Christmas quick facts
- For Christians, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus.
- The Bible does not give a date for Jesus’s birth.
- The real St Nicholas died on 6 December 343.
- The first record of a Christmas tree is from Germany in 1527.
- The first Christmas card was made in England in 1843.
What is Christmas?
Christmas is a festival held every year on 25 December. For Christians, it celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Church of England describes it as a celebration of “God coming to live among humanity as one of us”, in Jesus, the son of Mary.
Many families also celebrate with special meals, presents, decorations and trees. Find out more about the meaning of the festival in our guide to why we celebrate Christmas.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Four weeks before Christmas | Advent begins |
| 6 December | St Nicholas Day |
| 24 December | Christmas Eve |
| 25 December | Christmas Day |
| 6 January | Epiphany, the end of the twelve days of Christmas |
The Christmas story
The Christmas story comes from the Bible. The Church of England says it includes angels, shepherds and the Wise Men, also called the Magi, who visited the baby Jesus.
Many churches hold a special service called Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, with carols and Holy Communion, the Church of England says.
Explore more about the Bible in our Bible facts for kids.
Advent: getting ready
For Christians, Christmas starts with a time of waiting called Advent. The Church of England says Advent covers the four weeks before Christmas and marks the start of the church’s year.
Many churches and families light an Advent wreath. It is a circle of greenery with five candles: four purple and one white.
Children in some churches make a Christingle. The Church of England says it is an orange decorated with a ribbon and sweets. It stands for the world, and for Jesus as the light of the world.
The twelve days of Christmas
Many people think Christmas is over once 25 December has passed. But for the church, Christmas lasts twelve days.
The Church of England says the season ends on 6 January with Epiphany, which remembers the Wise Men’s visit to the baby Jesus.
Why is Christmas on 25 December?
Here is a surprise: the Bible does not say when Jesus was born. The Biblical Archaeology Society says no date is given.
The earliest record of 25 December as Jesus’s birthday is a Roman calendar from the mid-300s. It notes that “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea”.
By the 300s, Christians in the western part of the Roman Empire celebrated on 25 December. Many in the east used 6 January instead.
Why those dates? One old explanation is that early Christians believed Jesus was conceived on 25 March. Nine months later is 25 December. Churches in the east used 6 April, which gives 6 January.
You may also hear that Christians borrowed the date from Roman winter festivals, such as Saturnalia. The Biblical Archaeology Society says ancient Christian writers give no support for that idea, and that it only appeared centuries later. People still debate it.
The real St Nicholas
Santa Claus grew out of a real person. The St. Nicholas Center says St Nicholas was born in the 200s AD in Patara, a village in what is now southern Turkey.
He became Bishop of Myra while he was still young. He was known for giving to people in need, especially children and sailors.
Nicholas died on 6 December in the year 343. St Nicholas Day is still kept on 6 December, or on 19 December in churches that use the old Julian calendar.
In 1087, sailors from Bari, in Italy, took his remains to their city, where a large church was built.
Why we hang stockings
A famous legend explains Christmas stockings. The St. Nicholas Center says Nicholas secretly helped a poor man with three daughters by giving him three bags of gold.
The gold was thrown through a window. It landed in stockings or shoes that had been left by the fire to dry. That, the legend says, is how the custom of hanging stockings and leaving out shoes began.
From St Nicholas to Santa Claus
In the Netherlands, St Nicholas is called Sinterklaas. The St. Nicholas Center says this Dutch name is where the English name Santa Claus comes from.
In 1821, a booklet called The Children’s Friend showed “Sante Claus” arriving on a sleigh pulled by reindeer.
Two years later, in 1823, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published. Many people know it by its first line, “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. The poem is usually credited to Clement Clarke Moore, though some people argue that Henry Livingston wrote it.
Between 1863 and 1886, the cartoonist Thomas Nast drew famous pictures of Santa for a magazine called Harper’s Weekly.
Many people believe a drinks company gave Santa his red suit. But the St. Nicholas Center says artists such as Norman Rockwell had already made the red-suited Santa familiar by the 1920s. Coca-Cola’s Santa adverts, drawn by Haddon Sundblom, only began in 1931.
Christmas trees
Christmas trees began in Germany. Smithsonian Magazine says the first written record of a Christmas tree is a document from 1527 from Mainz, in Germany.
Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s German-born husband, brought the custom to the British royal family in 1841, Smithsonian Magazine says, and the idea spread.
In the United States, President Franklin Pierce had a Christmas tree at the White House in 1856.
Christmas lights
In 1882, Edward Hibberd Johnson, who worked with the inventor Thomas Edison, lit the first electric Christmas tree at his home in New York. Smithsonian Magazine says it had 80 small bulbs.
