What is Christmas?

Christmas is the most popular Christian religious festival in the world, but many non-religious people celebrate it too, including many non-Christians.

Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. The Christian calendar is based on counting the years since the birth of Jesus. Christian years used to be known by the Latin words Anno Domini (abbreviated as AD), meaning ‘the year of the Lord’. The Christian God is sometimes known as ‘the Lord’.

Christians believe that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary. She was married to a carpenter named Joseph, but he is not the father of Jesus. The child was conceived by a miracle caused by the Holy Spirit. The story goes that he was born in a stable in Bethlehem.

Christians read the Bible. It is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is also read by Jews. The New Testament is the exclusively Christian part. The New Testament is subdivided into books, four of which are Gospels. Gospel means ‘God narrative’ in Old English. Each Gospel is written by a different saint: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The Gospel according to St Luke gives the most extensive account of the Nativity of Jesus. It claims that the Roman Empire ordered a census of the known world. Each man was to take his family back to his ancestral hometown to be recorded in the census. Therefore, Joseph took the Virgin Mary back to Bethlehem.

There is nothing in the Roman archives about a census at this time. Some suspect that Luke invented the census as a plot device so that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. David, who was King of Israel centuries before, had been born in Bethlehem. There was a prophecy that the Messiah (‘Anointed One’) would also be born in Bethlehem.

There was no room at the inn in Bethlehem. Therefore, the innkeeper permitted Joseph and his gravid goodwife to lodge in the stable. Christians believe that Jesus was born there, with the oxen and the donkeys looking on. The infant was then laid to rest in a manger full of hay. This is supposed to underscore Jesus’ humility.

Christians believe in the Trinity. God has three persons but is one. The three are God the Father, God the Son (i.e., Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. It is puzzling that God can be his own father and indeed his own son. This is a conundrum. One cannot explain it nor understand it. As a philosopher said: the finite cannot contemplate the infinite. That is to say, humans with their very limited intellects cannot comprehend God’s magnificence and mysteries.

The Bible does not say which day of the year Jesus was born. But it mentions that shepherds were on the hills with their flocks. This suggests it was not winter. In wintertime, it would have been too cold, so they would be down in the valleys.

Christianity spread in the 1st century AD. There was a Roman festival of Saturnalia on 22 December. To ensure that Christmas was popular, the Christians simply grafted Christmas onto the approximate date of Saturnalia. Christmas Day is 25 December.

The Christmas tree

In Scandinavia and Germany, a tradition from pagan times was taking an evergreen tree into the house at this time of year. As deciduous trees lose their leaves, an evergreen is a reminder of greenery. The pagans called this time of year ‘Yule’. Indeed, Christmas is still called Jool in Norwegian – pronounced ‘yool’.

Prince Albert married Queen Victoria in 1840. He brought with him the Christmas tree tradition from Germany. It spread to the United Kingdom and all around the world. Queen Victoria started sending Christmas cards, and others copied her.

In December, many people decorate their houses with tinsel and Christmas lights. Some people have a dummy Santa Claus and reindeer. Religious people have a little manger scene in the house with dolls representing the Virgin Mary, Joseph, the oxen, donkeys, shepherds, and the Three Wise Men: Balthasar, Melchior, and Caspar. The infant Jesus is only put into this on 25 December.

Santa Claus or Father Christmas is based on a Greek called Saint Nicholas, who is from what is now Turkey. He famously gave presents to his daughters. We now tend to say ‘Santa Claus’. The term ‘Father Christmas’ is seen as old-fashioned.

The stories about Santa Claus rewarding good children with presents are not religious. Adults do not believe these tales. They simply tell them to kids to make Christmas more fun.

Over the centuries, various stories about Santa Claus emerged. Our current image of him developed in the early 20th century. He is a cheery, chubby, rubicund old man with a white beard. He wears a red suit trimmed with white and sports black boots. Santa Claus flies on a magic sleigh pulled by reindeer. The modern image of Santa Claus sporting red raiment comes from a 1930s Coca-Cola advert. Prior to that, he was often depicted wearing green.

Some say that Santa Claus lives in the North Pole. There he has a workshop where elves make toys for kids. There is even a place in Sweden that claims to be the real HQ of Santa!

Many shopping centres hire a fat old man with a white beard to dress up as Santa Claus. Parents pay for their kids to visit him. If Santa has a fake beard, some children notice.

There is a famous poem about Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. This became a very popular song.

Santa Claus is supposed to visit in the middle of the night but only if all the children are asleep. Then he lays out presents beneath the Christmas tree. Children used to hang up their stockings, and Santa Claus would fill them with gifts.

Traditionally, Santa Claus came down the chimney. How did an obese man fit through it? Now most people do not have chimneys, so he magically comes through the door without a key. By magic, he is able to visit hundreds of millions of children in a single night.

Christmas Day is a public holiday throughout Christendom. Religious people attend church. Some people attend a church service called Midnight Mass on 24 December, and this lasts just into 25 December.

Christmas Dinner varies from one country to another. In Ireland and Great Britain, it is mainly about roast turkey filled with stuffing. There are roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts, and gravy. People often eat Christmas pudding, which is fruitcake. The Christmas pudding is brought in doused in brandy and set alight – the brandy gives off a blue flame. Some people eat mince pies.

People often have Christmas crackers on their placemats. People pull them to make a noise. Each cracker contains a paper crown party hat and a little joke printed on a slip of paper.

Some families have party games afterwards like charades. People often indulge in alcohol on this day.

Christmas Dinner is so big that people often cannot finish it that day. The food is reheated and eaten over the next few days.

Some people swim in the sea or lakes on Christmas Day. They often just jump in for a minute.

People greet each other with ‘Merry Christmas’ on Christmas Day. Note, people can write the word ‘Christmas’ as ‘Xmas’ for short, but it is pronounced ‘KRISS-muss’ just the same. The suffix ‘mas’ is derived from the word ‘mass’, meaning a Christian religious ceremony.

There are many Christmas songs called carols. Some are specifically religious. Others are about the non-religious aspects of the festival, such as snowy weather, snowmen, Christmas trees, presents, family coming together, sentimentality, and Christmas dinner.

Much of our notion of an idyllic Christmas comes from Charles Dickens. The British writer was born in 1812. When he was little, there was a mini-ice age. The unusually snowy Decembers in the 1810s meant that he wrote about Christmas as being closely associated with heavy snowfall. In fact, in the United Kingdom, it snows more in January than in December. People bet on a ‘white Christmas’, defined as whether at least one snowflake will fall on the headquarters of the BBC on Christmas Day. It seldom happens.

26 December is known as Boxing Day in the UK. This has nothing to do with the sport of boxing! It is because Queen Victoria gave a box of presents to her servants that day. 26 December is also a day off for most.

In Western Christianity, 6 January is the Feast of Epiphany. It commemorates when the Three Wise Men visited baby Jesus. Sometimes they are called the Three Kings. They are often depicted as being different races to represent that Jesus came for the whole world. It is the last day of the Christmas season. After this, Christmas decorations are taken down.

In Russia, Santa Claus is known as ‘Grandfather Frost’. He comes on Russian Christmas, which is 7 January. He is accompanied by his granddaughter, who is called ‘Little Snowy’.