Its All About Christmas

Christmas Stories are always fascinating, but we hardly try to find out why we have so many stories on Christmas. Elizabeth Harrison’s “Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe” or “A Christmas Star” by Katherine Pyle gives some of the religious flavor of Christmas.

What the stories are actually about? These are not always religious. The mystical power of mistletoe has its origin in the legend of Goddess Frigga and her son Balder. The story unfolds a very important Christian theme, the theme of love and well being of all. One cannot really label the connection as “pagan” as the spirit is highly Christian but the Goddess was a mythical persona..

There are fabulous stories relating the birth of Christ which attract the children most. Mario and Pablo, the two poor brothers and sisters decided to decorate the bed of the baby Jesus with weeds as they could not afford expensive gifts for Him. The miracle happened when the weeds turn out to be red star shaped flowers. The legend really does not have the name of the flower in it. The name comes from another story. Dr. Joel Poinsett, the first ambassador to Mexico bought the red star shaped flower to U.S. Thus we get the name from this person. The legend is a fine blending of a myth and a reality.

The legend of candy cone is highly interesting and secular in spirit. One can trace back its origin in Cologne Cathedra where children were not paying attention to choirmaster on a particular day. The choirmaster gave them long, white sugar candy stick in order to keep them quiet. He knew that giving out chocolates and candies in the church was sacrilegious and so he gave them the shapes of shepherd’s cane who went to worship the Christ on the day He was born. Here comes the religious significance of the candy cones. Now the white and red J-shaped candies get always associated with Christmas and the Christian religion as ‘J’ stands for “Jesus”.

Many stories evolve round the helping spirit of Christmas. The little migrating birds got shelter from spruce, pine and juniper tree in the midst of frost and snow. The Frost King punished willow, oak and bird trees for their selfish attitude and rewarded the kind trees with green leaves for the whole year and this is the legend of Evergreen Trees.

The Christmas spirit is best felt in the legend on nutcracker. It is about the girl Clara and her magical mysterious nutcracker. There is a fight with the Evil and ultimately the Nutcracker Prince takes her to the magic land, the land of hope, beauty and fancy. The ballet of Alexander Drumas Pere has a positive ending in tune with the Christmas spirit- Clara wakes up on Christmas Day and finds herself surrounded by her family. It is the time to be with your closed ones.

Mostly the stories have child characters. Dickens’s A , Christmas Carols carry the secular spirit of a festival and ‘Toinette and the Elves’ by Susan Coolidge give us fascinating stories on the event. Some are directly related to the birth of Jesus and some were never a part of the event but later on some religious significance has been added to them to make them apt for the Christmas spirit.. So, what was once sacrilegious now it is a part of the religious custom to have candy cones on Christmas. The stories are perhaps the best tools to convey in a simple language what Christmas stands for . Birth of Christ is just an event and the legends are there to explain why Christ was bought in this world of sin. Hence, fight with Evil and vanity is a common theme for most of the stories.

The stories are quite interesting with the essence of mystery, magic, miracle and fancy that they definitely have an universal appeal. They are basically good stories with real characters fighting their bad luck and ultimately meeting their good fortune. The readers get the satisfaction as poetic justice is always done .The world has been divided into black and white or evil and good. There is no modern gray characters and so less complex and easy to understand. Thus they are perfect children stories till date. Why do we really believe all these? Perhaps it is because of the satisfaction we get when the evils are punished or we get the hope of meeting the dream world of Clara in the nutcracker legend. Even if we fail to give a new world to the children we can at least give them Oliver Miller’s “Christmas in the Alley”.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: The Twelve Days of Christmas refers to the twelve days between the Christmas Day (December 25) and the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). Tradition has it that this is the time taken by the Three Wise Men (the Magi) to reach Bethlehem to see the babe in the manger, Jesus.

Mistletoe: Mistletoe is a plant hung on the doorway of every American household during Christmas. The mistletoe symbolizes love, having been closely associated with Frigga, the Scandinavian’s goddess of love. It’s from this that the convention of kissing under the mistletoe originated.

Hanging Stockings: The practice of hanging stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve comes from England. The legend of St. Nicholas has it that the latter was a kind saint who was believed to have left gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor maidens, who badly needed the money for their wedding dowries. They hung their stockings to dry over the fireplace, and to their great surprise, they found bags of gold in them the next morning. Following this, children kept hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve in the hope that Santa would drop gifts and toys in them !

Christmas Carols: The first carols are said to have been sung by angelic choirs at Christ’s birth. St.Francis of Assissi is also accredited as the ‘Father of Caroling’. The word ‘carol’ comes from the Greek ‘charaulein’, a Greek dance, later replaced by song. By the 17th century, caroling was restricted to Christmas time, and now, it’s customary for kids to go caroling in groups from door to door, singing favorites such as “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and many more !

Holly Boughs: The boughs of holly are another very important symbol of Christmas. These are red berries with thorny leaves. To the Christians, the holly berries symbolize Christ’s blood and the sharply pointed leaves stand for the thorns in His crown. Henceforth, the holly became part of the Nativity tradition.

The Nativity Scene: The Nativity Scene includes the scene at Bethlehem, when Jesus was born. The manger, the swaddling clothes, the bright star in the sky, the shepherds surrounding baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men (the Magi) form part of the scene.

The Poinsettia: Poinsettias are beautiful winter blooms, native to Mexico. They’ve been named after the first US ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who brought the plant from its land of origin to America. Since the beginning of the 19th century, poinsettias have come to be associated with Christmas.

Eggnog: Eggnog, a very popular Christmas drink, is prepared by mixing cream, milk, sugar and beaten eggs with some kind of liquor. This has a close connection to the Christmas holiday, and on Christmas Eve, it’s fairly common to spot groups of people eggnogging at their neighbors’ and friends’ places. People also gather round the Christmas tree, drinking eggnog and then move from house to house caroling.

The Yule Log: The yule log is a huge log used to light up big fires during festive celebrations. It originated in Europe, where it used to be placed in the hearth and continued to burn throughout the year, till it turned into ashes. Bringing in the yule log was as much a custom during the Christmas holidays as was decorating the Christmas tree. The yule log is generally placed in the fireplace. It’s from this yule log that Christmas also came to be known as ‘Yuletide’.

Boxing Day: The day after Christmas is known as the Feast of St. Stephens. The alms box of the Church was opened on Boxing Day, and the contents, known as the “dole of the Christmas box” were distributed by the parish priest among the needy. Henceforth, the day after Christmas came to be known as the Boxing Day