Make the season bright with Reindeer Knoll - a joyful guide to Christmas traditions, history, activities, and songs. Discover the origins of beloved Christmas customs like decorating trees, Santa Claus, and gift-giving. Learn fun holiday activities like baking cookies, building snowmen, and Christmas crafts. Sing along to classic Christmas carols and songs the whole family will love.
Gift-bearing Figures
Christkind
Christkind, is a German Christmas figure adorned with golden hair, angel wings, and a crown. She is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in multiple European countries. Christkind was created in the 16th century by Protestant Martin Luther. He had become increasingly frustrated with the Catholic Church’s idolization of saints, as he thought that only Jesus Christ should be a prominent figure.
His intention was to shift the gift giving tradition from St. Nicholas’s Day, to Christmas Eve. Martin Luther intended it to be a reference to the incarnation of Jesus as an infant. Sometimes the Christ Child is, instead of the infant Jesus, interpreted as a specific angel bringing the presents, as it appears in some processions together with an image of little Jesus Christ. Later, the Christkind was said to make rounds delivering gifts with St. Nicholas.
Father Christmas
Some sources suggest that he was originally a pagan figure who represented the coming of spring, or the Saxon “Father Time”, or even the Norse God Odin when he takes on the character of Jul, riding his eight-legged horse Sleipnir.He was first recorded in 15th century England in various personifications and was associated with merrymaking, drinking and singing. “Sir Christëmas” – A contemporary carol attributed to Richard Smart, a Rector from Devon gives mention of Father Christmas where “Sir Christëmas” announced the news of the birth of Christ, encouraging listeners to drink in celebration.
By the 16th century, Father Christmas appeared in a more distinct form normally portrayed wearing green or scarlet robes lined with fur, as part of an old English midwinter festival. He typified the spirit of celebrating Christmas, embracing joy, revelry, good food and wine on the 25th of December to coincide with Christmas Day.
Santa Claus
The earliest origins of Santa Claus can be traced back to the 4th century Greek bishop from Myra, called St Nicholas. In fact, even today, Santa is sometimes referred to as ‘St Nick’ in a nod to this early Christian saint. According to Biblical texts St Nicholas performed a series of somewhat bizarre miracles, such as a story St Nicholas rescued three young girls bound for slavery, by throwing three bags of gold down their chimney which became their dowries for marriage.
As legend has it, the gold landed in their stockings which were hung up to dry by the fire, prompting the later filled stockings idea. Stories of his gold-giving became popular throughout medieval Europe, and it became common practice for grown-ups to leave gifts for children on the night before the 6th of December, Saint Nicholas Day. The Dutch are credited with transporting the legend of Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) to New Amsterdam (now New York City), along with the custom of giving gifts and sweets to children on his feast day, December 6. The current depiction of Santa Claus is based on images drawn by cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly beginning in 1863.
