(Info taken from a cool free kindle book i found).
Christmas Trees
The origin of the Christmas tree began in the 8th century in Germany. A missionary, later known as St. Boniface, ran across a group of pagans near an oak tree who were about to sacrifice a boy to their god, Thor. St. Boniface chopped down the oak tree immediately. Then he noticed that a tiny fir tree had miraculously sprung up in its place! Since then, the image of the fir tree became a symbol of Christianity and everlasting life.
Bringing a tree inside became a tradition in the 16th century. The earliest documented case of the indoor Christmas tree was around the year 1500. Martin Luther was walking home one winter evening (it may have been on Christmas Eve), when he came across a patch of evergreen trees covered with fresh snow that seemed to twinkle in the moonlight. He thought it was so beautiful that he cut down a small fir tree, took it into his home, and decorated it with small, lit candles tied to the branches to recreate what he saw. It's believed that the candles were to simulate the stars that shone in the night sky, just as they had done during the first Christmas Eve over Bethlehem.
After around the year 1700, placing candles and decorations such as apples and other items made this custom take off. The original purpose of the tree skirt was to catch the wax that dripped off the candles.
Around 1848, Prince Albert presented his wife, Queen Victoria, with a Christmas tree. Prince Albert was of German descent, where the custom of having an indoor decorated Christmas tree originated, so it was traditional to him. When people saw their gorgeously decorated tree, they decided that if it was good enough for the Queen, then it would be good enough for them!
Eventually, the tradition of a Christmas tree came to America. In 1900, about 1 out of 5 households had a Christmas tree. It was commonplace by the 1920s.
The first electric lights on a Christmas tree occurred in New York in 1882. By the early 1900s, electric tree lights for the average home was more available, but they cost $12 for a 20-bulb string, when people only made an average of 22 cents per hour!
From about 1920 until the later 1960s, tinsel was made from lead, but today it is primarily made of plastic.
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Christmas Caroling
Why do Christmas carolers travel in groups going from house to house singing and celebrating today? Doing so probably developed around the 16th century with poor people "singing for their supper", going from door to door until they received enough food and drink to sustain them for the night.
"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is attributed to be the first American carol, written in 1849.
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Gift Giving
The tradition of gift-giving as we know it today didn't really begin until the introduction of "gift books" in 1823.
Initially, wrapping paper was simple white tissue or letter-weight paper. Then red, green, and holly-sprigged tissue became available.
Wrapping paper as it is today came in 1917 when a Hall Brothers' store (the founders of Hallmark) ran out of tissue during the holiday rush. As a substitute, they sold sheets of decorated paper meant to be used as envelope lining. It was a hit! The next year as they sold both types of paper, but most people preferred the new decorated paper. It wasn't called gift wrap; it was called gift "dressing".
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Candy Canes
The candy cane was actually invented as a tool to keep children quiet! Back in the 1670s, a choirmaster in Germany took a "sugar stick" and bent one end to resemble a Shepherd's staff during the long church Christmas ceremonies.
In Ohio, back in 1847, a German immigrant began displaying candy canes on his Christmas tree. It soon became commonplace to decorate a Christmas tree with the traditional "white" candies.
That's right -- originally, candy canes were just solid white. Then in the 1920s, a man began hand-making the candy cane as we know it today with the red stripes for his family, neighbors, and friends. Around 1950, the man's brother-in-law, who was a Catholic priest, invented a machine to automate the process.
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Christmas Cards
An English man in 1843 is credited with starting it all. He needed a way to send out Christmas cards to his family and friends, to try to get them to help less fortunate people, but writing each one out by hand was tedious and time-consuming. So he hired an artist to paint an image on a card that depicted the act of celebrating a joyous Christmas with family. It was captioned "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To You".
The idea didn't inspire the man's family and friends to join in his crusade to help less fortunate people, but it did inspire the idea of sending holiday wishes and greetings via a Christmas card.
For the next 30 years, Americans who wanted to send Christmas cards had to import them directly from England. In 1875, a German immigrant began creating Christmas cards in the United States.
Hallmark didn't create the first known Christmas cards, but their founders began making them in 1915.
It wasn't until 1962 that the first Christmas postage stamp was created after a lengthy battle of opposition concerning the separation of church and state.
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Poinsettias
This tradition came from Mexico. A botanist, Joel Roberts Poinsett was appointed the United States Ambassador to Mexico in 1825. On one of his journeys to Mexico, he discovered the vibrantly red plant. He shipped some of them back to his home in South Carolina, and began cultivating them in his hothouses, sending them to his friends and family as Christmas gifts.
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While not many of the traditions we celebrate as part of our American Christmas began in our country, their foundations were meaningful to the cultures they came from. Now, they are just as meaningful to us today, even if the meaning is somewhat different.
One thing is clear; Christmas is a joyous occasion that we spend with family and friends to not only celebrate the birth of Jesus, but to enjoy each other's company.
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