Origins of Christmas Presents
Christmas is such an enjoyable time of the year. Everyone looks forward to giving and receiving Christmas presents. This tradition has been going on for many centuries. The exact origins of Christmas presents are not definitely known.
The earliest reported gift giving was during the winter solstice in celebration of the Sun God. This was the Roman Festival of the Kalends. It actually was held on January 1st. the Emperor expected the officials of his administration to present him with gifts. Caligula even went so far as to wait at the front entrance to the palace watching for the officials to come with the gifts. These gifts began as simple as the evergreen branches removed from the grave of Strenia who was a goddess. Later they turned to gifts of cake and honey. These were symbols wishing the new year to be filled with gold or prosperity and sweetness.
If you would ask Christians when the tradition of Christmas presents started, they would probably say at the birth of Christ. The wise men brought the baby Jesus presents. These presents were frankincense, myrrh, and gold. These 3 things were the gifts that you would give royalty back then. Sense the wise men gave these types of gifts to Jesus they must have seen him as a king.
The modern day Santa Claus actually evolved from Saint Nicholas who was born in the 3rd century and lived in Patara. Patara was located in Greece in that day and age, now it is in the area of Turkey. Nicholas before becoming a saint was a wealthy young man. His parents had been rich and bequeathed their wealth to him upon their deaths. Nicholas served God and became Bishop of Myra. He actually gave his wealth to help the poor and downtrodden people of his day. There is even a story that he gave 3 sisters their dowry money so that they could get married. He left bags of gold 3 different times 1 time for each sister. Nicholas did this by throwing a bag of gold in the window, which would land on shoes or stockings that were by the fire so that they could dry. This is said to have led to the children hanging their stocking or sometimes having their shoes ready hopefully for gifts given by Saint Nicholas. When Saint Nicholas died on December 6 in 343 A.D. a unique substance formed in his grave, it was called manna and was thought to have the power to heal. They pronounced December 6th as St. Nicholas Day and it is celebrated every year.
Some religious sects such as the puritans decided not to bring the celebration of St. Nicholas to America when they came. In the 1800s, artists came up with Santa Claus as the potbellied, rosy cheeks, and jovial soul we know today. This was a definite contrast of the picture of St. Nicholas in his religious attire. The German name for St. Nicholas was Sankt Niklaus but the Dutch spelling was Sinterklaas that got changed to Santa Claus. But no matter what the name St. Nicholas or Santa Claus the personality of the man is the same. The personality is of a kind and generous man who believed in the art of giving and having faith, delivering Christmas presents for children through Christmas eve.
See our unique range of personalised Christmas presents for novel gift ideas this season.
This is an original news article © The Kids Window
| Products available to buy at the Kids Window |
|
|
|
|
scroll down to see more