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Christmas traditions make the holiday season special. We all have certain rituals or customs we do every year to celebrate the season. Did you ever wonder how these customs got their start? Some traditions are well known to all some are celebrated by the few but all are a wonderful way to share the meaning of Christmas with those we love. Read on to learn more about how some traditions came to be.

Advent Calendar

Counting down the days until Christmas with an advent calendar is a popular holiday activity that started in 19th century German homes. The days were counted by making a chalk mark on the floor or hanging a different picture each day. This lead to homemade advent calendars with little doors that were opened each day revealing a Christmas image or bible verse.

Animal Crackers and Christmas?

The National Biscuit Company introduced “Barnum’s Animal Crackers” as a holiday seasonal promotion in 1902. The boxes carrying string was designed for hanging on the Christmas tree at a time when candy and treats were typical tree decorations.

Bells

Bells and Christmas are inseparable. A simple silhouette of bells depicts a Christmas meaning. Bells became part of Christian worship around the year 400 and their sound summoning the faithful to worship was their first link to Christmas. This became the notion of “ringing-in” Christmas. In England Christmas is rung in starting December 21st. In Scandinavia, bells ring to announce the end of work and the beginning of the festive season. In some stories, St Nick carries around a hand bell on his visits. The gift-giver in Italy, Befana, rings a bell as she descends the chimney and in Hungary, angel bells are rung to announce that the children’s presents have been delivered. Numerous carols use bells as a metaphor for joy and hope as in “Silver Bells,” “I heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” and “Jingle Bells.”

Boxing Day

In Britain and many Commonwealth countries, December 26th is a legal holiday known as Boxing Day. Since the middle ages it was the custom during the Christmas season for English employees to solicit tips from people with whom their employer did business. These tips were collected in earthenware boxes which is where the day got its name.

Candy Canes

The red and white striped stick of hard candy known as the candy cane has its origins around 1670. The candy was invented as a means of quieting children during the Christmas service by a choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral. The candies were made in the shape of a shepherds hook. The shape of the hook soon led to hanging them on the tree as it was the custom to decorate the tree with sweets.

Christmas Carols

Carols were started as songs celebrating events of the Nativity. The word carol is said to be derived from a Greek word for circle dancing. Throughout the years religious organizations have both participated in and prohibited singing carols depending on the religious teachings of the day. During the 17th century carols were sung by carolers on “begging visits” during the Christmas season. After 1878, the Church of England renewed its use of Christmas carols which led to their popularity. The 20th century saw a continued interest in carols and a number of new religious and secular Christmas songs were written and became popular holiday favorites.

Childremas

December 28th is that date of the Feast of the Holy Innocents which commemorates the murder of the male babies of Bethlehem by King Herod. In many countries the day was considered a day of ill omen. In England no business was conducted on that day. In Ireland, no new venture was to begin on that day . Many sailors would not sail on December 28th. On the Aran Islands, no one was to be buried that day. In Cornwall washing that day would bring death to one of your relatives.

Christmas Crackers

A Christmas novelty made popular in Britain. The Christmas cracker is a small cardboard tube covered in decorative wrap. When pulled apart the tube makes a small explosive sound and the inside reveals toys and papers with humorous sayings. It was invented by a London confectioner who wanted a novelty that would sell for the Christmas season. Originally filled with sweet treats it was later filled with humorous or romantic sayings and prizes from inexpensive toys to expensive jewelry. It is now a popular part of Christmas celebrations in homes around the world.

Department Store Santa

The first department store to feature a visit with Santa was the J. W. Parkinson’s store in Philadelphia in 1841. Astonishingly, no other department stores copied this event until 1890 when a store in Boston repeated it. Before long lines of children formed at stores across America to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him their Christmas wish list. The department store Santa has been immortalized in films such as Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas Story.

