Create your own Advent calendar by using paper bags, a muffin tin, envelopes, or other accessible items around the house, and include cute and quirky little presents to celebrate each day. These make perfect holiday gifts or a great way to #treatyourself every day in December. Every year on December 25, we celebrate Christmas, a day for spending time with family, observing an important Christian holiday, partaking in lighthearted traditions, or just spreading some holiday cheer! Christmas has evolved over several millennia into a worldwide celebration that’s both religious and secular and chock full of fun-filled, family activities. In ancient Rome, December 25 was a celebration of the Unconquered Sun, marking the return of longer days.
If space is at a premium, small Christmas trees (3 ft. to 6 ft.) make sense. Mini Christmas trees are perfect for a tabletop in the foyer or as a centerpiece in the dining room. You’ll find 9-foot Christmas trees all the way up 12 ft., plus some even taller options. Choose fresh-cut, real Christmas trees to bring home the beauty of nature and the unmistakable scent of evergreen this holiday season. Each November and December, The Home Depot stores receive shipments of live Christmas trees from local growers on a regular basis. If you’re unsure which fresh-cut tree is the right height, shape and type for your home and lifestyle, our Real Christmas Tree Buying Guide is a great resource.
Whistle along to your favorite Christmas tune, smile at others, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Most Christians celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 as the day that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born. In one view of why December 25 was chosen as the official date for Christmas, historians believe the early church wanted to link the Son of God’s birth with the “rebirth of the sun,” which arrives after the winter equinox. A second view bases the date around Jesus’ date of conception on March 25, at the spring equinox. December 25 would then be the date of Jesus’ birth exactly nine months later. With so many types of house styles, narrowing the list down to your favorite can be overwhelming.
Pennsylvania German Settlers, pre-eminently the Moravian settlers of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia Settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes. However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the “trappings of popery” or the “rags of the Beast”. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity.
There were several American Christmas carols composed during the 19th Century, including “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” in 1849, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” in 1863, and “Away in a Manger” in 1885. This time period marked the start of the present-day tradition of American and British choral groups performing Handel’s Messiah during Christmas, rather than during Easter. The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer. Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford University writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus. The English language phrase “Christmas tree” is first recorded in 1835 and represents an importation from the German language. Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public.