Most of the Christmas we celebrate today — the tree, the cards, the carols, the family roast, even Father Christmas in his red suit — was invented or revived in the nineteenth century. The deeper roots run far older, all the way back to pre-Christian midwinter feasts.
Here is the short version, in five chapters.
Pagan origins: the winter solstice and Saturnalia
Long before Christianity, cultures across the northern hemisphere marked the winter solstice (around 21 December) with feasts of light and warmth. The Romans held Saturnalia, a week-long festival of role reversal, gift-giving and excess. Germanic peoples celebrated Yule with bonfires, evergreen branches and the slaughter of a special boar.
The Christian adoption (4th century)
The early Church chose 25 December for the celebration of Christ’s birth in the 4th century — the date is not mentioned in the Bible. The choice deliberately coincided with existing solstice festivals, easing conversion. For the next thousand years Christmas remained primarily a religious feast, marked by mass, fasting and modest celebration.
Medieval and Tudor Christmas
By the Middle Ages, Christmas had become a twelve-day festival running from 25 December to Twelfth Night. Lords distributed food to peasants, mumming plays were performed in villages, and great houses hung holly and ivy. Henry VIII’s Tudor court turned Christmas into a serious affair of feasting and theatre — and Oliver Cromwell banned the whole thing as ungodly in 1647.
The Victorian revival (Dickens, trees and cards)
The Christmas we recognise today was largely invented in the 1840s. Prince Albert popularised the German Christmas tree in 1841. Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843 and shaped the idea of Christmas as a time of family, generosity and roast turkey. The first Christmas card was sent the same year. Christmas crackers were invented in 1847. The whole package — tree, cards, carols, presents, family dinner — comes from a single decade in mid-Victorian Britain.
Christmas in the 20th century
The 20th century turned Christmas into a global commercial event. Coca-Cola did not invent the red-suited Santa (American illustrators had drawn him that way for decades), but their 1930s advertising fixed the image worldwide. Department stores, films, radio specials and television Christmas episodes made the festive season a cultural fixture far beyond Christian-majority countries.
Christmas today
The 21st-century version is a hybrid: religious for some, secular for many, commercial nearly everywhere. New traditions appear (the Elf on the Shelf was invented in 2005), old ones fade (most people no longer sing carols door to door), and Christmas continues to absorb regional flavours wherever it lands.
Want to read more about Christmas customs? Discover the history of Christmas jumpers.
Frequently asked questions about the history of Christmas
When did people start celebrating Christmas?
The Church established 25 December as the date for Christ’s birth in the 4th century, but the underlying midwinter feast is much older. Most modern customs were invented in the Victorian era of the 1840s.
Who really invented Father Christmas?
The figure draws on Saint Nicholas, the Dutch Sinterklaas and the English Father Christmas. The red-suited modern image was popularised by American illustrators in the late 19th century and reinforced worldwide by Coca-Cola advertising from 1931.
Why is Christmas celebrated on 25 December?
To align the new Christian feast with existing pagan winter-solstice festivals such as the Roman Saturnalia and Germanic Yule, which made conversion easier in the early Church.
Article written and edited by The Christmas Dream editorial team, updated 28 May 2026.