Design Crafters

The following exerpt is from Christmas.com which is a portal of excellent information about Christmas which I thought you might find interesting. I will gather a few articles from there to share with you. This article is about the history of Christmas.

Christmas is a  holiday held on December 25 which celebrates the Christian birth of Jesus Christ. Eastern Orthodox Churches, which use the Julian Calendar to determine feast days, celebrate on January 7 by the Gregorian Calendar.
The date is merely traditional and is not thought to be the actual
birthdate of Jesus. Christ’s birth, or nativity, is said by his
followers to fulfill Old Testament prophecies concerning a messiah, or savior.

The word Christmas is derived Middle English Christemasse and from Old English Cristes mæsse. It is a contraction of "Christ’s mass". The name of the holiday is often shortened to Xmas because Roman letter "X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (chi), an abbreviation for Christ (Χριστός).

In Western countries, Christmas has become the most economically
significant holiday of the year. The popularity of Christmas can be
traced in part to its status as a winter festival. Many cultures have
their most important holiday in winter because there is less
agricultural work to do at this time. Examples of winter festivals that
have influenced Christmas include the pre-Christian festivals of Yule and Saturnalia.

The holiday is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts being attributed to Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Father Frost). Various local and regional Christmas traditions are still practised, despite the widespread influence of American, British and Australian Christmas motifs disseminated by film, popular literature, television, and other media.