The Christmas we celebrate today is a rich tapestry woven from threads of ancient pagan festivals, Christian tradition, Victorian sentimentality, and modern commercialism, creating something that would be almost unrecognisable to those who celebrated the very first Christmas nearly two thousand years ago.

The historical evidence for the birth of Jesus Christ places the event sometime between 6 and 4 BCE during the reign of King Herod, but almost certainly not on the 25th of December. The early Christian church didn't celebrate Christ's birth at all, focusing instead on Easter and the resurrection, which was considered far more theologically significant. It wasn't until the fourth century that the church began to observe Christmas, and the choice of 25th December was almost certainly strategic rather than historical.

This date coincided with the Roman festival of Saturnalia and the birthday of Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun, making it easier to transition pagan populations to Christianity by overlaying Christian meaning onto existing celebrations.

The Christmas traditions we consider quintessentially Christian often have surprisingly pagan roots. The decorated evergreen tree, now synonymous with Christmas, comes from Germanic pagan traditions where trees were brought indoors during winter solstice celebrations to remind people that spring would return. The practice was popularised in Britain by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband, in the 1840s, though Germans had been decorating trees for centuries before. Holly, ivy, and mistletoe were all sacred to pre-Christian peoples, representing fertility and eternal life during the darkest time of year, and were simply absorbed into Christian Christmas celebrations rather than being invented by them.

Medieval Christmas was quite different from our modern version, lasting a full twelve days from Christmas Day to Epiphany on 6th January. It was a time of role reversal and misrule, where servants might be served by their masters, and a "Lord of Misrule" would orchestrate games and entertainment. The wassailing tradition, where people would go from house to house singing and drinking from a communal bowl, bears some resemblance to modern carol singing but was considerably more raucous. Christmas was as much about community, charity, and social obligation as it was about religion, with the wealthy expected to provide hospitality and gifts to the poor.

The Puritans, both in England and later in New England, actually banned Christmas in the seventeenth century, viewing it as a papist celebration tainted by pagan elements and far too focused on excess and pleasure. In England, Christmas was officially outlawed from 1647 to 1660, and in parts of America, celebrating Christmas was illegal until the nineteenth century. The Puritans preferred quiet reflection and prayer, and they weren't entirely wrong about the rowdiness, as medieval and early modern Christmas celebrations often involved heavy drinking, gambling, and sometimes violence.

The Victorian era transformed Christmas into something much closer to what we know today. Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," published in 1843, did more to shape modern Christmas than perhaps any other single work, emphasising charity, family, and goodwill. The Victorians sentimentalised childhood and made children central to Christmas celebrations in a way they hadn't been before. They popularised Christmas cards, Christmas crackers, and the idea of a family gathering around a decorated tree to exchange gifts. This Victorian Christmas was primarily a middle-class invention that gradually spread both upward to the aristocracy and downward to working-class families as prosperity increased.

Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, has his own complex history, blending the Dutch Sinterklaas with the British Father Christmas and elements of the fourth-century Greek bishop Saint Nicholas of Myra, known for his generosity to the poor. The modern image of Santa as a jolly, red-suited, white-bearded man living at the North Pole was largely created by American advertisers, particularly Coca-Cola's marketing campaigns in the 1930s, though the red suit predates this. The connection with the North Pole, flying reindeer, and the whole workshop of elves are twentieth-century American additions to the mythology.

The commercialisation of Christmas accelerated dramatically after World War II, with the rise of consumer culture transforming it into the retail bonanza we know today. Department stores began elaborate Christmas displays, advertising became increasingly sophisticated, and the pressure to buy the perfect gifts intensified. In Australia, the tradition of a summer Christmas created its own unique customs, with beach barbecues and outdoor celebrations sitting alongside imported northern hemisphere traditions of snow and winter warmth. The Australian Christmas has evolved its own character, blending British traditions with the reality of celebrating in midsummer heat, creating something distinctly different from the northern hemisphere Christmas that still dominates popular culture.

Throughout all these transformations, Christmas has remained remarkably adaptable, absorbing new customs and discarding others, meaning different things to different people, and somehow managing to be simultaneously sacred and secular, traditional and contemporary, intimate and commercial. Whether you celebrate the birth of Christ, the winter solstice, family togetherness, or simply enjoy a day off work with good food and company, Christmas continues to evolve, carrying its accumulated history forward whilst creating new traditions for future generations to inherit and transform in their turn.