By the Middle Ages, Europeans created some of the Christmas customs we recognize today. During the 17th and 18th centuries, people started to give gifts as symbolic of the Magi arriving in Bethlehem with offerings for the newborn baby Jesus. By the 19th century, fir wreaths laden with 24 candles representing the 24 days before Christmas were later reduced to a much safer four candles.
Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight. During the 19th Century in the United States, there was a significant adoption of Christmas traditions from German and other immgrants, as well as novels by of Charles Dickens, including The Pickwick Papers and A Christmas Carol. The practices included having Christmas parties, caroling door-to-door, sending Christmas cards, giving gifts, and decorating houses and trees.
The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world. Seasonal supplies are available online at Michaels.com or in-store locations near you. Shop our variety of holiday offerings such as table settings, Christmas florals, wreaths, and garlands, to all things Christmas decor and more!
Although the month and date of Jesus’ birth are unknown, the church in the early fourth century fixed the date as December 25. This corresponds to the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar. It is exactly nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity, rather than knowing Jesus’ exact birth date, is considered to be the primary purpose in celebrating Christmas.
At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades. Associating it with drunkenness and other misbehaviour, the Puritans banned Christmas in England in the 17th century. It was restored as a legal holiday in 1660, but remained disreputable.
In the U.S. there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays, which is considered inclusive at the time of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Humanlight. In the U.S. and Canada, where the use of the term “Holidays” is most prevalent, opponents have denounced its usage and avoidance of using the term “Christmas” as being politically correct. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch v. Donnelly that a Christmas display owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, did not violate the First Amendment. American Muslim scholar Abdul Malik Mujahid has said that Muslims must treat Christmas with respect, even if they disagree with it. In most Western nations, Christmas Day is the least active day of the year for business and commerce; almost all retail, commercial and institutional businesses are closed, and almost all industries cease activity , whether laws require such or not.