The traditions of Christmas

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
  • 673d Air Base Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  During World War I, at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve of 1914, all the firing from guns from the German trenches suddenly stopped.

The German and British soldiers shouted greetings to each other and climbed out of their trenches to shake hands and stop the fighting over Christmas. The truce lasted a few days; men shared photographs of loved ones, shared rations, sang carols and even played soccer in what became known as "The Christmas Truce of 1914."

The season of Christmas is full of traditions, with endless stories and cultures. Not every story is popular, and many have interesting origins and fun facts. Many of the traditions are centuries old and still popular.

Mistletoe is one of these.

The evergreen plant was associated with Frigga, the Scandinavian goddess of love, which evolved into the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe originated. Traditionally, if a couple stands underneath the symbol of love, they can kiss. A few centuries back, it was noticed that mistletoe tended to grow where birds had left their droppings. "Mistal" is an Anglo-Saxon word that means "dung," and "tan" means "twig," so mistletoe actually means "dung on a twig."

The modern Santa Claus is based on original probable stories and evolved into the mythical fantastic.

Santa's legend began hundreds of years ago with a monk named Nicholas. Various accounts stated his good deeds to include donating free toys to an orphanage, giving away his inheritance and traveling to help those in need. Canonized as Saint Nicholas, he is known as the "bringer of gifts".

The name "Santa Claus" comes from Saint Nicholas' Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, a shortened version of Sint Nikolaas. In 1809, Washington Irving helped popularized Sinter Klaas by referring to Saint Nicholas in his published work "The History of New York." As the character's popularity grew, visual descriptions varied.
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore, a pastor, wrote a poem for his children called "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," later named "T'was the Night Before Christmas." His poem became the basis for the modern visual of Santa Claus, originally illustrated by Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist, in 1881.

"Most of our modern Christmas traditions, decorating the tree, having turkey and a big feast, a lot of that comes after Charles Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' in Victorian England." said Biff Gordon, 673d Air Base Wing chapel Protestant director of religious education.

Christmas stockings, candy canes, Christmas trees, poinsettias and Christmas cards are examples of Christmas traditions that have interesting origins and fun facts.

The tradition of hanging up stockings on Christmas Eve for decoration or presents on Christmas morning comes from southern Europe. It was said that Saint Nicholas threw gifts down chimneys as he passed by. Those items would fall into stockings that were hung at the bottom of the chimney to dry.

Candy canes began as straight white sticks of sugar candy used to decorate Christmas trees. A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany decided to have the ends bent to depict a shepherd's crook and he would pass them out to children to keep them quiet during the services. It wasn't until the 20th century that candy canes acquired their red stripes. The red and white stripes traditionally represent sacrificial blood and purity, respectively.

The modern Christmas tree originates in Germany.

"The earliest Christmas tree was a fir tree brought in by a missionary from Devonshire to the Germans around the 600s," Gordon said. "He brought it into the meeting house and hung it upside down from the rafters as an illustration of the Holy Trinity because it was triangle-shaped."

Early Christmas trees were decorated with fruits, flowers and candles, which were heavy on the tree branches. In the 1800s, German glass blowers began producing glass balls for decorations.

A new world record for the tallest living Christmas tree was set in December 2009 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The tree, a grand fir, was decorated with 40,000 lights along with a 10-foot star at the top. Two miles of electrical wiring connected the LED lights.

The biggest Christmas tree in the world is a decoration on the slopes of Monte Ingino, Gubbio, Italy. It is 1,624 feet high, 1,312 feet wide and shaped like a tree. It is made up of 500 lamps connected by 39,370 feet of electric cables.

According to Guinness World Records, a 278-foot tall tree decorated with 2.8 million colored bulbs, the biggest floating Christmas tree in the world, is used during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the end of November.

The U.S.' tallest Christmas tree is a white fir that stands 109 feet tall in Las Vegas, Nev. It is taller than both the Rockefeller Center tree which is 75 to 90 feet tall, and the White House 20-foot trees.

Another plant associated with Christmas is the poinsettia, often used as a gift for home visits. They are winter blooms native to Mexico, named after the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett. Poinsett brought the plant to the U.S. in December of 1828 and sent some home. In the wild, the plant can reach 12 feet in height with leaves measuring six to eight inches across; it blooms in December, and its milky white sap was used to help treat fevers.

The first Christmas card was created and sent in 1843. Sir Henry Cold, a wealthy British businessman, wanted a card he could send to friends and business contacts to wish them a "Merry Christmas". A thousand copies of the card were printed by John Horsley and sold for one shilling, or 24 cents, each. One of these original cards was sold at an auction in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, in 2001 for more than 20,000 pounds, or $30,734.

Christmas cards, decorations and other commercial products related to Christmas and other special days in the season continue to be big sales.

In the early 1890s, men began dressing up as the character Santa to entertain families in stores, a tradition continued to this day at locations such as the Exchange on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Santa will appear at the exchange on Dec. 20 from noon to 2 p.m., and from 2 to 7 p.m. on Dec. 23.

For more information on Santa's appearances, please contact the exchange at 907-753-6275.