As December rolls around, the holiday season is once upon us. For most, Christmas is celebrated as the birth of Jesus Christ. A remembrance of when Mary and Joseph travel on a donkey to an inn to await the birth of savior, Jesus Christ.

For many years, Christmas wasn’t an official Christian holiday. Easter was the main holiday that christians celebrated to praise Jesus. It wasn’t until Pope Julius 1 in the fourth century officially declared that December 25 as Jesus’ official birthday. This is becuase the Bible never confirmed an actual date. The date was chosen to be in the winter as many other religions celebrated their holidays around the same time. Meat was also provided as the animals were slaughtered since the owners couldn’t take care of it throughout the cold winter time.

The story of Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas. Many years ago in Turkey, lived a monk named Nicholas. He devoted his life to helping out children in need. As the years went by, this story developed into the story of Santa Claus. Santa is a big, jolly man, with the long white beard, who monitors children all year round to see whether they have been naughty or nice. The nice kids gets the toys they have asked for and the naughty kids get nothing. but a lump of coal. To deliver toys or coal, Santa makes his way down the chimney. Most children will leave out warm cookies and milk for Santa during his long journey of delivering gifts around the world. Through the story of St. Nicholas, the tradition of gift-giving was brought into different cultures. Games such as white elephant or secret Santa also started, too.

Though Christmas is celebrated differently around the world, the origin to the story influences how many of us celebrate this very important day.