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Symbols of the Christmas Season
Have you ever wondered where the traditions we have at Christmas
time came from? I have, and in my travels and research, here are
the answers that I found! I hope you enjoy reading about them as
much as I have, and that you might learn something new about the
Christmas season!
Christmas
Stockings
 The
tradition comes from a Christmas story of St Nicholas. In the
1800's, when the father of three young maidens could not afford
a dowry for his daughters to be married. From his castle, St
Nicholas heard of the poor misfortune of the maidens and
secretly threw a bag of coins down their chimney. It is said
that the gold coins landed in the girls stockings that were
hanging in the fireplace to dry.
Later children in Holland would leave out their wooden shoes in
hopes that St Nicholas would fill them with goodies.
Christmas
wreaths
Christmas wreaths combine two
symbols of everlasting life. The evergreen bough, that stays
green all winter and a continuous unbroken circular shape.
Santa Claus
The
real Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas a fourth century Bishop in
Turkey. Famous for acts of kindness, especially towards
children, he eventually became popular in Holland, where he was
known as "Sinter Klaas". Around 1870, the Americans turned the
name into Santa Claus.
In nineteenth century Britain the Elizabethan character Father
Christmas - the jolly old man imagined to provide the Christmas
feast - merged with Santa.
Up to 1890, he was sometimes depicted as tall and thin, wearing
green or brown as often as red. Santa's present appearance was
created by Swedish artist Jenny Nystrom in a series of Christmas
cards. Fellow Swede Haddon Sundblom helped universalise the new
image when he adopted Nystrom's ideas for Coca-Cola's
advertising campaign - Santa matched Coke's red-and-white logo.
Sundblom also refined the character, making his body a little
fatter and giving him his herd of flying reindeer.
The idea of Santa Claus entering people's homes by dropping down
the chimney comes from American Scholar Clement Moore's famous
1822 poem A Visit from St Nicholas.
Christmas
Cards
Sir Henry Cole, a publisher and
innovator who founded London's Victoria & Albert museum and was
influential in setting up the Royal College of Music, the Albert
Hall and public lavatories, sent out the first Christmas card in
1843. But the cards, at first handmade and very expensive at a
shilling each did not become popular until later in the century.
Christmas
Crackers
 Tom
Smith, a confectioner in London started to develop Christmas
crackers in the 1840's. They began as individually wrapped
lollies, like the ones Tom had seen on sale in Paris. Then
Chinese fortune cookies gave him the idea of putting a love
motto in the wrapping.
Some years later, watching a log crackling in the fire, he had
the further idea of adding a crack. Tom's cracking sweets,
called cosaques, appeared in 1870.
He later swapped the sweets for metal charms, and by 1900, an
annual 13 million Christmas crackers were sold worldwide. Today
the Tom Smith Group produces 50 million crackers a year.
Christmas
Lights
In the early seventeenth century, Germans began bringing trees
indoors at Christmas and decorating them with candles. It was
the German Prince Albert who popularised the Christmas tree in
Britain after putting one up at Windsor Castle in 1840. Over the
next 20 years, candlelit trees became popular, the lights
symbolising rebirth.
In 1882 the first electrically lit Christmas tree was set up in
the New York home of a friend of the inventor Thomas Edison; it
had 80 bulbs and cost a small fortune. Even when strings of
lights were produced commercially in 1903, they cost an average
American's weekly wage.
The Christmas
Fairy/Angel
The
fairy at the top of the Christmas tree was originally a little
figure of the baby Jesus. In late seventeenth century Germany
this became a shining angel. Windsor Castle's Christmas trees
were topped by a large angel.
In Victorian Britain, little girls would take the angel down
after Christmas and dress him in dolls' clothes. Eventually the
angel turned into a thoroughly female fairy, complete with wand.
The transformation was boosted by the pantomimes that became
popular in the Victorian era - and, naturally, included a good
fairy in the cast.
Candles
Ancient Romans lit candles to
ward off evil, and to convince the sun to shine again. In
Victorian times, candles came to represent good will for those
less fortunate during the holiday season. Candles were often
placed in windows during the Christmas season as a sign to those
passing by that shelter and warmth could be found within.
Christmas
Holly
 Druids
believed that holly, with its shiny leaves and red berries
stayed green in Winter to keep the earth beautiful when the
sacred oak lost it leaves. They wore sprigs of holly in their
hair when they went into the forest to watch their priests cut
the sacred mistletoe. Holly was the sacred plant of Saturn and
was used at the Roman Saturnalia festival to honor him. Romans
gave one another holly wreaths and carried them about decorating
images of Saturn with it. Centuries later, in December, while
other Romans continued their pagan worship, Christians
celebrated the birth of Jesus . To avoid persecution, they
decked their homes with Saturnalia holly. As Christian numbers
increased and their customs prevailed, holly lost its pagan
association and became a symbol of Christmas.
