Don’t forget to find the right Christmas tree for the whole family and decorate your place of gathering with our large variety of ornaments, candles and lighting essentials. Get inspired by DIY holiday craft ideas and wrap those precious gifts with our seasonal ribbons and trim. And when the holidays are over, shop our special storage and Christmas containers to keep those decorations safe for the years to come. Whatever your plans are this holiday season, you’ll be sure to find it at Michaels. Christmas is a festival that fills joy, happiness and love in people’s life. On this day, people go to church, sing carols, take part in special religious services, exchange gifts, decorate their homes with holly, mistletoe, lights, flowers and Christmas trees and organize family gatherings.
In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Germans were terrified of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish. Kollewe, Julia, , “West End spree worth £250m marks start of Christmas shopping season” Archived December 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian. Most people today trace the practice of giving gifts on Christmas Day to the three gifts that the Magi gave to Jesus. Bank holidays and British Summer time Archived May 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine – HM Government. After Christmas and Epiphany were in place, on December 25 and January 6, with the twelve days of Christmas in between, Christians slowly adopted a period called Advent, as a time of spiritual preparation leading up to Christmas.
Christmas was traditionally a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus, but in the early 20th century, it also became a secular family holiday, observed by Christians and non-Christians alike. The secular holiday is often devoid of Christian elements, with the mythical figure Santa Claus playing the pivotal role. In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status.
On the Christmas Eve, churches around the world hold evening services. Santa Claus is a popular character in the Christmas celebration who brings gifts for the children. Give every room a chic look for the holidays with stylish Christmas decorations. Create a festive tablescape with red and green dinnerware and glassware. Accent the home with other holiday-inspired pieces, including candles, glass hurricanes and florals.
This practice recalls the ancient Christian liturgical notion that the celebration of Christmas, as well as that of Easter and of Pentecost, should last the entire week. The weeklong observance, however, was successively reduced to Christmas day and a single additional holiday on December 26. Christians and non-Christians participate in some of the most popular Christmas traditions, many of which have no origins in Christianity. These customs include decorating evergreen trees—or, in India, mango or bamboo trees; feasting ; and exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.
In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain. The Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 ended the ban, but many Calvinist clergymen still disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant. The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been “purged of all superstitious observation of days”.
December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son. Christmas did not start in Germany, but many of the holiday’s traditions began there, including decorating trees.
The earliest extant specifically Christmas hymns appear in fourth-century Rome. Latin hymns such as “Veni redemptor gentium”, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. “Corde natus ex Parentis” (“Of the Father’s love begotten”) by the Spanish poet Prudentius (d. 413) is still sung in some churches today.
In Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, and Jesus is born there and laid in a manger. Angels proclaimed him a savior for all people, and shepherds came to adore him.