3 Amazing Things About Christmas That Will Knock Your Socks Off

Posted on Nov 03, 2020 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living

A Way, in a Manger

The person credited with devising the Christmas manger scene is Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1223, Saint Francis decided he wanted to re-create the night Jesus was born. According to one of Francis’s biographers (his disciple Thomas of Celano), he wanted to “make a memorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, and in some sort behold with bodily eyes His infant hardships; how He lay in a manger on the hay, with the ox and ass standing by.”

In the small town of Greccio, located between Rome and Assisi, Francis and his friend Giovanni Vellita built a stable and dressed people as Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. He used a wax doll to represent the baby Jesus. The animals, including a donkey, some cows, and some sheep, were all real. Saint Francis hoped his manger scene would help people remember God’s gift of his Son. He summoned the town’s 1,500 residents to his display, and, as people viewed the spectacle, Francis read from the Scriptures.

Today, Saint Francis’s tradition carries on in small and large scales. One example of the latter takes place in the town hall of The Hague, where a life-sized nativity scene is erected, with actual people and animals, including donkeys, oxen, and camels borrowed from a nearby zoo.

Green Is a Christmas Color

Long before Christ’s birth, people used evergreen boughs to decorate their homes for winter. The greenery reminded everyone that plants, now dormant, would return with spring. As Christianity became popular in Europe, especially in Germany, the greenery tradition was incorporated into religious celebrations.

Christians decorated evergreen trees, representing the Garden of Eden. The trees were called Paradise Trees, a nod to the biblical Adam and Eve. The tree really became popular when Queen Victoria decorated a Christmas tree to honor her husband’s German heritage. She was a trendsetter. Periodicals of the day showcased the royal Christmas trees, and by 1860, most well-off British homes had one. The tradition took a little longer to cross the pond, but by 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree. Today, about 30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the US annually.

A Story Yule Love

If you’ve ever enjoyed the warmth of a Yule log, thank a Norseman. Yule is Norse for “jolly”—an appropriate adjective for the mood at Yule-time festivals of long ago. The celebration of Yule kicked off the winter solstice. The Norse used the shortest day of the year to embark on a 12-day feast, marked by the singing of carols and the burning of the Yule log. Depending on the size of the log, it might continue burning for the entire 12 days. The Norse believed that each spark from the log was a harbinger of good things to come in the new year ahead.

Today, some people saturate a log with fragrant spices and then ask children to distribute holly sprigs tied with bright ribbons to Christmas guests. The log is ignited, and once it’s ablaze, everyone tosses in the holly sprigs, symbolizing the wrongs of the past that are now forgiven and forgotten in the grace-filled spirit of the holy season.

Did you know? Sprinkling salt on a Yule log will make its flames bright yellow.

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