A Collection of the Best Christmas Holiday Resources
Want to know the history of Santa Claus? This Wikipedia article gives you the original Christian origins of Santa Claus, his history in other countries, folklore, Santa’s American origins and NORAD, the program that tracks Santa’s annual trip to deliver gifts.
Wikipedia Article on Santa Claus
Learn where the tradition of mistletoe came into being. Mistletoe in early times was not thought of as a romantic symbol but instead was used for its magical powers. This article shows the use of mistletoe throughout history until it became the sweet Christmas tradition it is today.
History Of Mistletoe
Wassail is an ancient tradition dating back to the 14th century. Wassail is mentioned in the Christmas song “Here We Come A-Wassailing”. In years past wassail was associated with drink, parties and caroling from home to home during the Christmas season. Learn more about this ancient tradition in this article and how wassail came to [...]
Wikipedia has a history of the advent calendar, including the origins of the original advent calendar and information on modern advent calendars. The article features information on unusual versions of advent calendars including Scandinavian towns that have television show based on advent calendars starting December 1st and a German town that paints scenes at houses [...]
Family Christmas Online has a section on nativities including history information and photos of styles of nativities from years ago. There is some interesting history about how families collected their nativity sets in the U.S. years ago piece by piece before nativity sets were created.
Nativity History and Information
Family Christmas Online has historical information about decorating Christmas trees. Learn about the history of Christmas decorations, how decorations for the Christmas tree from other countries influenced American Christmas decorations, when the Christmas decoration industry started and more.
History Christmas Tree Decorations
Wikipedia has an article for grown-ups about the origins of Santa’s Workshop. Learn about Santa’s home and workshop located at the North Pole, the early stories of Santa’s Workshop in the American 20th century and the beginning of the first Santa’s Grotto in England in the late 1800’s.
Wikipedia Origin of Santa’s Workshop
This About.com article goes into the history of Santa Claus and how our current version of Santa Claus came to be. There is also information about items that may be considered Santa collectibles of interest to collectors.
Santa History and Christmas Collectibles
Some of the origins of Christmas as we know it came from pagan customs surrounding the soltice. Did you know the Christmas tree is derived from a number of soltice traditions? Learn how some of these customs were adapted into our current Christmas traditions.
Soltice Origins of Christmas
Bill’s Antique Christmas Lights Museum has historical information on Christmas lights, from how Christmas lights originated to light sets from 1900 to the 1950’s, complete with cool photos of light sets and their original containers. Click on the thumbnail photos and you can get a look at the antique light sets up close.
Bill’s Antique Christmas [...]
