Christmas Legends

Christmas is celebrated all over the world with great enthusiasm. It is celebrated to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by Christians and by non Christians too. As every religious festival has legends, Christmas also has legends associated with it. There are Christmas legends traditions, Christmas legends and stories. The legends of Christmas are the Santa Claus, the Christmas tree and the Reindeer. All these legends have their own stories. A brief description about them is given below.

Christmas tree legends: It is believed that the custom of first Christmas tree begun in the 8th century in Germany. In those days the Christmas tree used to be undecorated.  Actually, the Germans wanted to convince the idolaters that the Oak’s tree is not sacred and crushed every shrub on the ways. But incidentally they left one fir sapling. The Saint Boniface derived a conclusion from the incidence that this is a miracle and called the tree the tree of Christ child. Since then people in Germany started planting fir saplings on Christmas. The Modern decorated Christmas tree came into the customs in 16th century. This custom of modern Christmas tree as a link with the paradise tress hung with apples which were used to be present in medieval religious plays.

The Santa Claus legend: The real Santa Claus was Saint Nicolas. He was born in ancient southeastern Turkish town of Lycia in the fourth century. He was very generous and fond of children. Today Children do not recognize Saint Nicolas as Santa Clause. Actually today’s Santa Claus has nothing in common with Saint Nicolas except the white beard. The Saint Nicolas used to bring gifts for children hundreds of years ago. During the protestant of the sixteenth century, Saint Nicolas was banished from every European country but the Dutch kept him alive and converted Saint Nicolas to Santa Claus.

The Reindeer legend: The legends of Reindeers were originated in the 19th century in a Poem “Twas the Night before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore.

The Origins of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: It was added to Christmas legends in the 20th century. Actually Robert May who was an advertising copywriter was looking for a novel for its Santa Claus to distribute to parents and children, an idea of shiny-nose reindeer as Santa’s helper stricken into his mind at that time. He then prepared many whimsical sketches of the reindeer some at rest and some at play. He then considered many names and then finally called it Rudolph. Since then the legend of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer got associated with the Christmas.