season. Advertising had a life of it's own and Santa Claus became a central figure in the Christmas tradition.

The character had developed from a mixture of traditions, including Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and other European figures. Initially his appearance wasn't consistent but thanks to a marketing campaign by a famous soft drink company, the current image of Santa Claus wearing a red suit and a white beard, came alive.

Electricity took this further with lights, radio, tv, films and online shopping.

By the twentieth century, Christmas had become a huge cultural and commercial event.

So What is Christmas?

There's no one answer really. Today it's not just one day, it's a whole season of lights and colour. Major cities and towns start to decorate for the season in November, with markets and seasonal goods. Christmas music and films are on for a month solid if not a bit longer.

But at it's heart, Christmas a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. It's a winter tradition. It's filled with medieval customs, Victorian inventions, family rituals, stories, food, music, advertising and modern consumer culture.

Some parts are ancient. Some are only a few hundred years old. And some are surprisingly recent. Even the way we think about Christmas as a cosy family celebration is partly a product of the nineteenth century.

Every generation inherits traditions from the previous and slowly, it morphs and changes with time. But Christmas isn't one tradition, it's the accumulation of many.