Some Interesting facts about Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is not an official holiday.

Christmas Eve is not a public Holiday in the United States or the United Kingdom. I’ve always assumed it was a holiday during the winter break I was used to getting every year of my life up through college. But I’ll never forget my first job as a QA analyst, sitting in an office full of developers working all day long the day before Christmas. Every year after that, I made sure to take PTO on Christmas Eve!

Church Services

Catholics and Christians celebrate services and Mass, sometimes at midnight on Christmas Eve, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. A holiday since 33 A.D, December 25th was also the date of the winter solstice on the Roman Calendar that coincided with pagan holidays, such as Yule.

However, when Julius Caesar adopted the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C, it introduced the leap year, or additional day, every four years. Between the astronomical solar year, the Gregorian calendar adopted in 1582, and the calculated leap year, the modern winter solstice has shifted over time to December 21st, separating it from the Christmas holiday on December 25th.

Stockings on the Chimney

According to one tradition, St. Nicholas would leave gold coins in the stockings of three poor sisters. One night when the three girls went to bed, they hung their stockings over the fireplace to dry. St. Nicholas threw three bags of gold coins down the chimney, and they landed in the stockings. It was a gesture of goodwill and ever since, children continued the tradition of hanging stockings up on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Truce

An unofficial Christmas truce took place during World War I between British and German troops on Christmas Eve in 1914. They hung decorations, sung carols, exchanged gifts and even played a football match in No Man’s land, with the Germans winning the first match 3-2. But there were also other reported matches between the Germans, Scotts, Prussians and English.

Ghost Stories

Before it died out in the past century, telling ghost stories used to be an old Christmas Eve tradition, particularly in Victorian England. One example of this is “A Christmas Carol”. Though it’s been modernized by modern cinema, it’s actually a short novella written in 1843 by Charles Dickens with the subtext “In Prose. Being a ghost story of Christmas”.

A visit from St. Nicholas

The poem that is more commonly known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas was published as A visit from St. Nicholas anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clark Moore in 1837. The poem is responsible for some of our modern-day conceptions and effects on Santa Claus and gift-giving.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Isaiah 😊