In 220 A.D. a poor father worried about his three daughters’ futures. The people employed to catch enslaved workers that had escaped were in town, and he wondered if a life of servitude would be preferable to starvation. The next morning the family woke to a miracle: A bag of gold coins lay on their floor in an old shoe (some say a stocking). Over the years, more bags of money appeared. The Bishop of Myra, a town in Roman-controlled Turkey, had secretly thrown the bags through the window. Christians called him Saint Nicholas and exchanged gifts in his honor every Dec. 6 on his Feast Day.

Hundreds of years earlier, sometime around 6 B.C. a baby was born in Bethlehem in modern Israel. At that time, Israel was controlled by the mighty Roman Empire, and its ruler, Caesar Augustus, had ordered a census. The pregnant Mary and her husband, Joseph, returned to his hometown of Bethlehem to be counted. They arrived too late to find a place to stay, so Mary gave birth to the baby Jesus in a barn and laid him in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. Christians know this humble birth as the Christmas Story. But it would be hundreds of years before Dec. 25 would be recognized as Jesus’ birthday.

After Jesus’ death, his disciples traveled the Empire, using the elaborate Roman road system to spread His teachings. However, Christianity was illegal. The Caesars did not like that Christians refused to worship them as Gods. The early Christians faced horrible persecutions, and many were killed for their faith. Over time, secret churches sprang up and kept a calendar marking the dates when a Christian was martyred. These “death dates” were commemorated with prayer and worship.

Then in 313, the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and the underground churches flooded into the open. The early Christians, however, did not celebrate the birth of Jesus, as the Bible does not give a specific date. Their holy calendar contained the Easter holiday, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Epiphany, the appearance of Jesus and the martyrs’ death dates. 

As Christianity spread, a question arose: what to do with the old Roman religious celebrations? The greatest one was called the Saturnalia, a crazy seven-day period from Dec. 17-23 in which gifts were exchanged, wreaths and greenery were hung to ward off evil spirits, and societal roles flipped. The party culminated on Dec. 25, the birthday of Sol, the unconquered sun. Many new Christian converts refused to give up these traditions and rather than punish people for partying on Dec. 25, the Emperor Julian in 345 A.D. declared that day the birthday of Jesus. 

Julian wasn’t simply co-opting Sol’s celebration, however. The early Christians believed that Jesus’ conception and death fell on the same day, March 25. Conveniently, March 25 is exactly nine months before Dec. 25, and any of you older siblings will remember it takes nine months in a mom’s belly before a baby is ready to face the world. As more Romans converted to Christianity, they could still celebrate their beloved Dec. 25 holiday, but with a new meaning. The greenery and wreaths once displayed for Sol were now hung in honor of Jesus. By the 400s, Dec. 25 was an established part of the holy calendar.

Christianity rapidly spread on the backs of thousands of missionaries. Germany converted in the 7th century, and the Germanic traditions of a Yule log (a large trunk designed to burn for an extended period), winter feasting, red holly berries and mistletoe were given Christian meanings. The greenery and red holly berries now represented the body and blood of Jesus. The Yule log now burned for the entire 12 days of the Advent (the 12 days of worship in preparation for Christmas) and represented the fire burned to keep the baby Jesus warm. 

In the 12th century, the Italian monk Francis of Assisi built the first nativity scene, a depiction of the wise men coming to worship the baby Jesus. St. Francis wanted to emphasize the humility and poverty into which Jesus had been born. His rendering of the Christmas Story has been on display for almost 1,000 years.

By the 16th century, however, many Christians wanted to reform the Catholic Church. Martin Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 when he posted a series of proposals on a church door. One of his ideas was to end the Catholic Church’s veneration of saints. Since Christians loved celebrating St. Nicholas on Dec. 6 with gift giving, Luther simply decided to exchange gifts on Christmas Day in honor of Jesus. He wanted children to celebrate the birth of Jesus over the good works of a saint. We have been doing so ever since. 

Some Protestants, as those Christians who left the Catholic Church were called, did not like the celebration of Christmas. In the 1640s after a civil war in England, a group of Christians called the Puritans came to power. The Puritans tried to outlaw Christmas and all of its traditions. Since Dec. 25 is never mentioned in the Bible, they argued it was blasphemous to celebrate it. They passed laws in Parliament forcing all stores to stay open on Christmas Day and banned all drinking, gambling and Christmas decorations and food. Like the Romans refusing to give up Saturnalia, most English simply ignored the edicts and carried on eating mince pies, Christmas pudding and turkey and drinking wassail as well as decorating with greenery.

American children will recognize the name “Puritan” as those English settlers who sailed to America on the Mayflower in the 17th century. Descendents of the American Puritans in Massachusetts followed their English brethren and banned Christmas celebrations. Although other colonies, especially Virginia, continued to celebrate Christmas with all the English trappings, in Massachusetts, Christmas was just another day. 

It was not until the 19th century when large numbers of Catholic and German immigrants arrived in America that Christmas burst into the lives of all American children. Christmas’ arrival in America coincided with the Industrial Revolution. People now had more free time, more money and, with the invention of mass production, more things to buy. 

Books and poems about Christmas exploded in the 1800s. Walter Irving was the first author to popularize tales of Sinterklaas (as the Dutch settlers of New York called Saint Nicholas) and his selfless gift giving. The name was quickly Anglicized to Santa Claus and the name stuck. The anonymous “A Night Before Christmas” delighted Victorian-era children with the scintillating adventures of Santa Claus climbing down their chimneys and filling stockings with toys. 

The cartoonist, Thomas Nast, published pictures of Santa Claus in the newspapers with a jolly face and beard, elves, and the North Pole. By 1900, Santa Claus had taken America by storm and pictures were everywhere. Images depicted him wearing a yellow, white or red coat. It was not until the 1930s that Coca-Cola (yes, the soda company) showed Santa in the red coat we are all so familiar with. After the horrors of World War II, the booming international economy in the 1950s made Christmas even more popular for adults and children alike. 

Christmas is now celebrated throughout much of the world from Japan to Brazil, Uganda, Australia and beyond. While not everyone celebrates it as the birth of Jesus, the themes of love, charity and kindness tie together all Christmas celebrations. So whatever Christmas means to you and your family, may it bring joy, contentment and a desire to make the world a better place.