Christmas: Christmas traditions.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a fictional character and is mostly shown as a fat and happy man wearing a red suit with white trim. According to the American version of the legend, Santa, as he is often known, lives in the North Pole with his wife, Mrs. Claus, some elves who build his toys, and reindeer who pull his sled.

On Christmas eve Father Christmas piles all of the toys onto his sleigh and rides across the sky with his reindeers. The most famous one is Rudolf, the reindeer at the front who leads the way with his red nose.

He enters our houses down the chimney at midnight and places presents for the children in stockings or bags by their beds or in front of the family Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree

In most homes families have a tree of some sort or other which they decorate and place the presents under.

The traditional Christmas tree is a fir tree but now-a-days more people buy artificial trees to 'save the earth'. The decorating of the tree is usually a family occasion, with everyone helping.

Interesting Christmas Tree Facts

Trees were decorated with apples, cakes and sweets for many centuries.

Many people decorate their homes at Christmas time. These decorations and the Christmas tree are generally inside, but may be put where they can also be seen through a window by people passing by.

Christmas Cards

People around the world send Christmas Cards to their friends and family.

Traditionally, Christmas cards showed religious pictures of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story. Today, however, it is more common to see winter scenes, Father Christmas, cartoon characters or jokes.

Interesting Christmas Card Facts

In 1846 1000 cards, with the same design as the first Christmas cards, were sold to the public at 1 shilling each by Felix Summerly's Treasure House in Bond street.