We know Christmas as in Christmas trees, Santa Claus, presents under the tree, and Christmas carols. There is a lot more history behind the Christmas holiday.  Sorry to break to the people who don’t think christmas is the most important holiday, but it is one of the most important holidays in history. The first ever Christmas was celebrated in Rome. It was celebrated on December 25, 336 A. D.   That was a very long time ago. Even though that was a long time ago, it can go back even further. Now a lot of people know this by now, but mostly Christmas was about the birth of  Jesus. A lot of people don’t know why Santa is a part of Christmas. We usually know Santa is delivering  presents to everyone. It’s an American Tradition, but the real reason is to bring joy to children and even adults around the world. We also know Santa Claus as St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas/Santa, was born in 280 A. D.   He was born in Patara, which is near Myra in modern Turkey. That would make Santa 1,750 years old! If Santa is that old how can he still deliver presents? That’s a question you can keep in mind.

Now presents are a big thing for American Christmas. Sometimes you wonder why you get presents, and why you deserve them. Well the presents symbolize the part of Jesus’ birthday. On Christmas you get presents just as you would get them on your birthday. It’s like saying you get presents from Jesus’s birthday because Christmas is about giving thanks. Jesus just wants to give thanks. And the Rome people wanted this to happen from what Jesus did to us.

It’s an American tradition to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Christmas”, this is to be believed because “Happy” took on a higher place rather than “Merry” which was associated with a lower place. Then the royal family adopted “Happy Christmas” as their preferred greeting, and others took note. Secondly, we say Xmas because in the Greek Alphabet, “X” is the symbol for the letter “chi.” In the early days of the Christian church, Christians used the letter “X” as a secret symbol to indicate their membership in the church to others. If you know the Greek meaning of “X”, Xmas and Christmas essentially mean the same thing; Christ + mas = Christmas.

We might think that Christmas was celebrated as in singing Christmas carols, getting presents, and Santa Claus. Christmas was originally celebrated exclusively at public gatherings, but changed in the early-19th century, when families started celebrating on their own. After World War II Christmas became a more commercial holiday. A great number of stores had Christmas decorations and music.