CHRISTMAS

Feast celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, generally observe on December 25. The actual date of Christ's birth is unknown and Christians did not have a Nativity feast until the 4rth century. At first January 6, the Epiphany, was observe as the feast of Christ' Baptism, with a secondary emphasis on His birth. The Armenian church still keeps Christmas on that day. The earliest mention of December 25 as Christ's birthday occurs in the Philocalian calendar (354), and that date seems to have become general throughout the West by the 5th century.
December 25 was already a major festival in the pagan Roman world, the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun," falling within the week-long celebration of the Saturnalia, a feast honoring the renewal of the sun at the winter solstice. Pagan celebrations on December 25 had included feasting, dancing, lighting bonfires, decorating homes with greens, and giving gifts. So when this became a Christian festival, the costums continued, but with a Christian meaning imparted to them.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Christmas was a richly varied religious holiday. However during the Common wealth, the English Puritans, repelled by both the pagan practices and the religious ceremonies, forbade any religious or secular celebration of Christmas. The English celebration returned with the restoration or the Stuarts, but Christmas observances were still outlawed in Puritan New England for many years; and not until the 19th century did Christmas becomes a legal holiday in America.
Christmas customs vary widely around the world, but the retelling of the Chistmas story (Luke 1-2:20; Matt. 1:18-2:12) forms an important part of the celebration everywhere. Church services begin on Christmas eve and continue through the great midnight Masses of the Catholic churches to the day itself. In many European countries, especially France ang Italy, the center of the celebration, both in church and home, is the creche or crib, a model of the manger scene. St. Francis of Assisi introduced this into Italy in the 13th century, in an effort to bring the real meaning of Christmas to the people. In Austria and Belgium nativity plays are an important feature of Christmas. Christmas carols arose in the 13th century and are apart of the Christmas celebration in every country. Singers go from house to house, and are welcomed with food and gifts, especially in England and Scandinavia.
The exchange of gifts symbolizes God's gift of His Son to men, gifts the Wise Men brought to the Christ's Child, and the bond of Christian love in the family and with friends. Santa Claus, a secularized version of St. Nichols, the patron saint of children, is known also as Father Christmas or Kris Kringle. St. Nichols' feast, December 6, is the day of gift-giving in the Low Countries, where December 25 is a quite, purely religious festival.

Source Encyclopedia International.