Christmas is the Christian festival that celebrates Jesus’ birth. This is December 25.

The term comes from the latin “natalis”, that means “relating to the birth”. In liturgical calendar Christmas is more important than Ascension and Withsun, but it is less important than Easter which is the most important holy event for every Christian community. However everyone loves Santa Claus and people give lovely presents to each other.

Christmas traditions: Christmas tradition celebrate Jesus’ birth in Bethleem. We all know about the Holy Child and the Holy Stable.

The Christian meaning of the feast is about the celebration of God’s presence. By Jesus’ birth, in fact, God isn’t a distant God any more, but he reveals him-self and enters the world until the end of times.

During the last century Christmas has carried on being a feast also for not-Christians: people feel Christmas time as a family feast, in which everyone has good feelings and loves each other : exchanging gifts is a way to show these good feelings.

We can remember the Holy Crib, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus and the Advent calendar as symbols of a familiar and common tradition.

The Christmas tree is a fir decorated with colored balls, lights and sweets. It goes back to a German tradition of 16 th century.

Many Christmas traditions are connected to music, to particular plants (holly, mistletoe and Christmas star) and foods both sweets (cake made with candied fruit) and savory (stuffed pig’s trotter and a kind of pork sausage). There are many differences between one region and another.