Christmas Customs & Traditions

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We like Christmas traditions and customs here. They're the things we remember from our childhoods, that our parents passed on to us - and which we pass on to our children, or within our broader social groups. Most importantly of all, they should be fun!

These customs might affect the way we prepare for the parties, feasts and get-togethers of Christmas, during Advent.

They might affect the way we understand that jolly gift-giver Santa Claus. Or Father Christmas. Or St Nicholas. Or any combination of all of these figures that we've built up over the years.

The Christmas Tree is a much-loved tradition in Britain, since it was introduced in the nineteenth century, while Christmas Evergreens have been loved as part of the season for much longer. While on the subject of the Christmas Tree, we're on the lookout for people's pictures of trees, especially from Britain, that we can include in a new section we've got planned. More soon! Do contact us if you would like us to publish your pictures here.

On Christmas Day itself, the Christmas Stocking is, like the tree, a relatively recent tradition embraced wholeheartedly by the popular imagination. What are more interesting than its longer history are all the little customs within families about what goes in it, where it's hung up and all that.

There will be a few more customs appearing here. We'd love to hear about readers' own traditions - do contact us and we'll try our best to include your stories on the website.

We probably should finish this page with a few words on those pesky:

Traditions and Controversies

Christmas is not without its controversies. One of these is the 'War On Christmas' or the 'War About Christmas' which are played out almost with the inevitability of tradition within our media. For us, this is one tedious tradition well worth ditching.

Slightly more serious is the occasional wrestling between Christians and Pagans over who really owns the traditions 'Christmas', or 'Yule'. It's hard for us to understand anyone getting worked up about esoteric questions of how traditions might have evolved, but the briefest googling turns up any amount of polemic.

After a while, this gets to be quite hard work. As far as we're concerned 'tradition' never goes back very far in any meaningful sense: it might be something you have received from your family, or within your culture. Both of these exist in the present rather than the misty past! If you want to go back in time for stories about Christmas and other winter celebrations, then that's all well and good - but don't expect to find The Truth about our present day customs there...

Using antiquity, whether this is bogus or has some evidence to support it, to bolster one's claim to exclusive ownership of a shared festival is unfortunate, we think. So on our Pagan and Christian? page, we've tried to tread a careful line between history and inclusivity. Essentially, it's about balancing an individual understanding with a broader social meaning: it seems a shame to use Christmas, or Yule, as a club badge to exclude people who aren't part of your gang.

By the way, watch out for the Kids Christmas picture (right) which takes you to stories which aren't bogged down in details.