The common abbreviation of Christmas to Xmas is derived from the Greek alphabet. X is letter Chi, which is the first letter of
Christ's name in Greek.
St. Francis of Assisi introduced Christmas Carols to formal church services.
December 26 was traditionally known as St. Stephen's Day, but is more commonly known as Boxing Day. This expression came about because money was collected in alms boxes placed in churches during the holiday season. This was then distributed to the poor.
Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome (125-136AD) declared that public church services should be held to celebrate "the nativity of our Lord and Savior". In 320. Pope Julius
I specified December 25 as the official date of the birth of Christ.
The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
Alabama was the first US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday - in 1836. Oklahoma was the last - in 1907.
In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family.
In 1843 the first Christmas card was printed in England for Sir Henry Cole. One thousand copies sold for one shilling each.
President Franklin Pierce decorated the first White House Christmas tree in 1856.
At midnight on Christmas Eve, 1914, firing from the German trenches suddenly stopped. A German brass band began playing Christmas Carols. Later, the German soldiers came out of their trenches and approached the Allied forces calling "Merry Christmas!".
At first the Allied soldiers thought it was a trick but eventually they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers.Gifts of cigarettes and plum puddings were exchanged, carols were sung and they even played a game of soccer!
A goose was the customary fare until Henry VIII took it upon himself to tuck into a turkey. Mince pies were once shaped like mangers.
A clear, star-filled sky on Christmas Eve will bring good crops in the summer.
Eat plum pudding on Christmas and avoid losing a friend before next Christmas. (Especially if it was the friend who made the plum pudding!)
Good luck will come to the home where a fire is kept burning throughout the Christmas season.
If you refuse a mince pie at Christmas dinner, you will have bad luck for the coming day. (Note to self: Do not serve mince pie. This eliminates the problem!)
In Devonshire, England, a girl raps at the henhouse door on Christmas Eve. If a rooster crows, she will marry within the year.
In Greece, some people burn their old shoes during the Christmas season to prevent misfortunes in the coming year.
In Ireland, it is believed the gates of Heaven open at midnight on Christmas Eve. Those who die then will go straight to Heaven.
In the Swedish countryside, from cock crow to daybreak on Christmas morning the trolls roam about.
On Christmas Eve all animals can speak. However, it is bad luck to test this!
Place shoes side by side on Christmas Eve to prevent a quarreling family.
Snow on Christmas means Easter will be green.
The child born on Christmas Day will never be drowned or hung.
To have good health throughout the coming year, eat an apple on Christmas Eve.
Wearing new shoes on Christmas Day will bring bad luck. (Note to self: Burn those old shoes after Christmas Day!)
You will have as many happy months in the coming year as the number of houses you eat mince pies in during the Christmas season. (Note to self: Scratch the above note about not serving mince pie!)
Check out Silver Bells - a selection from one of my favorite books:
Louisa Elliott by Ann Victoria Roberts.
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. - Hamilton Wright Mabi
Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something that is so intangible that is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be
a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. - Augusta E. Rundel
Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. - Mary Ellen Chase
Christmas is not a time nor a season. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. - Calvin Coolidge
Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. - Washington Irving
Don't expect too much of Christmas Day. You can't crowd into it all the arrears of unselfishness and kindliness that may have accrued during the past twelve months. - Oren Arnold
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home! - Charles Dickens
He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree. - Sunshine Magazine
Heap on the wood! The wind is chill; But let it whistle as it will, we'll keep our Christmas merry still. - Sir Walter Scott
It is a good thing to observe Christmas day...a wise and wholesome custom. ...But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is, keeping Christmas.
Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; ...to see that your fellow men are just as real as you are, and to try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life;...are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing...to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open...are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world...stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death?...Then you can keep Christmas.
And if you keep it for a day, why not always?
But you can never keep it alone. - from Henry Van Dyke's Keeping Christmas
It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every One!" - Charles Dickens
Let us keep Christmas
Whatever else be lost among the years.
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
Let us hold close one day, remembering
It's poignant meaning for the hearts of men.
Let us get back our childlike faith again. - Grace Noll Crowell
Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history,
because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years. ... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart. - George Matthew Adams
The merry family gatherings - The old, the very young; The strangely lovely way they harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time - Traditions that recall the precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all. - Helen Lowrie Marshall
Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to
miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete. - Charles Dickens
