Find xmas gift has finished for this year. Thank you for placing your trust in us for your gift searches.
See you again in 2008 with other even more original gift ideas.
Yule love this Christmas story
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without presents, a fir tree shedding needles all over the living room floor, a chubby Santa Claus stuffing himself down the chimney and Christmas stories… But where do all of these traditions come from?
The Christian story
Christmas is a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. The traditional story in the Bible, familiar to almost all, is a beautiful one. Wise men came from the East, bearing gifts for Christ Child, and that this is where the holiday originated. The gifts mentioned in that story are gold, frankincense and myrrh. These are today, except perhaps for gold among the moneyed classes, hardly traditional Christmas gifts. Even scarcer 2,000 or so years ago, they were undoubtedly not traditional gifts then, either. So this already hints at something odd in this history - if the biblical account is the true source of this holiday and the tradition of exchanging gifts, why don’t we today exchange at least token amounts of these things each year? Incense could stand in for frankincense, and perfume for myrrh. But we don't do that. Why is it always dolls, toy trucks, neckties and food processors? (That question won’t be answered here…). Why, actually?
Pagan times, good times
At least since the days of Babylon, people have celebrated the end of the year and the return to the gradually lengthening days of winter (winter solstice falls on December 21 or 22 each year under our modern calendar). In Roman times, well before the birth of Christ, one of the primary festivals each year was Saturnalia, a celebration of the god Saturn that gradually expanded to last from December 17 to December 23. The poet Catullus, writing in the last century before Christ, called Saturnalia “the best of days”. There was feasting, small gifts were exchanged, shops were closed for the holidays, and there was even a form of carolling, albeit one that would hardly be condoned by either the church or the state today in most countries – people roamed the streets, naked, singing holiday songs. Except for the naked part, does any of that sound familiar?
Why your Hoover is always clogged in December
Evergreen trees have been used with Christian symbolism during the holidays for several hundred years. They are not, however, mentioned in the Biblical account of the nativity, and came very late to Christmas. They had for centuries been a part of various celebrations by pagans in Scandinavia and Germany, notably including the solstice celebration called Jol or Jule in honour of Odin. This is the source of our word Yule today. So it is because of these traditions originating in the fir forests of Northern Europe that we bring into our homes each year what for many people is the single largest unit of organic matter they will deal with in their lives (not including, perhaps, Uncle Theodore, who can’t stop eating the plum pudding).
Evergreen is, of course, a bit of a misnomer. A rootless tree set up in a dry, heated house will tend to dry out and begin filling up your hoover bags in a matter of a couple of weeks. Perhaps fourteen-day-green would be a better name…
And, speaking of Uncle Theodore…
The fat man cometh
Struggle as one might, there is not much that can be said in favour of placing a fat, jolly, red-suited elf at the scene of the birth of Christ two millennia ago. Nevertheless, our beloved Santa Claus has taken on enough of a life of his own that we don’t need to search for historical justifications for celebrating the holidays with him. But why so chubby? Does it have anything to do with the American obesity epidemic? Probably not, but it is an American who popularised St. Nick's current pre-cardiac-event size.
Santa Claus's role model was Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived about 1700 years ago. Among other good deeds, he frequently gave gifts to the poor. He was a thin enough gentleman, as depicted in religious art through the centuries. The legends around him gradually merged with various pagan Germanic legends (some of them unpleasant enough that they don't bear recounting here) and Dutch tales (Sinterklaas), until the American author Clement Clarke Moore gave him his current ruddy-cheeked, red-suited, roundish form and much else of the Santa Claus legend in his famous 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, which is also known as ‘Twas the Night before Christmas. Let’s have a look at it… and let’s have a Merry Christmas!
A Visit from St. Nicholas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And ma in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled in for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes--how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"