Christmas
Mistletoe
 Mistletoe
is an aerial parasite plant that has no roots of its own and
lives off the tree it attaches itself to. Without the tree it
would die. Mistletoe was thought to be sacred by ancient
Europeans. Druid priests employed it in their sacrifices to the
gods while Celtic people felt it possessed miraculous healing
powers. In fact, in the Celtic language mistletoe means
"all-heal".
Later, the eighteenth-century English credited mistletoe not
with miraculous healing powers, but with a certain magical
appeal called a kissing ball. At Christmas time a young woman
standing under a ball of mistletoe, brightly trimmed with
evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, cannot refuse to be kissed.
Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and
goodwill. If the woman remains unkissed, she cannot expect to
marry the following year. Whether we believe it or not, it is
always fun at Christmas celebrations.
The Poinsettia
 Dr
Joel Poinsett, the country's first ambassador to Mexico, brought
the fire red flower to the United States more than 100 years
ago. Mexico's legend of the Poinsettia tells of a poor Mexican
girl Maria and her little brother Pablo. The two children loved
the annual Mexican Christmas festival with its large Manger
scene, but each year they were disappointed that they had no
money to buy a present for the baby Jesus.
One Christmas eve Maria and Pablo stopped to pick some weeds
growing along the roadside on their way to church, to give to
the baby Jesus. The other children chided them for their gift,
but Maria and Pablo knew their gift was from the heart, and it
was all they could give. As they began to place the weeds around
the Manger, the green-top leaves miraculously turned into bright
red petals. Soon the Manger was surrounded by the beautiful
star-shaped flowers we love too see during the holidays.
The Christmas
Tree
 People
often wonder where the custom of having a tree in the home
during Christmas time comes from. We will probably never know
for sure. But there are many historical clues that point out
where this custom came from.
Thousands or years ago, there were people who believed that
evergreen trees were magical. Even in winter, when all the other
trees and were brown and bare, the evergreen tree stayed strong
and green. People saw the evergreen as a symbol of life and as a
sure sign that sunshine and spring would soon return. Candles,
or the electric lights we use to decorate our trees today, are
also an ancient symbol. They represent the light of spring
overcoming the darkness of winter.
So when did the Christmas tree go indoors? Legend has it that
the tradition was begun by Martin Luther in Germany. He was a
monk and church reformer who lived from 1483 to 1546. According
to the legend, Luther was returning home one wintry night when
he saw the stars twinkling in the sky through the tree branches.
Luther was amazed by the sight, and when he arrived home, he was
eager to tell his family about it. To help them understand, he
went to the woods and cut down a small fir tree. Luther brought
it indoors and decorated it with candles, which represented the
stars he had seen.
The custom spread in Germany, and from there all over the world.
In England, the Christmas tree first appeared when Queen
Victoria married Albert, a German Prince. In 1841, Albert set up
a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle near London to remind him of
his homeland. The Christmas tree custom was brought to the
United States by people from England as well as by many German
immigrants who came in the 1800's. Whatever its origin, the
Christmas tree is a beautiful symbol for everyone who celebrates
Christmas.
Christmas
Pudding
 Plum
porridge - a soft, sweet mixture enriched with dried fruit,
known as plums - was a luxury for Elizabethans. In the
eighteenth century, this evolved into a thicker plum pudding.
One firm, Matthew Walker of Derby now makes some 16 million a
year - 40 percent of the world's Christmas puddings.
Christmas
Turkey
Turkeys
came into England from Mexico in 1526, when Yorkshire man
William Strickland bought six from American Indian traders and
sold them in Bristol for two pence each.
Edward VII made eating turkey at Christmas fashionable, but it
remained a luxury until the 1950's.
Advent
Calendars
The
Germans are thought to have initiated the custom of distributing
Advent Calendars to children. These designs have changed very
little and are still usually silver frosted landscapes with 24
hinged openings in Germany, and 25 hinged openings in most other
countries. They are numbered with the date when they may be
opened leading up to Christmas. Each little door yields a secret
picture or message, or perhaps a small present.
Christmas
Nativities
 The
Christmas crib was first popularised by St Francis of Assisi,
who set up a simple manger scene at the little town of Greccio
in Italy in 1224. It included a real manger and straw, a live ox
and an ass, and local villagers who took the parts of Mary,
Joseph and the Shepherds. The ceremony proved so popular it was
repeated each year.
Advent Wreaths
 Various
customs are associated with Advent. One that still survives in
parts of Europe, notably in Germany, is the hanging of Advent
wreaths. These are rings made up of sprigs of evergreens such as
holly and ivy, into which are fixed four red candles. They are
hung from the middle of the ceiling and on each Sunday of Advent
one candle is lit so that by Christmas all four are burning. In
Britain in Victorian times, the Christmas pudding had to be made
before Advent commenced. This was always on Stir-up Sunday, the
last Sunday before Advent, when the pudding was solemnly stirred
in an anti-clockwise direction by every member of the household
before it was boiled (with silver charms or coins hidden in it)
for several hours, then left to mature until Christmas Day.
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