Christmas is a popular holiday celebrated by many people all around the world.  On December 25th every year, many families and friends gather together to exchange gifts and spend quality time together.  But where does Christmas come from?  People may have many ideas of its history, but most people know of one common background, the birth of Jesus Christ. We don’t know if December 25th is the actual date that He was born, but in Christianity marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days.  The idea of exchanging gifts comes from Matthew chapter 2 verses 1-12. When King Herod found out about the “king of the Jews”, he sent the Magi to follow the star in the sky and see if the child was really born.  As soon as the Magi saw that the child was actually real, they bowed and worshiped him and presented their gifts.  Likewise, the tradition of this day was passed on and eventually became a day of celebration of the birth of a king.   The exchanging of gifts seem to have been formed or added on to the idea of “the celebration of Jesus of Nazareth” to allow others (such as non-Christians) to celebrate in other ways than the Christian belief.

The idea of Santa Claus came from a German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast.  He created the idea of Father Christmas which later turned to many other names such as Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, etc. The image of Santa Claus was more for marketing the idea of Christams as we know it today, with exchanging gifts.

The meaning of Christmas to me is to celebrate this day and be with my family.   Christmas is not celebrated much amongst the Korean culture, as they do in the Western cultures.  My family doesn’t really set up a Christmas tree or eat a special dinner, but we do try to exchange gifts.  If we have a chance, my family does try to go to church on that day.  One Christmas, I went to my grandma’s house and  had a lot of fun playing games with my cousins. This year,  I would like to go to a ski resort and get presents. Exchanging  gifts  is fun.