【篇1】

Christmas Day-December 25-which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian religion, is the biggest and best-loved holiday in the Christian World.

According to the Bible, the holy book of Christians, God decided to allow his only son, Jesus Christ, to be born to a human mother and live on earth so that people could understand God better and learn to love God and each other more. “Christmas”- meaning “celebration of Christ “- honors the time when Jesus was born to a young Jewish woman Mary.

Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, a carpenter, but before they came together, she was found to be with child. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Although the exact date of the birth of Jesus nearly 2,000 years ago is not known, the calendar on the supposed date divides all time into B.C. (Before Christ )and A.D. ( a Latin phrase, Anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord.”) For the first 300 years, Jesus’ birthday was celebrated on different dates. Finally, in the year 354, church leaders chose December 25 as his birthday.

【篇2】

Christmas Day falls on the twenty-fifth of December. It is a very happy day for many boys and girls . Before the term ends in some schools ， the children act a nativity or “birth” play， showing how Jesus was born in a stable。

On the twenty-fourth of December， all children are very excited. Usually they are sent to bed early so that their parents can get the presents ready. The younger children think that Father Christmas will come down the chimney or fireplace ， so they hang up a sock for him to put presents in. The greedy ones even hang up a pillow-case or a sack to try to get more presents. Later that night， Father or Mother will put presents in the sock， and leave others at the side of the bed.

On Christmas morning， the children wake up very early. Some even turn on the light at two o‘clock， and most of them are awake by six o’clock although it is not light in England for another hour or two at this time of the year.

Children look for their presents ， and the young ones play while the dinner is prepared. At about one o‘clock in the afternoon， the Christmas dinner is brought in . The turkey or chicken is quickly eaten . Children search in their Christmas pudding for new coins which are hidden in it . The rest of the day is full of games and eating until the happiest of all Christmas hollidays comes to an end.

【篇3】

Although it is generally agreed that the Christmas tree in its current form came from Germany in the early 19th century, the tradition of decorating a tree to mark winter celebrations dates back hundreds of years to Roman times, when they used to decorate evergreen trees with small pieces of metal to celebrate Saturnalia.

In medieval times the ‘Paradise Play’ was performed every year on 24 December. This depicted the creation of Man and the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and always included an evergreen hung with apples which represented the apple tree of temptation.

There is a legend that St Boniface, an English monk, came upon a group of pagans gathered around an oak tree who were preparing to sacrifice a child to the God Thor. In order to stop the sacrifice, and save the child’s life, St Boniface is said to have felled the tree with one blow of his fist. Later on, a fir tree grew in place of the oak and this, St Boniface told the pagans, was the Tree of Life and represented the Christ Child.

Legend also suggests that, in the late 16th century, Martin Luther (the founder of the Protestant religion) was the first to decorate an indoor tree with candles when he attempted to recreate the stars shining over a forest of evergreens.

The first mention of decorated trees being taken indoors came in 1605 in Germany – a country with a long Christmas tree history! The trees were initially decorated with fruit and sweets together with hand made objects such as quilled snowflakes and stars. German Christmas Markets began to sell shaped gingerbreads and wax ornaments which people bought as souvenirs of the fair and took home to hang on their tree.

Tinsel was also invented in Germany in about 1610. Up until fairly recently real silver was used, which was pulled into wafer thin strips by special machines. This was durable but tarnished quickly and many experiments took place to try and find an alternative – including a mix of lead and tin, which was too heavy and kept breaking. It was only in the mid 20th century that a viable alternative was found.

Artificial trees were invented in the 1880’s in a bid to try and stop some of the damage being caused to real trees due to people lopping the tip off large trees, thus preventing the trees from growing any further. It got so bad in Germany that laws had to be brought in to prevent people having more than one tree.

Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is credited with being responsible for introducing the custom of the Christmas tree to the British public by decorating the first English Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841 using candles, sweets, fruit and gingerbread.

The popularity of the Christmas tree grew in Britain during the first half of the 20th century, with trees becoming bigger and more elaborately decorated with bells, baubles and tinsel. However, the onset of the Second World War resulted in a ban on cutting down trees for decoration and people resorted to having small, artificial tabletop trees bearing home made decorations. These were often taken down into the air raid shelters when the sirens sounded to provide a bit of Christmas cheer!

This all changed following the war, and large trees were erected in many public places to celebrate Christmas. The most famous of these is the tree in Trafalgar Square, London which is an annual gift from the Norwegian government to give thanks for the help they received from Britain during the war.