The Christmas tree has become one of the most beloved and well-known holiday symbols and it’s been a staple in winter celebrations for centuries.

Many pagan festivals used trees to honor their gods and spirits. In Northern Europe the Vikings considered the evergreen a symbol and reminder that the darkness and cold of winter would end and the green of spring would return.

The Druids of ancient England and France decorated oak trees with fruit and candles to honor their gods of harvests, and the ancient Romans decorated trees with candles and charms for Saturnalia in which they celebrated the winter solstice.

There are many legends surrounding the lore of the Christmas tree. One story tells of an English monk, St. Boniface, who happened upon a group of pagans who were gathered around an oak tree preparing to sacrifice a child. Legend has it that St. Boniface destroyed the tree with one punch from his fist, and a small fir tree grew in its place. St. Boniface called it the Tree of Life and told the pagans it symbolized the life of Christ.

Many of us can recall as children getting bundled up in our winter coats, warmest gloves and long, knitted scarves and touring our neighborhoods singing Christmas carols with family and friends.

It’s a tradition that’s been around since the night Jesus was born. It’s been said on that night, a choir of angels sang out in celebration.

A Christmas carol is a song or hymn whose lyrics are about Christmas or the winter season. They are traditionally sung in the period before and during Christmas. The tradition of Christmas carols hails back as far as the thirteenth century, although carols were originally communal songs sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas.

Christmas carols and caroling in the old world was a mix of singing and dancing and was practiced for all festivals throughout the year.

When Christmas was firmly established to be celebrated on December 25, many of the existing songs were sung on that day and new ones written to celebrate Christmas.

St. Francis of Assisi was instrumental in making the Christmas celebration one for the people instead of just for the clergy.

A candy cane is a hard cane-shaped candy stick. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint; however, it is also made in a variety of other flavors and colored stripes, and has long been a symbol associated with Christmas.

The candy cane dates back over 300 years and was originally a straight, hard, and all-white candy stick. Around the seventeenth century, Christians in Europe began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations.

They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes dates as far back as 1670 when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar sticks into canes to represent a shepherd’s staff, then handed them out to children during nativity services. This custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services spread throughout Europe and later to America.

The peppermint candy with red stripes first appeared in the mid-19th century in the Swedish town of Granna, and striped candy canes in the early 20th century. The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when August Imgard, a German immigrant, decorated the Christmas tree in his Ohio home with candy canes.

Boxing Day is a public holiday observed in many Commonwealth countries on the first day other than Sunday following Christmas Day. It is often celebrated by giving gifts and donations to the poor and needy.

The origins of Boxing Day are not clear, but some think it could have come from a common practice for servants carrying boxers to their employers when arriving for work the day following Christmas. In return, the employer would put coins in the boxes as a special gift. This might also be where the idea of Christmas bonuses originated.

Still others think it was named Boxing Day as it was traditional to open the church’s donation box on Christmas Day and distribute the monies to those less fortunate the following day. It might also have been named Boxing Day for servants who had to work for their employers on Christmas Day and would instead open their gifts, or boxes, the following day.

Boxing Day was also the day when the wren, the king of birds was captured and put in a box and introduced to each household in the village when he would be asked for a successful year and a good harvest.