Christmas Countdown

Christmas on December 25 celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and is one of the world's most widely observed holidays, marked by billions of people with gift-giving, festive meals, decorated trees and time with family.

History

The earliest firm record of Christ's Nativity being kept on December 25 comes from the Chronograph of 354, a Roman almanac indicating the feast was observed in the city by AD 336. Early Christian writers reached the date partly through calculations that placed the conception in spring, and December 25 also fell near the winter solstice, when Rome marked the return of the lengthening sun. The Eastern churches at first honoured the Nativity on January 6, together with the Epiphany. Across the medieval centuries the feast gathered its familiar textures. The English name descends from "Cristes maesse" — Christ's Mass — recorded by the eleventh century. Nativity plays enacted the story in churches and squares, Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with staging the first living crèche in 1223, and carols carried the celebration into homes and streets. Yet the feast was not universally embraced: Puritan authorities banned Christmas in England in 1647 and discouraged it in early New England. The nineteenth century recast Christmas as the intimate family festival known today. Germany's decorated evergreen was popularised in Britain after Prince Albert embraced it around 1848; Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 verses fixed the image of a sleigh-borne gift-bringer; Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol of 1843 tied the season to charity and warmth; and the first commercial Christmas card appeared that same year. Carried by migration, trade and mass media, these customs spread worldwide, and Christmas is now observed as both sacred feast and secular season of goodwill.

Meaning

For Christians, Christmas celebrates the Incarnation — the belief that God entered the world as a child in the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. It opens Christmastide, the twelve days running to Epiphany, and stands second only to Easter in the Christian year: a time of worship, hope and the ancient wish for peace on earth and goodwill to all. Beyond the church, the day has grown into a broad cultural festival of light and reunion at the darkest point of the northern winter. Gift-giving, shared meals, journeys home and quiet acts of charity give the season its enduring emphasis on family and generosity — an emphasis that reaches far beyond any single community and helps make Christmas one of the few holidays marked on every continent.