President Grover Cleveland put electric lights on the White House tree in 1894. They were expensive at first: in 1900, a string of 16 bulbs cost $12, a lot of money at the time.
Today, Smithsonian Magazine says, about 150 million sets of Christmas lights are sold in America every year.
Christmas markets
Christmas markets are a much-loved tradition in Europe. Smithsonian Magazine says Germany alone has about 3,000 Christmas markets each year.
One of the oldest still held every year is the Striezelmarkt in Dresden, Germany. It was first recorded in 1434.
The first Christmas card
The first Christmas card was made in 1843 in England. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) says it was created for Henry Cole, who later became the museum’s first director. The artist John Callcott Horsley designed it. Cole wrote in his diary on 17 December 1843 that Horsley had brought him the design.
The card showed three generations of Cole’s family raising a toast, surrounded by pictures of people giving to the poor.
About 1,000 copies were printed. They sold for one shilling each, which was a lot of money then, and they did not sell well.
Cole had helped bring in the Penny Post, a cheap way to send letters, in 1840. The V&A says sending so many letters at Christmas gave him the idea of a printed card. In 2013, one of the original cards sold at auction for £22,000. Today the V&A looks after more than 30,000 greeting cards.
A tree from Norway
Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, in Norway, have given London a Christmas tree. It stands in Trafalgar Square.
Westminster City Council says the tree is a thank-you for Britain’s help during World War II, when Norway’s King Haakon VII sheltered in Britain.
The 2025 tree was the 78th gift. Westminster City Council says it was about 20 m tall and around 60 years old.
More celebrations
Christmas is one of many festivals that brighten the year. About a week later comes New Year; see how it is celebrated in our guide to New Year traditions around the world.
You can also read about another festival with a long history in our Halloween history.
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Christmas around the world
The same festival looks a little different from place to place. In the Netherlands, St Nicholas is known as Sinterklaas, the name that gave us Santa Claus.
In Germany, where the first Christmas trees were recorded, towns hold about 3,000 Christmas markets each year. Some churches that follow the old Julian calendar keep St Nicholas Day on 19 December instead of 6 December.
In the early centuries, many Christians in the eastern Roman Empire celebrated Jesus’s birth on 6 January rather than 25 December. And every year, Norway’s gift of a tree lights up Trafalgar Square in London.
Three things people get wrong
The Bible does not say Jesus was born on 25 December. The earliest record of that date is from the 300s.
Coca-Cola did not invent Santa’s red suit. Artists had already drawn a red-suited Santa by the 1920s.
Christmas does not end on 25 December. For many churches, it lasts twelve days, until 6 January.
Did you know? The first electric Christmas tree, lit in New York in 1882, had just 80 small bulbs.
Try it
Design your own Christmas card, like Henry Cole’s in 1843. Draw a picture that shows what Christmas means to your family.
Knowledge check
Where did the name Santa Claus come from?
Show answer
From Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for St Nicholas.
When does the Christmas season end for the church?
Show answer
On 6 January, at Epiphany.
Frequently asked questions
Why do we celebrate Christmas?
For Christians, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Many families also celebrate with meals, presents and decorations.
Why is Christmas on 25 December?
The Bible gives no date. The earliest record of 25 December is a Roman calendar from the mid-300s, and scholars still debate why it was chosen.
Who was the real St Nicholas?
He was a bishop of Myra, born in the 200s AD in what is now Turkey, who was known for giving to people in need.
Where did Christmas trees come from?
The first written record of a Christmas tree is from Mainz, Germany, in 1527. Prince Albert brought the custom to the British royal family in 1841.
When was the first Christmas card?
It was made in 1843 for Henry Cole, designed by John Callcott Horsley. About 1,000 copies were printed.
Did Coca-Cola invent Santa’s red suit?
No. Artists had already made the red-suited Santa familiar by the 1920s. Coca-Cola’s Santa adverts began in 1931.
Sources
- Church of England: Advent and Christmas — the meaning of Christmas, Advent, the twelve days, Epiphany, Christingle and Midnight Mass
- Biblical Archaeology Society: how December 25 became Christmas — the earliest record of the date and the competing explanations
- St. Nicholas Center: who is St Nicholas — his life, feast day, the stockings legend and his relics; its page on the origin of Santa was also used
- Victoria and Albert Museum: the first Christmas card — Henry Cole’s 1843 card
- Smithsonian Magazine: the history of Christmas lights — trees in Britain and America and electric lights; its article on Christmas markets was also used
- Westminster City Council: the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree — Norway’s gift since 1947 and the 2025 tree
