Christmas Legends
Christmas legends range from Jesus Christ to Charles Dickens to Santa Claus. Christmas legends are born, made, crafted and passed on. Some are real while many grow in reality with each passing season. From Santa Claus to St. Nicholas, from Abraham — the father of the nations — to Abraham Lincoln, from George Bailey to Irving Berlin, the heroes and legends of Christmas are many and diverse.


Christmas legends are also sometimes not people but also traditions — the Yule Log, mistletoe, and even Christmas trees are born of legends of Christmas in antiquity.


Of Christmas legends come great debate. Which is more important on your tree — the angel or the star? Which came first and why? Both are legendary elements of the season and both have a place in Christmas.


Christmas legends are a fascinating part of the history of Christmas.

, ,

St. Nicholas

The legend of Santa Claus, the image of Father Christmas, and the basis for most legendary Christmas gift bringers of old world Europe all has their genesis in the real-world figure of Saint Nicholas. His story as a benevolent religious figure…
, , , , ,

A Different Kind of History of Christmas Trees

Pick a history resource out there and you will find a history of Christmas trees that dates back to pagan traditions of the Winter Solstice. The History Channel says Christmas trees took root from ancient use of evergreens as an end-of-year…
, , ,

Jimmy Stewart’s Other Christmas Movie

In a 1980 production of a low budget and not-so widely distributed film directed by Academy Award winning director Keith Merrill, Jimmy Stewart gives the holiday performance of a lifetime. Unlike that other Christmas movie (It’s a Wonderful…
, ,

History of the American Santa

Santa Claus, much like Christmas itself, is a symbol of all things sacred and secular related to Christmas. From classic Coca Cola ads from early 20th century print still remembered and revered today to modern Hollywood creations like Bad Santa…
, , ,

The Story of Black Peter

By Mac Carey Before elves and eight tiny reindeer, St. Nicholas had a much more menacing assistant. Named Black Peter, this companion was the physical opposite of St. Nicholas. Tall and gaunt with a dark beard and hair, Black Peter was associated…
, , ,

The Christmas Pickle

It is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim. And its story would not be the first tradition of Christmas born of a total fabrication. It is the little-known tradition of the Christmas pickle. The Christmas pickle is not really a…
,

Legend of La Befana

By Jeff Westover Of the many images of Halloween none can be scarier for a child than that of a witch -- an ugly, stern, mean old woman with a broom. It is an element of Halloween that defies explanation, a betrayal of both history and tradition.…
, ,

The Real First Christmas

By Jeff Westover There is a saying common among Christian believers: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience." This saying speaks to the eternal nature of the soul and…
, ,

The Christmas Legend of Abraham Lincoln

By B. Francis Morlan Abraham Lincoln is consistently ranked as the greatest American president. But at the same time his place in history is frequently debated for a variety of contrasting reasons: Constitutional scholars claim that Lincoln’s…
, , ,

The True Story of Silent Night

The story has become yet another chapter in the book of Christmas legend. The year was 1914 and soldiers on both sides of the battlefield somewhere in France were enduring a dark and frozen Christmas Eve night. World War I -- the Great War,…
, ,

Mythical Beginnings of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

By Jeff Westover It is a sad story. As his wife lay terminally ill on the couch next to the family Christmas tree Robert May held his young daughter in his lap as they gazed upon a snowy December scene out the window of their Chicago…
, ,

The Evolution of Christmas

By Jeff Westover Which came first: the chicken or the egg? That is the seeming dilemma when discussing how Christmas began. Most define Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Christ. Historians tie the tradition of a December holiday…
,

Charles Dickens: A Merry Old Soul

By Jeff Westover Life and times were hard in London of 1824. For one boy in particular, the second of seven children, life was especially difficult. At the age of twelve, his father was tossed into a debtor's prison, leaving an already…
Track Santa
, ,

The True Story of Santa Claus

Santa Claus is real. And this is his true story. Born nearly 2000 years ago, not too long after the days that Jesus Christ walked the earth, Nicholas was born to wealthy parents in a tiny village in the country we today call Turkey. Though…
,

Clement C. Moore: Father, Patriot, Poet

By Jeff Westover Clement Clarke Moore was one of New York's wealthiest men. And clearly, one of it's most highly educated. He was born in 1779 to Benjamin Moore, a patriot and and Episcopalian minister. His mother was Charity Clarke, a…