Christmas
Traditions
Wreaths
Snowmen
Cards
Carols
Santa
Candles
Trees
Advent
Calendar
Stockings
Christmas
Pudding
Presents
Turkey
Crackers
Sir Henry Cole had the idea of Christmas
Cards and with his friend John Horsley, who
was an artist, they designed the first card
.The card had three panels. The outer two
showed people caring for the poor and the
centre panel was a family having a large
Christmas dinner! They sold them for 1
shilling each. Some people did not like it
because it had a picture of a child being
given a glass of wine!It was sold in
London1843.
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Presents
»People started giving
Christmas presents out in
Ancient Rome during the
feast of Calends. Giving
Christmas presents
continued in America in
the 1820s!
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Santa Claus
Another name for Santa is St Nicholas. He
was a bishop who lived around 1700 years
ago. He became known for helping the poor
and needy which is why Santa, or Saint
Nicholas, traditionally gives out Christmas
presents. The adverts for Coca-Cola have
played a big role in giving us the image of
Santa we have nowadays.
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History of carols
• The word carol actually means song
or dance of joy. They were invented
in Europe but they weren't Christmas
carols. Carols were sung thousands
of years ago. The first Christmas
carol was written in 1410 but only a
small part of it still exists. They were
first written to tell the story of
Christmas.
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Advent calendar
Advent calendars were first found
in Germany around 150 years
ago. They count down the days
until Christmas and traditionally
had 24 days to count down.
Advent is the time that leads up to
Christmas.
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Christmas Tree
•On top of a Christmas tree there is normally a
star or angel, they represent the star and
angels in the nativity.
•In Germany, people had Christmas trees in
their homes over 400 years ago.
•In 1834 Queen Victoria’s German husband
brought the custom to Great Britain and so
other people in Britain copied the Royal family
which is why we have Christmas trees in our
homes nowadays.
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Christmas crackers were invented by Thomas
Smith, in London in 1846.It was during a visit
to Paris where he saw sweets wrapped in a
twist of paper. He decided to copy them and
put a message inside them. Crackers became
really popular when they were made with
‘snaps’ inside them.
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The Christmas turkey
For Centuries it was traditional for UK families to
eat goose or the head of a boar.
Turkey used to be a luxury.
William Strickland gave 6 turkey birds on
Christmas day to England in 1526 from the
United States of America to say thank you.
Now we usually eat it on Christmas day.
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Christmas Puddings
Christmas pudding is traditionally made on stir-up
Sunday at the beginning of advent.
The pudding is traditionally stirred from east to
west in honour of the 3 wise men and each family
member gives the pudding a stir and makes a
secret wish.
Sometimes a clean shilling or six penny piece is
stirred into the pudding bringing luck to the finder
on Christmas day - as long as it’s not swallowed.
Snowmen
• Snowmen have been around for hundreds
of years.
• Snowmen were probably first made to
scare away evil spirits.
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Wreaths
Traditionally wreaths have four candles
around the circle and one in the middle
to represent the four weeks leading up
to Christmas. The candle in the middle
is lit on Christmas Eve to represent the
arrival of Jesus.
The wreath is a circle which has no
beginning or end, the evergreen leaves
are for life everlasting and the prickly
holly reminds us of Jesus on the cross.
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Christmas Candles
Christmas is the season of lights. For
hundreds of years people have lit a candle
and placed it in their window on Christmas
Eve to show Jesus as the light of the
world. It burns through the night to light
the way for Mary and Joseph. This still
continues today in France and Denmark.
Stockings
• Traditionally children hang up stockings by
the fire on Christmas Eve because of an
old legend. There was a very poor family
with three daughters. One night, the
daughters hung their washing by the fire to
dry. St Nicholas saw the poor family’s
house and threw bags of gold down the
chimney which landed in the stockings.
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