Eggnog

This popular holiday drink takes its name from an old term for ale, “nog.” It is copied from the French drink lait de poule, made of eggs, milk and spices. Americans added rum to it and topped it with nutmeg.

Elves

Small creatures who are associated with Christmas as Santa’s helpers in the North Pole. They were not always so friendly. They originated in Scandinavia as house-elves who could be helpful if bribed but malicious if slighted, especially at Christmas. In Denmark, its customary to leave a bowl of milk out for them. Elves begin to take on a more positive and Christmas oriented persona in the 19th century as part of a drive to make Christmas more child-centered.

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Do you promise yourself each and every year that you will get all your Christmas shopping done early so that you can have a relatively stress free holiday season, only to find yourself shopping for last minute Christmas presents a day or two before Christmas day and having no idea what to get or where to get it? Proper planning is important. I am sure that you can come up with at least ten minutes a day or week to think about your Christmas list. The only way to have a stress free holiday season is to early Christmas shop for the best Christmas gifts.

As we get closer to the holiday season, you need to find a couple of minutes to compile a list if you haven’t done so already for the best Christmas gifts. Last minute shopping does not allow you to find the best Christmas gifts for your friends and family. A thoughtless gift is worse than no gift at all. Getting the best Christmas gifts requires that you put some thought into the task and early Christmas shop for the best Christmas gifts.

If you have no idea what holiday gifts to get and what would make great holiday gifts, find suggestions on or offline on the best gift ideas and where to find them or pay attention to any hints dropped by family and friends in order to prepare a list of the best Christmas presents.

Make this the year that you early Christmas shop. Most holiday shoppers usually wait until the very last minute which is seen with the crowds of people at the mall and other shopping centers and the resulting stress. Waiting until December to find Christmas presents also means that if you are using a credit card, you will have a large credit card bill in the new year to pay off. Early Christmas shopping for the best Christmas gifts allows you to spread out your expenses on Christmas presents.

Online shopping is continuing to explode and while you do not deal with the crowds, you need to place the orders early to ensure that you receive the best Christmas presents well before Christmas day especially if you need to mail some of these holiday gifts. Plan to shop early to avoid the stress of wondering whether you will receive the Christmas presents before Christmas. Although some online stores can gift wrap and mail the Christmas present to the recipient for you, I prefer my own wrapping and you do not want the recipients to receive the Christmas presents too early or too late.

Various stores and other outlets should have information on some of the best gift ideas to help you with your Christmas list. You also need to set a budget that you stick to when reviewing the best gift ideas.

This information on the best Christmas gifts usually contains lists of the best Christmas gifts for men, the best Christmas gifts for women and the best Christmas gifts for girls and boys in order to help you come up with ideas on great holiday gifts to fill out your Christmas list. Once you spend some time compiling this Christmas list early of the best Christmas gifts and made the purchases, you can then have a relaxing and stress free holiday season because would have done all your Christmas shopping early.

One of the best ways to Christmas shop early for the best Christmas gifts that you can keep in mind for next year’s Christmas since it is already late in the year 2010, is to shop in the few days after Christmas day 2010 for for the following year’s holiday gifts since a vast number of stores both off and online have various sales to prepare for the new year by getting rid of excess inventory which means that you will be able to get some of the best Christmas gifts for the following year.

Some of the best gift ideas for 2010 will more or less still apply for the coming year. For electronics, you will probably have to wait until the coming year before making purchases because updates occur frequently in this area.

Another tip to help you with early Christmas shopping for the best Christmas gifts once you have reviewed any lists showing the best gift ideas, is to purchase two gifts instead of one gift for the people on your list at the time of their birthday so that you can give them one gift as a birthday gift and the second gift at Christmas time.

These are only a few tips to keep in mind that will ensure that you have a relatively stress free time at Christmas because all your Christmas presents would have been purchased and wrapped since you properly planned and put a lot of thought into your gift giving and allowed yourself enough time to come up with the best Christmas gifts for your family and friends.

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