Christmas Traditions and Activities

"Holiday Cheer is in the Tradition"

Christmas in America has been filled with traditions, old and new. Some date back to 16th-century Germany or even ancient Greek times, while others have caught on in modern times.

The traditions that we look forward to most throughout the holidays are the ones that recreate that same feeling of love, warmth, and happiness we remember from childhood.

Giving

Salvation Army Bell Ringers

Come December, bell-ringers span out to accept donations in their iconic red kettles.

Collecting money for the needy since 1891, the tradition started with San Francisco Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee wanted to raise money to offer a free Christmas dinner to 1,000 of the city’s most destitute.

Toy Drive

One of the more famous toy drives is Toys for Tots which began as a Los Angeles charitable effort in 1947. Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, was inspired by his wife Diane when she tried to donate a homemade Raggedy Ann doll to a needy child but could not find any organization to do so. At her suggestion, he gathered a group of local Marine reservists, including Lieutenant Colonel John Hampton, who coordinated and collected some 5,000 toys for local children that year from collection bins placed outside Warner Bros. movie theaters.

Christmas Cards

The first official Christmas card debuted in 1843 England with the simple message, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The idea of a mailed winter holiday greeting gradually caught on in both Britain and the U.S., with the Kansas City-based Hall Brothers (now Hallmark) creating a folded card sold with an envelope in 1915. Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, more than 1.6 billion holiday cards are sold annually.

Christmas Stocking

The tradition of the Christmas stocking originated in Europe back in the 4th century, and was inspired by the life of the Bishop Saint Nicolas of Myra. According to the legend, Saint Nicholas heard about the predicament of a poor widower and his three daughters. He snuck into the house and saw the girls’ recently washed stockings drying by the fire. Wanting to help the poor family, he filled the stockings with gold coins before disappearing into the night. 

Gift Giving

The tradition of exchanging gifts at Christmas has origins both ancient and modern. Though the present-day festival of Christmas is an annual tradition commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, the custom of exchanging gifts is a product of Victorian inventiveness, ancient Roman merrymaking and medieval interpretations of early Christian narratives.

Secret Santa

Secret Santa is primarily a Western tradition; a philanthropist named Larry Dean Stewart is thought to be the "original Secret Santa" who came up with the idea of giving anonymous gifts during the holidays. For more than 25 years, Stewart secretly donated $100 bills to people in Kansas, according to USA TODAY. He also donated $25,000 in the form of $100 bills to New Yorkers after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It wasn't until 2006 that Stewart came out as the "Secret Santa" everyone had been wondering about for so long.

Decorations

Christmas Lights

Thomas Edison may be famous for the light bulb, but it was his partner and friend, Edward Hibberd Johnson, who had the bright idea of stringing bulbs around a Christmas tree in New York in 1882.

By 1914, the lights were being mass-produced and now some 150 million sets of lights are sold in the U.S. each year.

Luminarias

Simple, folded brown bags filled with sand and lit by votive candles are particularly popular in the Southwest.

Dating back more than 300 years, they line sidewalks and churches in places such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Door Wreaths

Wreaths have been around since the ancient Greek and Roman times, but the evergreen Christmas wreath, often adorned with boughs of holly, eventually took on Christian meaning, with the circular shape representing eternal life and the holly leaves and berries symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns and blood, according to the New York Times. Today’s wreaths, which come in all varieties, from flowers and fruit to glass balls and ribbon to artificial and themed, are most often seen as a secular winter tradition.

Home Decorating

The home decorating tradition started in Germany, in the 17th century, but the tradition didn't get as elaborate as it is today until recently.

Poinsettias

America’s Christmas flower, these plants native to Central America were brought to the United States (and given their name) by the country’s first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, botanist Joel Roberts Poinsett, in the 1820s. It was a California horticulturistnamed Paul Ecke who brought the traditionally red and green plants to the masses 100 years later. He donated the plants to TV shows, and, according to the Los Angeles Times, the poinsettia became the best-selling potted plant in the nation by 1986.

Yule Log

Yule logs were part of ancient winter solstice celebrations, but it was Americans who turned the wood burning into must-see TV.

Back in 1966, WPIX-TV in New York City aired a continuous 17-second loop of a fireplace for three hours along with holiday music. That led to eventual better production and nearly 20 years of annual viewing. Today, you can view the yule log on demand and on the web.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

You can blame our neighbors to the north for this silly, ironic tradition that really gained steam in the 1980s. According to the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book, sweaters became a party trend in Vancouver, Canada in 2001.

And the trend is seemingly here to stay. According to Fox Business, the ugly sweater industry is a multi-million business, with websites such as Tipsy Elves, retailers including Macy’s, Kohl’s and Target, and even food chains jumping on the ugly bandwagon.

Elf on the Shelf

Love it or loathe it, since 2005, moms and dads have either joyously or begrudgingly been hiding a toy elf each night from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

More than 13 million elves have been “adopted” since 2005 when Carol Aebersold and her daughter, Chanda Bell, published the book Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition that comes with the toy. 

Christmas Tree

Picking Out the Tree

A classic American Christmas tradition is the trip to the tree lot to select your family

Christmas tree.

Typically, a family affair, this outing is an exciting event that precedes the holidays each year for many American households.

Christmas Tree Decorating

Decorated trees date back to Germany in the Middle Ages, with German and other European settlers popularizing Christmas trees in America by the early 19th century. 

Christmas Pickles

If there’s a pickle among your snowman, angel and reindeer ornaments, you’re likely taking part in the American tradition of hiding the green ornament on the tree, so that the first child to find it wins a gift, or gets to open the first present Christmas morning.

The practice’s origins are a bit murky (or should that be briny?), but, it’s likely it grew from a Woolworths marketing gimmick from the late 1800s, when the retailer received imported German ornaments shaped like a pickle and needed a sales pitch

At Home

Advent Calendar

Early versions of this tradition, started in Germany in 1903 by publisher Gerhard Land, offered a way for children to count down to Christmas by opening one “door” or “window” a day to reveal a Bible passage, poem or small gift.

Since gaining mass popularity by 1920, the calendars have evolved to secular calendars that include daily gifts from mini bottles of wine to nail polish to chocolates to action figures.

Gingerbread House

Although Queen Elizabeth I gets credit for the early decorating of gingerbread cookies, once again, it’s the Germans who lay claim to starting the gingerbread house tradition.

And when the German Brothers Grimm wrote “Hansel and Gretel” a new holiday tradition was born.

Today, the edible decorations are available in a slew of pre-packed kits.

Christmas Movies

Kissing Under the Mistletoe

Out and About

The Nutcracker Ballet

The Rockettes

Tree Lighting Ceremony

Attend Christmas Parade

Traditional Christmas Concerts

Attend Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Church Service

Santa

Visit Santa in Department Store

Cookies and Milk for Santa

A Visit from Saint Nick

Food

Cookie Swaps

Traditional Christmas Dinner

Boozy Eggnog

Fruitcake

Celebrations

12 Days of Christmas

Christmas Parties