Every year on the 25th December we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, this day is known as Christmas Day. The word Christmas or 'Christ's Mass' originally comes from the old English name Cristes Maedde. It was in AD440 that the Christian Church fixed a celebration date of December 25th.It is a special time for family. Many people living in different towns, cities or even countries will make the journey back home to spend the festive season with their family.
On Christmas Day they will have a family gathering and a huge dinner consisting of food such as turkey, brussell sprouts, roast potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Apparently eating turkey on Christmas Day dates back to the Tudor times and Henry VIII - he was the first man to eat turkey on this day.
Sending Christmas cards is a huge part of Christmas, with more than a billion cards being sent in the UK alone. There are many genres of cards ranging from Relation cards for Mum, Dad, Brother Sister etc to the more humorous type for friends and relatives who enjoy a good laugh.
People buying cards for Mum often look for the more traditional Christmas card with lengthy, meaningful versus whereas people looking for Dad cards tend to go for Humour.
The rush for buying cards and presents generally starts at the end of November, beginning of December. Shopping centres become so busy it's sometimes impossible to move! Queues in shops become longer and longer and sometimes a half hour shopping trip can easily turn into half a day.In recent years with the development of the internet and internet retail companies it has never been easier to shop online for your Christmas cards and gifts which means avoiding the busying crowds in the high street.
We generally begin sending cards at the beginning of December and this continues right up until the 25th. By mid-December you will usually find most homes will be decorated with a Christmas tree, colourful lights and paper or foil hanging decorations around the living room.
Others take things one step further by decorating garden trees and external walls with coloured electric flashing lights and Christmas characters such as Santa Claus or reindeer, this is extremely popular in the USA and has been for quite some time.
Santa Claus also plays a major part in Christmas; pictures are hung up in the streets, he's on the television and children can even go and sit on his lap at your local shopping centre and tell him the presents they would like. But where did he come from? Well, Father Christmas or 'Santa Claus' is based on a real person, St Nicholas.
It is believed that back in the 4th Century AD, Nicholas was very shy Christian leader from Myra and decided he wanted to help the poor people by giving them money but without them knowing.
It is said that one day he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse full of money down the chimney which landed in a stocking that a girl had hung up to dry by the fire, which is where the tradition of Santa coming down the chimney and putting gifts into children's stockings comes from.
Source: EzineArticles.com
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