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Trivia Question: Kris Kringle is German for? a. Santa Claus, b. Christ's Child, c. King Wenceslas
look under the Snowman below for the answer

Christmas Traditions & Trivia A-F

Due to the fact that different countries have many different traditions related to the celebration of Christ's birth, only the traditions common to the United States will be discussed. Also of note to remember when looking at traditions that have developed, is when Christianity reached pagan people, there sometimes was an attempt to “Christianize” their customs to help point them to Christ.

Bells - An early pagan winter celebration of ringing of bells to drive out evil spirits.
Later the tradition began to ring bells on Christmas Eve to welcome in the spirit of Christmas with joyful noise. In Norway bells are still rang through out the country on Christmas Eve at 5pm. In Yorkshire, England on Christmas Eve, the bell is rung once for each year that has passed since the birth of Christ.
{I couldn’t resist adding the following: In Medieval times, people believed that ringing church bells would get rid of lightning during thunderstorms. It was an unfortunate superstition for bell ringers. In 33 years lightning stuck 386 church steeples and 103 bell ringers died. *1}

Birth Date of Christ - The pivot point of history, every event and year before Jesus' birth counts down to it, and every event and year after his birth counts up from it. The Gregorian calendar we use is known to be inaccurate by 4-6 years. In the 6th century (around 533AD), the monk Dionysius Exigous (means Dennis the short) was commissioned by Pope John I to set divisions. Dennis studied the records and set the divisions (BC, Before Christ & AD, Anno Domini, "the year of the Lord"), to the calendar and apparently missed the birth of Christ by a few years. To this date no one knows how he came up with this date as the year Jesus was born. {He also forgot to put in a “0” year, so it jumps from 1BC to 1AD, this makes new centuries begin on the second year, the 21st century begins on midnight of Dec. 31st, 2000, not 1999.}
Because we know according to Roman records that there was an eclipse near the time of Herod the Great's death and modern astronomy can account for one in 4BC, and we know Herod was still living at the time of his birth. According to this and Luke's account of the census, we can now fairly accurately place the birth of Christ somewhere around 7 to 6BC. But there's currently no way to place the month or day.
>>>put in about feast days, later<<<
The birth of Christ was emphasized far more in the Old Testament than in the New Testament [Matt., Luke, & I Cor. 15] Early Christians didn't seem to observe Jesus' birth, death dates were more important than birthdays to people in this time period, but starting in approximately AD150 in Antioch, was the first reference of Christ's birth being observed and it was celebrated on Dec. 25th. It became more popular during the time of Roman emperor Constantine. Christmas was either declared officially to be Dec. 25th by Pope Julius I in AD350 of the Western church based in Rome or by Pope Liberus in AD354. The Eastern church based in Constantiople used Jan. 6th [see Epiphany].
Sometime in the 4th - 5th century the Western and Eastern churches began observing Jan. 6th as the day of "Homage of the Magi" and Dec. 25th as day of "Homage of the Shepherds". In AD529 Christmas was declared a civic holiday by Emperor Justinian.
There may be some connection made with the Persian belief that the god of light or Sun was born on Dec. 25th and/or with the Dec. 25th Roman holiday of the Natalis Solis Invincti Mithras or “Birthday of the Invincible Sun God” declared in AD274 by Emperor Aurelian, with that of Malachi 4:2. It’s reported that one theologian in the 320’s recorded that “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of Him who made it”. It’s also possible that just as the Old Testament “law” and feasts were prophetic of the coming Messiah, these pagan observances might in some way foresee the coming Messiah, there’s many similarities. For Paul’s observation see; Rom. 14:5-6, “it's how we observe a day that's important, do we do it for the Lord, or for our own self-gratification?
For more on this see Zechariah for an interesting finding and Y2K and For what's the big deal anyway.

Candy Canes - According to popular tradition, a 18th century English candy maker decided to make a candy commemorating Christmas (this was during the time that celebrating of Christmas was outlawed in England) [see 12 days of Christmas], the result was a candy cane representing the Shepherds staff and upside down, a letter for Jesus. Made of white candy to represent purity with 3 red stripes for the Trinity and 1 large red stripe for Jesus' blood later shed. Some dispute this.

Candles - An early pagan tradition of lighting candles to drive away the forces of cold and darkness. The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles. The early Christians started to light candles as symbolic of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. In can also be associated with the Jewish feast of Hanukkah.

Cards - Began with school children drawing pictures of biblical scenes and a message like Happy Holidays and I promise to be good, etc., and giving to their parents before Christmas. In 1846 after the advent of the British postal system, the first Christmas Card was produced, showing a family celebrating a Christmas dinner in center and on each side were acts of charity picturing feeding and clothing the poor, with the message "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.", by John Calcott Horsley, 1000 were made.

Carols - Came from a Greek word for a dance accompanied by flute music. By the 1600's, carols involved singing mainly of Christmas songs or hymns. Most carols were composed in the 1700's and 1800's.
For a website with a extensive listing of Christmas Carols and Songs go to Christie's and Mike's Christmas page another one is Christmas Tree's Songs