Yule Log
The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, it was taken from ancient sun worship rituals that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the previous year's log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is rarely used in churches because it comes from the ancient Druid ceremony celebrating winter solstice. This once pagan tradition started when a girl would stand beneath the hanging plant and a boy would walk up, pick a berry and then kiss her.
Wreath
To worship evergreen holly is taken as a sign of eternal life because it did not brown or die in the winter. Some religious groups say that the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head was made of holly. The berries were supposedly white but turned bright red from Jesus' blood.
Snow
Christmas has been widely associated with snow fun activities such as skiing, snowboarding, sled riding, snow mobile riding, or hiking with snowshoes.
Cookies
There is no exact date recorded but the idea of leaving cookies for Santa started sometime in the 1930's. Naughty kids use them to bribe Santa at the last minute and nice kids use them as a way of thanking him for all his hard work on Christmas Eve.
Santa Claus
Santa' has been around since the 4th century. Originally known as Saint Nicholas, the patron of children and sailors, the bishop was immortalized because of his generous and loving nature towards children.
Caroling
The custom of singing Christmas carols is said to have come from 13th century Italy where a man named St. Francis of Assisi led songs of praise. It is very bad luck to send carolers away empty handed. It is customary to offer food, drink or even a little money.
Christmas Tree
The tradition of the Christmas tree comes from Germany. The very first trees were oak, the same tree used for the Yule Log. Trees have been a symbol of good luck since the Middle Ages.
Lights
The very first person to have Christmas lights on their tree was Edward Johnson who worked for Thomas Edison. The use of decorative light has been imperative on the Christmas Day.
The Nativity Scene
Everyone knows who Saint Francis is – the famed saint who had an apparent miraculous control over animals, and who travelled to the Middle East to convert the Muslims – offering to be thrown into the fire. And we have all seen nativity sets – little (or sometimes not so little) figurines which represent the people present at the birth of Jesus. What most people don’t know is that Saint Francis invented the nativity set in the 13th century! [ LINK]
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