When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Anna Efetova via Getty Images It's often claimed that many of today's Christmas ...

Holiday traditions feel timeless, like they’ve always existed in their current form. Families gather around Christmas trees. Kids hunt for Easter eggs. Couples kiss under mistletoe without questioning ...

"Twas the Night Before Christmas" is an iconic piece of poetry by today's standards, with its description of jolly old St. Nick and his eight reindeer helping create the modern depiction of Santa ...

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, nobody knows your origin. It's true — historians don't agree on where people started celebrating Christmas with a decorated fir tree, and who did it first. The ...

Question: What is important about this date in the United States – June 26, 1870? Answer: Read on. See if you can figure it out. From Pagan times (so called because they weren’t Christian), Europeans ...

NOW that Christmas has just passed, we can now look deeper into the historical roots of and practices performed during the holiday. Celebrated by billions of people globally, Christmas is widely seen ...

At Christmastime every year, TV networks, news weeklies, and academic pundits trot out, "The REAL Story of Christmas." Standard to it all: "a priest-dominated, fourth century Christendom 'baptized' as ...

As millions around the world make merry during Christmas, few know that they will be celebrating an event deeply steeped in paganism. While December 25 is a day set aside to celebrate the day Jesus is ...

You know the bumper sticker, of course. Around 350 A.D., you might have seen it on any passing chariot. Or plastered on the back of an ox cart. And if it wasn't, it should have been. Time to take a ...

Constance Konold has lived in France for 50 years, half of that time in Paris, the other half in country villages bordering Normandy. But the Hoosier native continues to celebrate Christmas with ...